Bread-Roasted Chicken
We have a love of roast chicken. Few food things make M happier than a golden-roasted bird, so he's in charge of the roasting and the carving.
We like a good roast chicken so much, we even made two chickens for Thanksgiving, rather than a turkey. We're lucky that we get our chickens either from Marin Sun Farms or Jackie the Chicken Lady of Barrett Farms. Both places produce free-range chickens that are muscled, sinewy, and taste so strongly of *chicken* that it's a completely different experience than eating a sad, damp, supermarket fowl. They both produce eggs, too; hooray spring, when all the hens are laying!
So, a Sunday evening roast chicken, with herbs and lemon and a pan of stuffing on the side; what could be better?
Bread-roasted chicken, my friend. Oh, my.
So, you may have heard of the famous Zuni Roast Chicken with Bread Salad. I've heard it's good; I believe it. What I can't believe is that it's much better, or certainly any easier, than this recipe. The chicken is great, but the bread, brown and almost fried in places from the chicken drippings, deliciously moist under the chicken itself, is really the star of the show.
This is taken pretty much directly from the New York Times article about it, where it was called "Garlic and Thyme Roasted Chicken With Crispy Drippings Croutons." Not everyone subscribes to the NYT, so here it is again, in my words.
Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 425.
Pave a roasting pan with a single layer of bread. Drizzle liberally with olive oil, and then sprinkle with half of the salt and pepper.
Wash and pat dry your chicken. Be thorough; the drier the chicken, the crispier the skin. Oil the chicken's skin and cavity, and then sprinkle with the other half of the salt and pepper (it's useful to have two people to do this, one to handle the chicken and one to add the oil, salt, and pepper). Insert the lemon, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf into the chicken's cavity.
Set the chicken breast-side up on top of the bread, and roast until done - about 75 minutes for a 3-4 pound chicken, longer for a bigger one. The juices should run clear, the leg should jiggle easily in its joint, the temperature at the thickest point of the thigh should be 160, etc.
Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes, then carefully tip it in the pan, pouring the juices out onto the bread. Carve, and return the juices produced to the bread, especially the sides and corners, which probably didn't get as much juice as the chicken was cooking.
Eat the crispy-dripping bread with the chicken and a salad. It's heaven. I really can't make a case for ever roasting a chicken without bread in the future.
We like a good roast chicken so much, we even made two chickens for Thanksgiving, rather than a turkey. We're lucky that we get our chickens either from Marin Sun Farms or Jackie the Chicken Lady of Barrett Farms. Both places produce free-range chickens that are muscled, sinewy, and taste so strongly of *chicken* that it's a completely different experience than eating a sad, damp, supermarket fowl. They both produce eggs, too; hooray spring, when all the hens are laying!
So, a Sunday evening roast chicken, with herbs and lemon and a pan of stuffing on the side; what could be better?
Bread-roasted chicken, my friend. Oh, my.
So, you may have heard of the famous Zuni Roast Chicken with Bread Salad. I've heard it's good; I believe it. What I can't believe is that it's much better, or certainly any easier, than this recipe. The chicken is great, but the bread, brown and almost fried in places from the chicken drippings, deliciously moist under the chicken itself, is really the star of the show.
This is taken pretty much directly from the New York Times article about it, where it was called "Garlic and Thyme Roasted Chicken With Crispy Drippings Croutons." Not everyone subscribes to the NYT, so here it is again, in my words.
Ingredients:
- 1 chicken, anywhere from 3 to 6 pounds
- Bread sliced 1/2 inch thick; country bread, sturdy white, or similar (sourdough and all-whole wheat may not be as good)
- 1/2 lemon, sliced further into halves
- anywhere between 4 cloves and a whole head of unpeeled garlic, loose skin removed and sliced in half through the horizontal plane
- 1/2 bunch thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- olive oil (plenty)
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Preheat oven to 425.
Pave a roasting pan with a single layer of bread. Drizzle liberally with olive oil, and then sprinkle with half of the salt and pepper.
Wash and pat dry your chicken. Be thorough; the drier the chicken, the crispier the skin. Oil the chicken's skin and cavity, and then sprinkle with the other half of the salt and pepper (it's useful to have two people to do this, one to handle the chicken and one to add the oil, salt, and pepper). Insert the lemon, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf into the chicken's cavity.
Set the chicken breast-side up on top of the bread, and roast until done - about 75 minutes for a 3-4 pound chicken, longer for a bigger one. The juices should run clear, the leg should jiggle easily in its joint, the temperature at the thickest point of the thigh should be 160, etc.
Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes, then carefully tip it in the pan, pouring the juices out onto the bread. Carve, and return the juices produced to the bread, especially the sides and corners, which probably didn't get as much juice as the chicken was cooking.
Eat the crispy-dripping bread with the chicken and a salad. It's heaven. I really can't make a case for ever roasting a chicken without bread in the future.