Chicken, three ways
No, this isn’t a post about some Thomas Keller masterpiece. Rather, it’s an ode to a single bird that’s fed us amply for the last three days.
We’ve gotten into the habit of buying a chicken from the folks at Hoffman each Saturday, and then roasting it up for Sunday dinner. Sometimes we put it on the rotisserie, sometimes it ends up as Zuni Roast Chicken, still others we spatchcock it and stick it under the broiler.
The thing about these Hoffman birds is that they’re normal size, even perhaps a little smallish (which is how I like them, anyway). But the skin is so tasty, and the meat so satisfying, that we quite happily feast on them for days, without complaint. Not a scrap goes to waste.
This weekend, we simply stuffed some rosemary-salt butter under the skin, trussed the legs, and set the bird in the oven on 375º for about an hour and 20 minutes. The bird cooked faster than I expected, catching me off-guard for side dishes. I set the roasted bird aside, and Cameron made a simple salad using baby greens we’d picked up at the market.
Meanwhile, I boiled a half-box of linguine, defatted the drippings, added some stock and wine, and reduced it to a saucy consistency. When the pasta was still al dente, I tong’ed it into the roasting pan, tossed it in the sauce for a quick simmer, and popped it on the plate with a piece of the chicken on top. It was good enough for company, if I do say so myself.
The next morning, I turned some leftover breast meat into my favorite chicken salad, and smeared it between two slices of Acme pain de mie — heaven. And then, for dinner, we tucked some more shredded meat and cheese into Rancho Gordo tortillas and made tacos dorados from the Doña Tomás cookbook.
Am I sick of this chicken yet? Not on a bet. This morning, I finished off a stale bag of tortilla chips with some of the leftover salsa from last night’s dinner, sprinkled on a little cheese and the last of the breast meat… voilá: Chilaquiles for breakfast. And I’m having the leftover tacos for lunch. If I wasn’t heading out of town, you can bet that the carcass and back meat would be destined for soup later in the week, too.
Comment by sam
Married with Dinner needs children. Pretty please will you adopt me?
Posted on 11.21.06 at 1:15PM
Comment by Anita
Sam, you are welcome for dinner any time. 😀 (Well, any time before January, when we’re ripping the whole kitchen down to the bare walls.)
Posted on 11.21.06 at 2:01PM
Comment by Tana
Oh, yum.
(Hi, Anita!)
Posted on 11.21.06 at 2:41PM
Comment by cookiecrumb
That’s a rotund little birdie! And all that, right before Thanksgiving.
(“Spatchcock.” I like to say “spatchcock.”)
Posted on 11.21.06 at 4:45PM
Comment by Anita
Amusingly, the bird was only about 3.5 pounds… not terribly rotund, but vurrry tasty.
Posted on 11.21.06 at 9:26PM
Pingback by chuckeats.com Blog » Prather Ranch (SF) - Heritage Chickens are the new Hoffman
[…] And they were pretty good chickens. Their best feature was the ease with which they cooked – plop them into the oven for any reasonable time and you were guaranteed a juicy roast chicken. So consistent these chickens were, I failed to see why any native would spend $40 on a Zuni chicken – you could do it yourself for $8. The taste was better than your average supermarket variety but they did fail to come close to a Bresse chicken from France. […]
Posted on 02.20.07 at 4:48PM