Warning: Spoilers everywhere! The Hound Eats ALL the Fucking Chickens. Season 4, Episode 1: Two Swords Arya's sass level is out of control here and the Hound is absolutely loving it. What better match for the baddest motherfucker in Westeros than Arya Stark? Together, they are just pure delight. They encounter a band of baddies, Arya crosses a name off her list, gets her Needle back and she rides off on her own pony. The Hound - well, he gets his chicken and for one brief moment, all is right with the world. This is about as close to a happy ending as we get in Game of Thrones. We should all be lucky enough to get us some chicken, so here we are with this week's recipe for an excellent fucking chicken. Now, I have some feelings about roast chicken and if I had to pick a roast chicken to die for, this is the one. I have not been to Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, but everyone - and I mean everyone - on the internets talks about this fucking chicken. I had my doubts, but then my online cooking she-ro Deb Perlman featured this recipe on her blog, Smitten Kitchen. Friends, in my world what she says goes. If you don't know her amazing blog, go to it now because everything she makes is gold. So I did as she said and fell in love with roast chicken all over again, and I think you will too. This recipe is slightly more involved than the simple chicken in the oven. This involves salting the whole chicken and leaving it to dry brine in your refrigerator for at least one day. You do have to plan ahead and set some space aside in your fridge, but after the salting it's relatively easy and more than worth the effort for a perfect bird, I promise. Salting tenderizes the meat, and if you've ever cut into a chicken roasted to within an inch of cardboard, you know this matters. It's the difference between 'oooh, roast chicken!' and 'ugh, chicken.' As this bird is tenderizing in your fridge, it is also drying out the skin. Which brings to the other significant factor of this recipe - the crispiest of crispy skin. For this to happen, a very dry skin is necessary and this is what happens over 2 days hanging out with that salt. Pop this salted chicken in a super heated cast iron skillet before the oven and the whole bird gets a crispy beautiful skin - not just one side, the entire bird comes out golden brown. Brilliant, right? You know it's the best part of a roast chicken - and if you were planning to not eat the skin - well, I don't even want to know you, Jed. The Bread Salad: It's basically bread tossed with the golden roast drippings (yum!) and then tossed into a salad studded with currants (or dried cherries, in my version) with a simple vinaigrette. It's a cross between stuffing and a salad and the perfectly unstuffy stuffingish accompaniment to a beautiful chicken. Altogether it's a perfect meal, and as simple as this sounds, there's nothing quite as satisfying as a good roast chicken dinner with great sides. So, who's eating all the fucking chickens? You are. Enjoy. Zuni Cafe’s Roasted Chicken
Adapted from cookbook from the Zuni Cafe, San Francisco, via Smitten Kitchen Serves 2 to 4
Zuni Cafe Bread Salad Adapted from cookbook from the Zuni Cafe, San Francisco, via Smitten Kitchen “Sort of a scrappy extramural stuffing, it is a warm mix of crispy, tender, and chewy chunks of bread, a little slivered garlic and scallion, a scatter of currants and pine nuts, and a handful of greens, all moistened with vinaigrette and chicken drippings.” The original recipe calls for tossing the bread with chicken stock and water, but why not use those delicious drippings that just came out of your oven? Slight adjustments have been made.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
May 2019
|