WHB: Zuni Cafe Chicken Bouillabaisse

I recently bought The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, which has been on my must read list for some time.  Happily, it lived up to the high praise heaped upon it by serious cooks.   It 's a delight to read, and I often find myself flipping through the pages at night, fantasizing making various recipes.   But as much as this cookbook is loved, it's also been criticized by many as "too difficult" and "obscure," filled with recipes impossible for most cooks to execute.  It's true that there are a handful of recipes that the author admits most people won't be able to replicate, due to the difficulty in finding some ingredients.  But, she includes them just for the pleasure of reading about them, and imagining how the dish tastes. I see that as a kind of armchair travel through a cookbook, which can be very pleasant.  It's sort of like reading about George Clooney's Italian home in Architectural Digest.  I'll never visit George there, but I enjoy reading about it.  (Hmm, I'm getting off topic. )

It's incorrect that you can't prepare most recipes in the book.  The majority don't appear intimidating at all.  They may look long and complicated, but the directions are written in a way that gives a clear idea of how to prepare a dish. This recipe for chicken bouillabaisse is a good example.  It was extremely easy to fix, made from easily obtained ingredients.  And it was one of those meals that you think about with great fondness after eating it.  It's certainly one of the best dishes I've ever made.  It contains several herbs, bay leaf, thyme, and saffron, which qualifies it for Weekend Herb Blogging, created by the lovely Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen. This weekend it's being hosted by the equally lovely Christa at  Calendula & Concrete. 

Although this recipe contains three herbs, the one that stood out the most for me was the saffron. Technically, saffron is a spice, but Kalyn has given us some latitude here, so I'm calling it an herb.  It gave a lovely yellow hue to the broth and added an unmistakable flavor and aroma to the dish.     The world’s most expensive spice/herb, saffron is the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus.  It takes 75,000 blossoms or 225,000 hand-picked stigmas to make a single pound, hence the high price it commands   Fortunately, it takes only a tiny bit of saffron to flavor a dish. In fact, use too much at your peril, because it will make the dish very bitter.   I buy my saffron from Penzeys, in tiny amounts and use it up within one year of purchase.

I assure you that this dish is extremely easy to make.  The actual amount of labor is probably 15 minutes, not counting the cooking time. Try to think ahead before you make it, because it's best to season the chicken with salt and let it set in the fridge 24 hours before you make it.

Making the broth is quick and takes about 6 minutes.   You simply saute onions and garlic and add herbs, wine and tomatoes.   

Chicken is added, in this case the legs.  I normally remove the skin on chicken, but since it was going to braise for at least an hour, I left the skin on to help the chicken retain it's shape a little better.

After an hour of gentle simmering the broth reduces to an incredibly delicious golden liquid. My only quibble:  There isn't enough of it!  Next time I will double the amount of it.

To serve, you toast a slice of peasant style bread and slather it with homemade Aioli. Or you can simply rub a clove of garlic on the bread. I adore Aioli, as you can see from the amount of it on the bread.  It was intensely garlicky and helped make this dish very special. I made mine in a tiny hand blender container, which took less than 5 minutes.

Then you place a piece of chicken on top of the toast and drizzle on the exquisite broth. You can also add more aioli if you want. 

There you have it.  It's a very simple recipe that produces a magnificent dish.  If the thought of dealing with bone-in chicken bothers you, boneless cuts could be substituted.  I'm hosting a dinner party soon, and this will be one of the dishes that I'll serve.  I'm looking forward to it.

Chicken Bouillabaisse  (The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, by Judy Rodgers)

4 chicken legs (about 8 ounces each) or one 3 pound chicken, back removed and quartered
2 cups sliced yellow onions, about 1 medium onion
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
salt
bay leaf
a sprig of fresh thyme
1 small dried chili
1/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup coarsely chopped drained canned tomatoes or 1/3 cup fresh peeled, seeded, chopped tomatoes
pinch of saffron
2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 cups chicken stock
4 small slices chewy peasant style brea, sliced about 1/2 inch thick
about 1/2 cup Aoili or 1 garlic clove peeled

Seasoning the chicken (For best succulence, do this in advance at least 12 to 24 hours before cooking the dish)

Trim excess fat from the the chicken, then season the chicken all over with salt, using 3/4 teaspoon salt per pound of chicken.

Cooking the dish

Combine the onions with the oil and a few pinches of salt and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes until he onions have reduced by half and are translucent. Stir frequently to prevent them from browning.

Add the bay leaf, thyme, and chili, breaking the chili apart if you want a little more heat to the dish,  Add the white wine and boil for 1 minute.  Add the tomatoes, saffron, garlic, and chicken stock and bring to a simmer.

