Posts Tagged ‘chicken’

Oh, roast chicken leftovers, how I love you so.  Being at a photography shoot the past few days where all we’ve been shooting is picture after picture of gorgeous food (and eating awesome Thai Basil for lunch every day), my guilt over just eating cold chicken with a salad once I got home finally got to me.  Normally I would make a yummy chicken salad and serve it on fluffy, sweet wheat bread, but I saw this on Gourmet a few months ago and thought how it would be something great to do for when I had leftover roast chicken instead of just buying a rotisserie substitute.

Tstasiki is right up there with Dijon mustard in my list of favorite condiments, and despite knowing how easy it was to make, I never actually did it.  The lazier part of me just always picked up a container whenever I was in the store, and frequently my after-work snack is me dipping celery into the container (thankfully I live alone) while I put dishes away and make my lunch for the next day.  Cooling, tart and decadent without the fat, I use it as a sub for mayonnaise in chicken salad (great calorie reducer) and even as a salad dressing.

The tsatsiki is the only ‘recipe’ here, really.  The rest is tossing the chicken with some herbs and oil, adding some veggies and topping everything with the tsatsiki on some pita bread.  It’s a great fast weeknight meal and even better if you have the time to roast some potatoes with oregano alongside it. Otherwise, just enjoy on its own!

I love it when recipes almost go completely against everything you thought you knew. Growing up, roasted birds were to be slathered in butter, stuffed with herbs and spices and all sorts of vegetables, cooked for hours on end and fussed around with endlessly. True, my own Thanksgiving turkey follows these guidelines quite a bit (except I brine instead of butter) and there is great merit to everything I just said, but this method throws all of that out the window, and it is still my favorite way to cook a bird.

All you do is take a whole chicken, clean it, dry it really well, season with salt and bake at a screaming hot temperature for very little time, and you’re done. That’s it. Seriously.

The method comes from Thomas Keller of French Laundry and Per Se fame, restaurants known for froufrou and ultra-complicated recipes so it only seems ironically fitting that the chef who authors the recipe would be the last person I would imagine making a bird this way. But I suppose that’s the point. It’s all about the best ingredients, the best method, and the best results. That’s what true A1 cooking is about, in the end.

Since the method is so simple, makes enough for 4 servings and chicken is so versatile, this is the one of the best things for a single cook, in my opinion.  Knowing I would be in Denver all week for the photo shoot of our upcoming cookbook (exciting times!), I made this to have around so dinners would be extra easy since I would be pulling long hours all week. The things you can do with leftover chicken meat (especially meat this good) is endless, and you could easily feed off it all week.  Not to mention saving the carcass to make stock with, but that’s for another time.

Also, huge thanks to Red Wagon Farm’s stand for supplying the veg.  Not only is their produce to die for, they’re the sweetest ladies around and have extra long hours on Sundays.  Thanks girls!