Warm chicken and migas salad recipe

This is very much inspired by the wood-roast chicken and bread salad at Zuni Café in San Francisco. When I first ate there, its then chef the late Judy Rodgers hadn’t yet written a cookbook, so I had to guess how to make it when I got home. 

I use Spanish migas – chunky bits of bread that are soaked in milk and then fried – as they have a great texture, both crisp and soft. A key characteristic is a crispy-skinned chicken and only small chickens achieve that well.

Timings 

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour, plus resting time

Serves 

4

Ingredients

For the chicken

• 30g butter, at room temperature
• 2 tbsp chopped herbs, a mixture of thyme, oregano and rosemary
• 1 garlic clove, finely grated
• A good squeeze of lemon juice
• 1 chicken, about 1.6kg
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp sherry vinegar

For the migas and salad

• 250g slightly stale, open-textured country-style bread, torn into chunks
• 3 tbsp milk
• 55g raisins
• 30ml saba or sweetish sherry
• 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 125g spring onions, trimmed and chopped on the diagonal
• 55g pine nuts, toasted
• 225g lettuce leaves

For the dressing

• 1 tbsp white-wine vinegar
• ¼ tsp Dijon mustard
• 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (a fruity one)
• A pinch of sugar

Method 

1. Heat the oven to 190C/180C fan/gas mark 5.
2. Mash the butter with the herbs, garlic, lemon juice and some pepper. Cover and put in the fridge until it is firm enough to use, but not for so long that it becomes solid. You need to be able to work it with your hands.
3. Dry the chicken on the outside with kitchen paper. If it’s dry it will roast better. Lift the skin on the breast – without tearing it – and carefully push the butter down in between the leg meat and skin – as far as you can go – and over the breast. Season inside and out using sea-salt flakes – the sea salt will help the chicken to go golden with crisp skin. Roast for 50 minutes, until cooked through.
4. Prepare the migas while the chicken is roasting. Moisten the chunks of bread with the milk and three tablespoons of water, and leave to sit for about 15 minutes.
5. Put the raisins in a small pan with a mixture of the saba or sherry and water (enough to cover the raisins). Bring this to a boil then pull the pan off the heat and leave so the raisins can plump up for 30 minutes.
6. Add one tablespoon of the olive oil to a frying pan and sauté the spring onions until slightly soft, a couple of minutes, then add the pine nuts. Drain the raisins and add them too. Set this mixture aside.
7. Lightly squeeze each piece of bread, not to remove all the moisture, just some. Heat two tablespoons of the oil in another frying pan and fry the pieces of bread on a high heat for about 40 seconds, then turn the heat down and cook for another 15 minutes, turning every so often. They should be mostly crisp on the outside and fluffy inside, but it’s good if you end up with a mixture of textures (soft bread and crisp bread). Put these in a broad, shallow bowl and cover tightly with foil.
8. Take the chicken out of its roasting tin. Put it on a warm dish then cover. Leave it to rest for 10 minutes.
9. Pour the fat and cooking juices out of the roasting tin into a glass jug. Throw in some ice cubes so that the fat can rise to the top. Skim this off. Set the roasting tin over a medium heat, add the cooking juices and, when the juices start to bubble, add the balsamic and sherry vinegars and about 75ml water. Bring this to a boil, scraping the base of the tin with a wooden spoon to dislodge all the flavours that are stuck to it. Taste and decide whether you like the flavour. You might want to add a little water if it’s too strong.
10. Quickly whisk together all the ingredients for the dressing. Taste to see whether you need to make any adjustments.
11. Throw the salad leaves, warm migas and raisin mixture into a broad, shallow bowl. Add the dressing. Toss around. Pour over about three tablespoons of the chicken juice and vinegar mixture, and toss again. Joint the chicken and put it on top. Spoon on a little more juice and vinegar mixture, and serve.