Our friend John mentioned last weekend that he makes this chicken quite often, and that it’s very good. I’ve been wanting to make it, so I picked up a chicken this week (kosher). This was an excellent meal – one I’d like to repeat soon. Larry said both recipes are definitely keepers. Larry especially loved the goat cheese with the kale (I used dino kale).
– The recipe for the bread salad called for eight generous ounces of bread. I didn’t think this looked like enough, and ended up using the entire loaf – double what the recipe called for. I used a 3.5 lb. chicken and the cooking times were perfect, but at 500 degrees instead of 475 – I never even had to check the temperature of the chicken, either. I normally butterfly chicken when I roast it, but since the cooking method in this recipe is so specific, I left the chicken whole (I heated a 10-inch skillet on the top of the stove, then put the chicken in breast-side up, placed it in the oven, and turned the chicken over several times at specific intervals). I was worried that the kosher chicken would be too salty, since the recipe calls for salting the chicken the day prior, but it was fine. The pan drippings were to die for. I used arugula for the greens in the bread salad.
– The addition of the goat cheese to the kale is optional, but it really made the dish nice -the combination for the cheese and the slightly bitter kale was really nice.

• Zuni Roast Chicken with Bread Salad (The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, p. 342)
• Garlicky Braised Kale with Sun-Dried Tomatoes (Fine Cooking #42, January 2001, p. 49)

Wine: Sea Smoke 2002 Botella Pinot Noir (Santa Rita Hills, California). We bought this wine on a whim at Vintage Wine Merchants when we were there for a tasting. It’s a very reasonably priced Pinot at $25/bottle, and we got the last one. Our friend Ralph had recommended it. It is an excellent Pinot – ripe cherry, concentrated, long finish. Just really, really good, and perfect with the chicken.