zuni cafe’s roasted chicken + bread salad
I recently realized that I didn’t have a single recipe for a whole roasted chicken on this site which seemed wrong somehow, coming from a nice Jewish girl such as myself. I know the real reason I don’t — which is that I don’t like 75 percent of the roasted chicken I eat (not yours, of course; promise!). Mostly, I find the pieces too big, the meat overcooked and the entire thing kind of like pressed sawdust… um, not that I need to learn to form an opinion or something. Sticking to dark meat helps a bit, but not as much as just bypassing the roasted chicken altogether.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 16 of 19 ingredients — the other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 16 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Pine Nut | 1 oz (28g) | 191 |
| Chicken | 100g cooked | 165 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Sourdough | 1 slice (36g) | 93 |
| Grape | 1/2 cup (76g) | 62 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Arugula | 1 cup (20g) | 5 |
| Thyme | 1 tsp dried (1.4g) | 4 |
| Rosemary | 1 tsp dried (1.2g) | 4 |
| Garlic | 1 clove (3g) | 4 |
| Vinegar | 1 tbsp (15ml) distilled | 3 |
| Mustard | 1 tsp (5g) yellow | 3 |
| Sage | 1 tsp ground (0.7g) | 2 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Marjoram | not in our table | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Champagne | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- One small chicken, 2 3/4 to 3 1/2-pounds
- 4 tender sprigs fresh thyme, marjoram, rosemary or sage, about 1/2 inch long
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 to 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- A little water
- Generous 8 ounces slightly stale open-crumbed, chewy, peasant-style bread (not sourdough)
- 6 to 8 tablespoons mild-tasting olive oil
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
- Salt and freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 tablespoon dried currants plumped in 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon warm water for ten minutes or so
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- 2 to 3 garlic cloves, slivered
- 1/4 cup slivered scallions (about 4 scallions), including a little of the green part
- 2 tablespoons lightly salted chicken stock or lightly salted water
- A few handfuls of arugula, frisée, or red mustard greens, carefully washed and dried