Add the chicken and bring back to a simmer.  Skim any foam.  Adjust the heat to a quiet simmer and cook for about 1 hour, stirring once or twice. If using a cut up chicken, add the breast after about 30 minutes of cooking time.  The chicken should be quite tender, but not falling off the bone. The broth reduces by half. I didn't need to add any stock, but if your liquid looks like it's boiling away, add a bit more stock. Make sure the dish isn't simmering too fast, or the broth will cook down too much.

Meanwhile grill or toast the bread.  Spread each warm slice with Aoli or the cut clove of garlic and place in a shallow bowl.

Lightly skim the surface of the bouillabaisse, then raise heat and boil vigorously for 1 minute.  Place a piece of chicken on the toast and spoon the fabulous broth.  Offer remaining Aoli as a garnish.

Aoili

1 large or 2 small cloves garlic, peeled
a few pinches salt
1 egg yolk
about 1/2 cup mild tasting olive oil

Cut the garlic into a few pieces and then pound them in a mortar. Add the salt and pound the garlic until a paste.  Add the yolk and stir with the pestle.  Still using the pestle, add the oil, a few drops at a time in the beginning.  Gradually add more oil in a thin stream as the yolk becomes a bit tacky. 

At this point you can add a few drops of water, which will cause it to whiten and soften, and will allow you to add more oil if you wish.  1/2 teaspoon will allow you to add another 1/2 cup oil.  Adding the additional oil will reduce the garlicky flavor, so that is your decision to make. I prefer it with an intense flavor.  There is no lemon juice in this version. 

Note:  I made my Aoili with a tiny hand blender container.  It was much faster, and produced a thick satiny Aoili very quickly.  If you have a very small food processor that will process a small amount of ingredients, you may prefer to take this route.

Comments

[steven]

Wow Sher, you've really outdone yourself here... are there leftovers?

[sam]

you see, to me, that looks much more appealing than the famous zuni chicken bread salad! good job!

[Glenna]

Wow! That really does look and sound incredible. That's a double Yum and a snap at you, girlfriend!

[sher]

Steven,

Leftovers? What the heck are they? :) No, there certainly weren't any leftovers. Wish there were.

Sam,

Thank you, that's high praise indeed!

Glenna,

Thank you. Snaps right back at you.

[Julie]

I have the Zuni cookbook and never even noticed that recipe. I need to go back and check it out because it looks fabulous.

[aria]

oh yeah, that looks devine! the sauce alone...YUM. thanks sher for the aioli recipe too, i've never made it before and now i'm inspired. with the lemon you mentioned sounds yummy.

[ann]

oooooh! my mom brought me back a precious little box of the highest quality saffron from Spain and i've been wondering what to do with it... this might just qualify (and it gives me leeway to run out and pick up a new cookbook ;-)
thanks sher!

[sher]

Julie,

I overlooked it myself at first. I think I was paying more attention to the well known recipes, like the roast chicken.

Aria,

Oh, that broth!! Just heaven--and from very few ingredients.

Ann,

This would be great for your saffron. And aren't you lucky to have that? I love saffron!

[gattina]

Sher,
oh is another dish I can't resist! This book the recipe looks like very well-written, and I like your added comment which helps me a lot when I do this dish next time!

[kalyn]

This looks just wonderful. I love the first photo with the saffron floating on the broth. Another one for the del.icio.us cookbook!

[sher]

gattina,

Thank you. It is a very interesting cookbook. I'm already looking at recipes to try from it!

Kalyn,

Thanks. I too love looking at saffron in a dish. It;'s such a special herb/spice. Thanks for adding me to del.icio.us. Very nice.

[Mae]

Oh, oh, oh! What a tantalising piece of chicken! Drooling...

This is something i would do. Delicious and beautiful and no, the bones don't bother me at all - in fact, i prefer cooking chicken with bones as it gives a better tasting broth and sauces. The same goes with the skin - it provides a blanket to the meat to avoid it drying - the result, always juicy and very tasty!

[Chef Anne Napolitano]

This looks delicious! I am thinking of making this for a dinner party this Saturday. Did you serve anything on the side (do you think it needs a side)? I might go with boneless breasts.

[sher]

Anne,

This is a very good choice for a dinner party. You can make most of it up in advance, if you choose. I was planning a dinner party with it also. I was going to serve it with lots of the toasted bread and a really nice salad. I was leaning towards an asparagus salad served on the side. I've since read other people rave over this dish after they made it. But, some of them also said that the amount of the delicious broth might have been too skimpy, so they were going to double it. It's really good. I think you will like this.