Zuni Café chicken

Name: Zuni Café chicken
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 small whole chicken (2¾ to 3½ lb); 4 sprigs thyme, marjoram, rosemary or sage; sea salt (about ¾ tsp per pound of chicken); ¼ tsp black pepper (more to taste)

Four ingredients and two days. Trust the salt and do almost nothing.

At a Glance

Time

1 hr, plus 1 to 2 days dry brine

Serves

Story

This is Judy Rodgers' bird from the Zuni Café in San Francisco, and its whole secret is time, not technique. Salting a day or two ahead is dry-brining, the salt pulls moisture up out of the meat, then the meat draws it back in carrying all that seasoning deep, and the skin dries out on the surface so it crackles in the oven instead of steaming. A small bird and a genuinely hot oven are the other two thirds of it, which is why she insisted on both.

Ingredients

1 small whole chicken2¾ to 3½ lb
4 sprigs thymemarjoram, rosemary or sage
sea saltabout ¾ tsp per pound of chicken
¼ tsp black peppermore to taste

Method

There is nothing to this beyond salt and patience, which is exactly why it is so hard to leave alone. Season it a day or two before you want to eat and then forget about it. A small bird matters here, over four pounds and the skin cannot crisp before the inside overcooks. Rodgers served hers over a bread salad, and if you have a heel of good bread going stale you should too, torn and toasted in the pan juices, which is panzanella by another name and no bad thing.

One to two days ahead, pull the lump of fat from inside the bird and pat it very dry. Slide a finger under the skin over each breast to make two pockets, and loosen a pocket over the thickest part of each thigh. Tuck an herb sprig into each of the four.
Season all over with the salt, roughly ¾ teaspoon per pound, and the pepper, with a little inside the cavity and along the backbone. Twist the wing tips behind the shoulders, cover loosely and refrigerate. This is the whole job, and the fridge does it for you.
When you are ready, heat the oven to 475 degrees. Set a shallow flameproof roasting pan or a 10-inch metal skillet, barely bigger than the bird, over medium heat to preheat. Wipe the chicken dry once more and lay it in breast up, it should sizzle the moment it lands.
Roast in the center of the oven. It should be browning within 20 minutes, nudge the heat up if it is sluggish, down 25 degrees if the skin threatens to char or the fat smokes. After about 30 minutes, flip the bird over. Give it another 10 to 20 minutes, then flip it breast up again to re-crisp the skin, a final 5 to 10. Call it three quarters of an hour to an hour all in.
Lift the chicken to a plate to rest. Pour off the clear fat from the pan, leaving the browned drippings. Splash in 1 tablespoon water and swirl. Slash the skin between thigh and breast and tip the bird and its plate to drain every juice back into the pan.
Set the pan over medium-low, bring the juices to a simmer and scrape up all the stuck caramel. Cut the chicken into pieces and pour that sharp, savory pan sauce over the top. Serve at once, ideally on torn toasted bread.