Last week I tried the Zuni chicken with figs, honey and vinegar. I used chicken breasts instead of the recommended legs. The chicken is browned , then oven-braised in chicken stock, vermouth and white wine with wedges of yellow onion, a bay leaf, black peppercorns and some thyme thrown in. Fresh figs and a combination of warmed honey and cider vinegar are added near the end. I really like this dish a lot and it will definitely be in my rotation when good figs are available since it was so easy. I didn't reduce the braising liquid quite as much as I should have--next time, I'll let everything get more syrupy.

Hello--I wanted to ask you Zuni lovers--her roast chicken recipe resembles the high-heat Barbara Kafka method that
I have tried--but I made such a giant mess in my oven (which is not self cleaning) that I did not want to make it again--how do you cook a chicken at 500 degrees without a major splatter--did I not dry it well enough? I also had a lot of smoke and my apt smelled for days--I would love to find a roast chicken recipe that I love--so am eager to hear your opinions/suggestions on prep.

Thanks! Nancy

Nancy - it's roasted at 475°, not quite 500°. I've never seen Kafka's recipe, but part of the key to Zuni's chicken deliciousness is that you generously pre-salt the chicken and let it dry out in the refrigerator for a day or two prior to roasting. After that, you still paper towel it to dry up excess moisture before you put it in the oven (although I find that it's quite dry at this point). My guess is that excess moisture will create smoke and splatters. Also, I use a fryer chicken (no more than 3 1/2 lbs.), not a roaster chicken, so it's done within 45 minutes. I just made this chicken two nights ago, and didn't have a lot of smoke or splatter. I use a 12" All-Clad saute pan with a large lip to roast the chicken, so maybe that contains the splatter. I also regularly clean my oven precisely to cut down on smoke. If I'm going out of town or out of the house for a prolonged period, I'll put my oven on a 4-hr self-clean while I'm gone. I find that makes a huge difference in reducing smoke. Maybe thaiobsessed will weigh in as well; she's a Zuni chicken vet.

Speaking of which, I made Josephine's modified bread salad with quartered prune plums and celery from my CSA. It was very delicious -- a seasonal variation. Thanks for the inspiration!

Edited to note that chicken dries out in "refrigerator," not kitchen.

Nancy - Do you have an electric oven? I believe most of the smoke and smell comes from fat hitting the coils and vaporizing. Maybe if you put the bird on the lowest rack and then put a piece of foil on the very highest rack that would help (though may interfere with browning? but at 500 degrees it should brown anyway I would think).

That's just an idea which I have not tried. I have a gas oven now and the high heat chicken is much less messy, though I still set the smoke detectors off.

I'll echo what aschie30 wrote. I am very carefull to make sure the chicken is bone dry (I use a small chicken as well). I also use an All-clad saute pan (it may be a little bigger than 12 inches--3 quarts, I believe). The one difference: I don't clean my oven that often . But, I haven't had an issue with spatter/smoke. I do find that the skin sometimes sticks when I flip the bird (Judy Rodgers says it shouldn't if you're careful to dry it) but otherwise no issues with the recipe.
Hope that helps.

thank you all a million! I do have a gas oven--but only one--and I really like to bake and I am also a textile artist so I don't want fabrics absorbing smoke and I don't want my peach pies tasting like fried chicken, if you know what I mean. I definitely have not used the small chicken and have not done the drying process--so I am eager to give it a try this fall and will get back to you.

Thaiobsessed (I love your name!), I saw your tag at the party and wanted to meet you but got really distracted by my little kids who may have to be left behind next time! I saw figs in one of your photos and wanted to ask you, have you ever
made fig preserves. I am a giant jam maker and just made a batch which did not quite turn out the way I wanted--I am wondering what type of figs to use (and whether I can get them in Chicago). I bought green ones on sale at Whole Foods, and I know you don't use black mission for preserves--but I am stumped while trying to recreate a memory from my childhood with Memphis grandparents.

Cheers! NZ

nancy wrote:have you ever
made fig preserves

No, but that sounds delicious. Zuni has a recipe for a condiment with dried figs, red wine and orange zest that I'd like to try.

I made the Asparagus with Pistachio Aillade to go with soft shell crabs last night--basically you grind pistchios with garlic, olive oil and orange zest in a mortar and pestle and season with salt. I loved this (I was taking swipes of it off the spatula, mmm...)--my dining companion thought it a little garlicky.

