“When Mexicans go to Europe, they're just incredulous. There is nothing to balance all that heaviness. They consider it a really super one-dimensional cuisine. They're always reaching for a lime or a pickle or something—an acid.”
- Rick Bayless
It was only after Blake recently wrote about the idea of using more acid in his cooking, when I realized how far down the rabbit hole I'd gone. There isn't much I cook that doesn't have gobs of vinegar in it. Much like my sage celebrity chef Rick Bayless, I have become enamored with the balance of fat and acid, a duo I feel that gets a little off kilter in some basic preparations like, say, a regular roast chicken.
It's a dish I've personally written about 7 times here on the site, and used to make nearly once a week. But it has nearly disappeared from my kitchen as I am now more apt to braise chickens then roast them. This fact I attribute to the double whammy of Leo Maya's Green Chicken and Hainanese Chicken Rice, two dishes I simply can't live without. Both cook the chicken in a aromatic liquid, and serve it up with a flavorful and spicy sauces. The strangest part about all of this is that neither ones tastes particularly exotic. They are both too comforting for that, and meant for regular meals around the table with family. Oddly and inconceivably, they both taste like home to me.
Of course, roast chicken was what used remind me of home. And after seeing a recipe in the New York Times for Roast Chicken with Crispy Drippings Croûtons I had a little tinge of nostalgia at what just a few simple ingredients could do. I was especially intrigued by the use of stale bread placed underneath the bird. It supposedly crisped up into little chicken soaked croûtons. I fell in love with it before I had even left the computer. While Blake was just getting ready to delve into the world of acid, I wanted to take a little sojourn, to remember what the humble roast chicken was all about.
I think part of the reason I took a break from roast chicken was the rising absurdity of my preparations. A few years ago I had chased after juicy meat and crispy skin, by trying various combinations of slow roasting, extreme slow roasting, experiments with baking soda, and high, high heat. The results were often spectacular, if never quite practical. And somewhere along the line the game lost its fun.
What's so appealing about this recipe is the glorification of a very simple process. This recipe is dead simple. It's cooked at a moderate 425 degrees for an hour and fifteen minutes. No basting, no turning, no...nothing. Meanwhile, all the juices that have dripped off the bird are soaked up by the stale bread slices underneath. After the roast they came off like the best croûtons you can imagine. While I rested the bird for 10 minutes, I nearly ate all of the bread slices. They were that good.
The actual chicken was infused with a whole head of garlic and lemon, so it was delicious, too. It was a welcome return. That's not to say I'm giving up my acidity or my braised chickens, but that I can have it all. That's what's fun.
Roast Chicken with Crispy Drippings Croûtons
- 1 chicken
- Stale bread,
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 lemon
- salt and black pepper
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cut the stale bread into 1/2 inch slices.
You'll need as many that will comfortably fit into whatever vessel you're going to roast the chicken in. As you can see, I used a relatively small iron skillet. Pour 1/2 of the olive on to of the bread slices and rub them around to coat as much of the bread as possible. Then sprinkle on a little salt.
Slice the garlic head in half horizontally. Don't remove the skins.
Season the inside of the chicken with a pinch of salt and pepper. Then stuff it with the lemon, garlic, and bay leaf.
Rub the other half of the olive oil onto the chicken. Then season with salt and pepper.
Roast for an hour and fifteen minutes, or until the juices run clear when you poke it with a knife. Remove it from the pan and let it rest on a cutting board for 10-15 minutes.
The bread slices will look pale and soggy. But flip them over and admire their beauty.
Oh what beauty! Try not to eat all of these while the chicken is resting.
Serve the bread with the chicken. Maybe a little mustard, if you're like me, would be good.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the recipe- the chicken looks awesome! Can you tell me what size chicken/cast iron skillet you used?
This looks terrific – especially the croutons. We roasted a chicken this past weekend too. Nothing says 'Sunday dinner' to me quite like a roast chicken!
I made this last night and enjoyed it, but my croutons got a bit over done and the lemon drippings kind of made them taste like they were covered in powdered lemonade.
I did use a casserole dish instead of my cast iron skillet, so I am excited to try again. Did you try to crisp the soggy side of the crouton while the chicken was resting?
Great Scott — yet another chicken roasting technique!
I really love this idea. I feel like I can relate to your deuling concerns; should a technique emphasize the skin, the roasty-ness, or the juiciness of a bird? I'm always a little torn between a profound love of sauces made from pan drippings and a desire to use the chicken to make a lighter meal. I suspect this might be an excellent balance; this might be prep-work for the greatest chicken Caesar salad yet.
