Roast Chicken With Asparagus Panzanella Recipe (2024)

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Beautifully roasted chicken and nice, juicy panzanella, minus the tomatoes.

Daniel Gritzer

Senior Culinary Director

Daniel joined the Serious Eats culinary team in 2014 and writes recipes, equipment reviews, articles on cooking techniques. Prior to that he was a food editor at Food & Wine magazine, and the staff writer for Time Out New York's restaurant and bars section.

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Why It Works

Spatchco*cking (butterflying) the chicken results in evenly cooked breast and thigh meat.
Blanching the asparagus increases its juiciness, helping to add moisture to the bread salad.
Making a vinaigrette by pureeing asparagus and cucumber with oil and vinegar ruptures the vegetables' cell walls, releasing more juice into the vinaigrette and helping to further soften the bread.
Soaking red onion in ice water makes it extra crisp and reduces its pungency.

I've been on a stale-bread roll all week, first with mytests on the best way to store bread, and then with myPortuguese bread soup recipe. I still had a little stale bread left over, so at the risk of the topic getting...erm...stale, I set out to create one more recipe.

This time, I was in the mood forpanzanella, the classic Tuscan bread salad with tomatoes. The only problem is that for panzanella to be good, the tomatoes have to be excellent, and we're not quite in perfect tomato season here in NYC. So instead, I decided to make a spring panzanella with asparagus and serve it with a simple roast chicken, following Kenji'sspatchco*ck method.But an asparagus panzanella presents problems of its own.

One of the reasons that the classic tomato panzanella is so good is because tomatoes, as a savory fruit, are incredibly juicy. All those delicious juices, along with good olive oil and a splash of red wine vinegar, soak into the stale bread to make it taste wonderful. Without lots of moisture, the salad is practically destined to fail. A vegetable like asparagus poses a unique challenge, since it isn't nearly as juicy as tomatoes.

Roast Chicken With Asparagus Panzanella Recipe (3)

My solution was twofold. First, I blanched all of the asparagus until crisp-tender, which helps increase its juiciness. Then I split the asparagus stalks in half, saving the top halves to add in pieces to the salad, and using the bottom halves to make a vinaigrette with olive oil and vinegar. By puréeing those asparagus stalks in a blender, I was able to rupture the vegetable's cell walls and release even more of the asparagus juices hiding within.

Still, even puréed asparagus isn't enough to soak the bread. So the second thing I did was to look for some help from a mildly flavored, very watery vegetable: cucumber. Peeled and cut into chunks, seeds and all, I added a small Persian cucumber to the vinaigrette and blended it in as well. It ends up making a fair amount of vinaigrette, which mayseemlike too much for the quantity of bread, but trust me: that bread needs all the moisture it can get.

Then, I tossed the vinaigrette and bread together and let them sit for at least five minutes to let the bread soak up the moisture. Finally, I mixed in very thinly sliced red onion, the reserved asparagus spears, and a couple more small Persian cucumbers, this time thinly sliced. It's fresh and green tasting, and moist enough to honor all that's good about a traditional panzanella.

June 2014

Recipe Details

Roast Chicken With Asparagus Panzanella

Active30 mins

Total75 mins

Serves4 servings

Ingredients

1 large chicken, about 4 to 5 pounds
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for drizzling
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
1/2 medium red onion, very thinly sliced
1 (1-pound) bunch asparagus, trimmed
3 Persian cucumbers, 2 very thinly sliced, 1 peeled and cut into chunks
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 pound baguette, stale or toasted until firm, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 6 cups)

Directions

Set oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Using sharp kitchen shears, remove spine from chicken; discard spine or reserve for another use. Flatten chicken by placing skin side up on cutting board and applying firm pressure to breast bone. Rub chicken on all surfaces with 1 tablespoon oil. Season generously with kosher salt and ground black pepper.
Set wire rack in rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Position chicken so that breasts are aligned with center of baking sheet and legs are close to edge. Roast until thickest part of breast close to bone registers 150 degrees on an instant-read thermometer and joint between thighs and body registers at least 170°F, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Meanwhile, fill medium bowl with ice water and add red onion; set aside. Fill a large bowl with ice water. In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook asparagus until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Drain and immediately transfer asparagus to ice bath.
Cut asparagus in half crosswise. Cut asparagus tip halves into 1-inch pieces and set aside. Roughly chop asparagus stalk halves and combine with peeled cucumber in blender with remaining 1/2 cup olive oil and the vinegar. Blend until vinaigrette is smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
Remove chicken from oven, transfer to cutting board, tent loosely with foil, and allow to rest 10 minutes. Drain onions. In a large bowl, toss bread with vinaigrette until thoroughly coated and let stand 5 minutes. Then mix in two-thirds of the reserved asparagus pieces, two-thirds of the onion, and two thirds of the thinly sliced cucumbers; season with salt and pepper. Carve chicken, arrange on plates and serve with panzanella, garnishing with remaining asparagus pieces, onion, and cucumber slices. Drizzle with olive oil and serve immediately.

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