I had the opportunity to eat at the Zuni Cafe during a recent work trip to San Francisco. I had bruschetta with burrata and green olive lemon relish as an appetizer--it was delicious. So, of course I had to try and replicate it at home (I used goat cheese as I had it on hand). Really great stuff--I've already made it twice. It's a mixture of chopped green olives, chopped whole lemon, chopped preserved lemon, toasted almonds, capers, lemon juice and olive oil. I would've added parsley if I had some.

Green olive-Lemon relish (shown with butternut squash, pistachio salad with pomegranate vinaigrette)

Never did I think I'd stoop to a level of food geekery that would have me blanch and cool onions three seperate times. For a pickle. But... I like this cookbook and I was going to make pickled red onions red onions so I decided to give the recipe on pg 270-271 a try. I don't think I'll make them my other way anymore. They were really good if a little sweet, but that's easy to fix. Also, the color is just great.

Second!

I love those onions, been making them for years now

I found a used copy of this for $12 and decided it was time to dive in. It is a much more substantial tome than I had expected, which leads to the question of: what to try first. So far I know the following are on my list, but what else must I try -- the recipes that are too good to miss?

Roast chicken bread salad
Zuni Gnocchi
Chard & onion panade

The relishes/sauces are terrific. I make the olive lemon relish a LOT (and I will whiz it in the cuisinart to form a 'pesto'.

I also wanted to add: I've been using my cast iron frying pan for the chicken--works great! The chicken gets a nice crispy skin and doesn't stick.

We made the gnocchi, and they were absolutely wonderful. So soft and delicate. Decadent yet light. We served them with some butter & olive oil poached grape tomatoes and scapes, and washed it down with some bubbly.

jblth, we must have been on the same wavelength.

On my last trip to San Francisco, two years ago, I had made dinner reservations at Zuni Cafe. I was greatly looking forward to their renowned ricotta gnocchi and roasted chicken with bread salad for two. Imagine my disappointment to learn that they didn't have the gnocchi that night! How could it be?! This is one of their most famous dishes!

Later that year, I received the Zuni Cafe cookbook for Christmas. Everything sounds lovely, but the number of pages on some of the recipes really intimidated me from diving in. So, 18 months later, I finally took the plunge and decided to try the ricotta gnocchi. With fresh ricotta from J.P. Graziano's, and armed with some photo tutorials on making the gnocchi, I was ready! As others have reported, the ricotta gnocchi was wonderfully fluffy, delicate, and cheesy. It was a bit time-consuming to form. I didn't have any fresh sage on hand, so I opted to serve these with Lidia Bastianich's red sauce.

Nice! We got the ricotta from J.P.'s as well. Forming the gnocchi didn't seem to difficult, but my girlfriend did almost all of that step so I can't comment really. I think it helped that I had pressed the ricotta really well and then went ahead and dumped it on some paper towels to further pat dry. I also stuck the dough in the freezer for a little while to firm it up (not frozen), which always seems to help for shaping things.

We made the citrus risotto from Zuni this weekend. Judy Rogers writes in the description of the recipe that new chefs at Zuni look at her like she's crazy when she mentions the idea of mixing citrus and risotto. I kept seeing the recipe and thinking 'that doesn't sound good'. But, I had grapefruit, lime and mascarpone in the fridge and a can of carnaroli rice in the pantry and I thought 'hey, Judy's never let me down before'. It was actually really good. Next time, I plan to top it with a few seared scallops.

jblth wrote:I found a used copy of this for $12 and decided it was time to dive in. It is a much more substantial tome than I had expected, which leads to the question of: what to try first. So far I know the following are on my list, but what else must I try -- the recipes that are too good to miss?

Roast chicken bread salad
Zuni Gnocchi
Chard & onion panade

I can't resist another plug for the short ribs in Chimay. I made it again last week, and it really is one of the finer beef dishes in my experience. I served it with fettucine instead of wild rice, In the future, I would use some delicate pappardelle and break up the beef in the style of a duck or rabbit ragu over the pasta.

This dish is also easy. It makes for a very nice company dinner when prepared the day before and de-fatted after refrigeration. Leftovers can be turned into a great beef barley soup with the addition of barley and some carrot, celery and canned tomato. The beer is not dominant, so the soup can take the leftover broth as a base.

The zucchini pickles are fantastic.
I put them on burgers, ham sandwiches, or just eat them straight from the jar.
They're a little harsh, almost too sour when just made but they mellow after a bit.