A question: do you notice a difference between your trussed and un-trussed chickens?
Thanks again, sir!
… but did you mush the roasted garlic cloves onto the croutons? Yes, that's my first thought, beyond how good the chicken is!
Yummy,
I always love the thomas keller chicken. Or once again, zuni chicken in a wood oven. But nowadays, who has a wood oven on hand?
Although I am stubborn and love the Zuni bread salad, the croutons look great, and with the chicken juices, they seem divine.
Something similar you might try that includes a seasoning tweak (sumac and pine nuts) is chicken musakhan…down near the end of this thread. I tasted the chicken and bread in question, and really, the bread was unstoppably good.
yc: It was a 10 inch iron skillet.
Phoo-D: The croutons were incredible. It's almost unfortunate you have to cook the chicken to get the croutons!
Mark: I thought about doing that, but it turns out my favorite parts were actually bites that had one crisp side and one soggy one. hm….
Ross Donaldson: Holy cow. That is an insanely great idea. You should get on that…The croutons would be perfect in a Caesar Salad.
Kate: The Garlic didn't get soft and spreadable, unfortunately. I had that idea, too…
katiek: Zuni's salting and high heat is still my favorite method. I just never seem to plan ahead.
Mark: Great Ideas! Thanks mark.
One comment – you don't mention what you did with the bay leaf.
Tim: Thanks for catching that. The bay leaf is added to the cavity of the chicken along with the lemon and garlic. I've corrected the instructions above.
I don't have a cast iron skillet, but I have a comparably sized All Clad one, or a traditional roasting pan. Which would you recommend? Thanks!
Ross Donaldson: Sorry I skipped that question. Sometimes I truss, sometimes I don't. I haven't really figured out which way is best. I should look into that…
Brooke: The roasting pan is probably best. I find all-clad's like to stain if they are in the oven for too long. Could just be mine.
The croutons are genius. Nothing beats a really good roast chicken.
Speaking as an Hispanic, I had to laugh at Rick's comment "…When Mexicans go to Europe…".
YES! Photographic proof!!!
I saw the recipe in the Times and sure, it *sounded* really amazing, but my brain just couldn't wrap around the idea of chicken-drippings + bread=crispy chicken-bread.
But now I SEE the croutons and oh, how they glisten with chicken-shine!!
Dinner. Tonight. Yes.
I too was consumed with the idea of chicken-soaked croutons after I read Melissa Clark's article! I made it a few days ago with Marcella Hazan's Roasted Chicken, and it was amazing (I have a pic on my blog). I think I ate more chicken than bread.
I made your easy focaccia bread too last night – it was awesome! As a former Carroll Gardener, your comments about Mazzola gave me such a craving for good bread. Thanks for the recipes!
I was thinking about what to cook for dinner tonight and was looking through your old posts. This seemed to be the easiest thing to pull together in a short amount of time (prep). It’s actually the first time I’ve roasted a whole chicken–luckily it came out without any problems. Juicy, crispy skin (not on the crouton side unfortunately) very nice. The only thing lacking for me was flavor, and it’s probably due to my lack of salt and peppering. When I read the post, I thought you were talking up the croutons too much, since how good could croutons really taste? They were the best gd croutons I ever ate, and just like you said, the half crispy half soggy ones were the best. I’m going to search online for some other ways to enhance the flavor of the chicken, but this crouton drippy thing is a keeper. Thanks for having this blog, it helped make my night.
First of all, kudos – those croutons are outstanding. I’ve been roasting a lot of chickens lately with varying techniques and varying results – but, this is the best so far. I made the same thing last week, but made some crucial mistakes. The biggest was using too large a pot for too small a chicken; this resulted in some nice croutons (those under the bird) but some overdone and without enough juice (those on the periphery). As for the garlic, couldn’t spread it well either – maybe wrap a head in foil next time? Tonight, we roasted a few breasts, a leg and a thigh and put some nice local sourdough underneath in a casserole dish, making sure to cover the bread with the meat. Perfection! Forget using potatos, root vegetables or whatever as a base for the chicken to rest on. From now on, bread goes under the bird, anything else can cook in another dish. Thanks!
We made this tonight and the chicken was *excellent*. However, our bread was charred on the bottom and mushy on the top. It was horrible.
I can only think of two reasons:
1. The chicken was too cold before we started and the juices didn’t flow quickly enough during the early cooking.
2. The bread (a sourdough that we dried out) was too dense. It didn’t have the air pockets your photos have. I didn’t think that was essential before, but it appears it might be.
Do you all have any thoughts on what we could do next time to not make the bread inedible?