Paying Homage to a San Francisco Cafe’s Roast Chicken

San Francisco’s Zuni Cafe serves perfect roast chicken with a chewy-crisp, warm bread salad. We pay homage to the dish with a streamlined take. Catrine Kelty

For our own take on Zuni Cafe’s roast chicken with bread salad, we started by butterflying a whole chicken and salting it overnight so it would cook quickly and evenly and be juicy and well-seasoned.

Before roasting the chicken in a 475-degree oven, we covered the bottom of a skillet with bread cubes that we had moistened with oil and broth and then draped the chicken on top. The bread cubes toasted and browned beneath the bird while absorbing its juices to create a mix of moistened, crispy-fried, and chewy pieces all packed with savory flavor.