Today’s yet another chicken recipe. I’m willing to bet that Jay’s getting awfully sick of chicken, but I’m really not joking when I say I could eat it every single day.

Roasted Chicken with Bread Salad. I was flipping through Food & Wine, and came across this recipe, which I thought sounded good…So I asked Jay if he’d be willing to try it. He agreed (mainly because there would be a chicken carcass he could pick over later on), so I picked up the necessary items. Let me just say that pine nuts out of the bulk bin are frakking EXPENSIVE! Well, they are if you buy an entire pound of them (I believe they’re $38.98/lb. at the Brookings Hy-Vee). Luckily, I only needed a tablespoon’s worth for this recipe.

There was a lot of prep work with this, but it was well worth it. I even cut a corner by getting a rotisserie chicken from the store, just to save time. And for my 2 Brookings readers, the Rustic Italian at Buttercrust is perfect for this. It smelled SO good while it was cooking…

I practically inhaled it. Picture The Simpsons eating, and that was me. This was phenomenal! I kept grabbing extra chunks of chicken to add to it, just because it was all so delicious. I told Jay I didn’t care what he thought of it, I was going to make it again, if for no other reason than so I could eat it (he did like it and agreed that I could indeed make it again).

Yield: 4

Roasted Chicken with Bread Salad

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Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 rotisserie chicken
• 1 Tbsp dried cranberries
• 1 Tbsp warm water
• 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1/2 C plus 2 1/2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/2 loaf day-old Italian-style bread, cut into large chunks
• 1 Tbsp pine nuts
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 cups lightly packed small arugula leaves

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450°. In a small bowl, soak the currants in the water and red wine vinegar until plumped, 10 minutes. Drain.

In another small bowl, whisk the white wine vinegar with the 1/2 C of olive oil and season the dressing with salt and pepper.

On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the bread with 2 Tbsp of the oil. Bake for about 5 minutes, until lightly toasted. Let cool, then tear the bread into bite-size pieces. In a bowl, toss the bread with three-quarters of the dressing and let stand for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast the pine nuts in the oven for 2 minutes.

In a small skillet, heat the remaining 1/2 Tbsp of oil. Add the garlic and cook over moderate heat until softened, about 2 minutes; add to the same bowl as the bread chunks. Add the currants, pine nuts and the remaining white wine vinaigrette and toss.

Spoon the bread salad into a shallow 1-quart baking dish. Cover loosely with foil and bake for about 15 minutes, until heated through. Remove the foil and bake for a few minutes longer to dry out the top and brown the bottom. Carve/slice the rotisserie chicken as desired. Transfer the bread salad to a large serving bowl, toss with the arugula and serve with the chicken.

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I still can’t get over how GOOD this was. I just hope it’s as good chilled when I have it for lunch, as it was when I had it fresh from the oven! In the meantime, I think I’ll dig into one of the 2 remaining boxes of Girl Scout cookies I bought this year.

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