Possible Cooking Methods: Oven Air Fryer
Zuni Café is a famous San Francisco restaurant known for many dishes, but perhaps their roast chicken is the most celebrated of all of them. I worked at Zuni back in the 1990s and roasted many a chicken there! You can’t completely replicate the famous Zuni chicken without having a wood-fired brick oven in your house (which I do not!), but roasting the best small chicken you can find and salting it a day ahead of time certainly gets you closer to the goal. This recipe also includes their delicious bread salad. Using a 9-inch by 13-inch baking pan is critical to the success of this recipe. If you only have bigger sheet pans to use, double the recipe so that the torn bread is covered by the chicken pieces. You won’t be sorry. Those bread pieces that soak up all the chicken juice are the best ones and no-one is sorry to have leftover chicken the next day – especially when it tastes this good!
1 (3- to 3½-pound) chicken, cut into 6 pieces (2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks)*
salt
½ pound rustic sourdough (levain) bread (about half a large round loaf)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for coating bread
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons dried cherries, soaked in 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar for 15 minutes and then drained
2 tablespoons pecans or hazelnuts
6 fresh sage leaves
2 cups arugula
*Quantity changes for alternate methods
Oven Directions
Serves:4
Cooking Time:45 minutes
1. A day ahead of time, season the chicken pieces generously with salt, cover and refrigerate. Keep the chicken in your refrigerator for 24 hours. Before you are ready to roast the chicken, rinse it and dry the pieces very well with paper towel.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 450°F.
3. Cut the crusts off the sourdough bread chunks and tear the bread into 2-inch pieces. You should have about 3 cups of random shaped bread chunks. Toss the bread chunks with a little olive oil and place them in a 9-inch by 13-inch baking pan. Use a pan that is only as big as you need to have the bread chunks in one layer. Place the bread in the oven for 10 minutes, tossing once halfway through.
4. While the bread is toasting, make the vinaigrette with red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Drizzle half of this mixture over the bread pieces and set the remaining half aside. Scatter the soaked dried cherries and pecans into the pan.
5. Season the chicken with freshly ground black pepper. Use your fingers to separate the skin from the chicken on the thighs and breasts and push the sage leaves under the skin. Place the chicken pieces on top of the bread so that they are quite close together and cover the bread well. Drizzle a little olive oil on top of the chicken pieces and transfer the pan back to the oven.
6. Roast the chicken and bread together in the oven for 35 minutes. When the chicken is nicely browned and cooked through (it should have an internal temperature of 165°F on an instant read thermometer), remove the chicken pieces to a resting plate, loosely tented with foil. Transfer the bread, cherries and nuts to a large bowl, add the arugula and toss in the remaining vinaigrette. Serve the chicken and bread salad together with a Caesar salad à la Zuni Café.
Additional Cooking Directions for
Make sure you use the right size pan for the job. A 9-inch by 13-inch pan for this recipe is perfect, or you can double the recipe and use a sheet pan.
Air Fryer Directions
Serves:4
Cooking Time:30 minutes
Change Ingredients: Be sure to buy a small 3-pound chicken to fit into your 5-quart air fryer. Alternatively, you can cook just two breasts (cut in half) and two thighs OR cook the chicken in batches.
1. A day ahead of time, season the chicken pieces generously with salt, cover and refrigerate. Keep the chicken in your refrigerator for 24 hours. Before you are ready to roast the chicken, rinse it and dry the pieces very well with paper towel.
2. Pre-heat the air-fryer to 400°F.
3. Season the chicken with freshly ground black pepper. Use your fingers to separate the skin from the chicken on the thighs and breasts and push the sage leaves under the skin. Place the chicken pieces into the air fryer basket and spray or drizzle with olive oil.
4. Air-fry at 400°F for 12 minutes, skin side up. Turn the chicken over and air-fry for another 8 minutes. Remove the chicken to a resting plate, loosely tented with foil. Pour the drippings from the bottom of the air fryer drawer into a glass measure or small bowl and set the drippings aside.
5. Cut the crusts off the sourdough bread and tear the bread into 2-inch pieces. You should have about 3 cups of random shaped bread chunks. Toss the bread chunks with some of the chicken drippings and place them in the air fryer basket. Air-fry at 400°F for 3 minutes.
6. While the bread is toasting, make the vinaigrette with red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Drizzle half of this mixture and scatter the dried cherries and pecans over the bread. Air-fry for another 2 minutes, tossing partway through. Return the chicken to the air fryer, laying it on top of the bread and air-fry for a final 2 minutes.
7. Remove the chicken to a serving platter. Transfer the bread salad from the air fryer to a big bowl. Add the arugula and toss with the remaining vinaigrette. Serve the chicken and bread salad with a Caesar salad à la Zuni Café.