Warm Bread Salad Recipe (2024)

We do Judy Rodgers's Zuni chicken salad, from her Zuni cookbook, about once a month. It is slightly different from this one, using Moroccan dried olives instead of currants (emphasizing nutty over fruity tastes), thinly sliced red pepper instead of scallions, and marinating leftover chicken (from the roasted chicken the day before) in some pan juices before mixing in the ret of the ingredients. It's a superb dish and the reason why we treasure that Zuni cookbook as one of our top five.

The greens go in at the end; the rest of the ingredients - bread, raisins, scallions etc - are mixed together and go in the oven.

I've made once and it was delicious. Made a similar recipe another time and was very disappointed. The difference? Quality of the bread used in the croutons. With the right bread - lots of texture, plenty of bubbles - this is great. My favorite bread for this has all the qualities of an excellent Neopolitan style pizza dough.

I was confused as well, even after reading three times, and I finally realized why: The term "bread salad" is used here prior to adding the greens. It would have been much clearer, I think, if the term "bread mixture" had been used instead. That being said, it looks like a great recipe which I intend to try!

Re the last step - they idea is replicate how they do it at Zuni Cafe - the salad is served under the roasted chicken, letting the chicken warm the salad and the juices from the chicken flavor it. So warm accordingly, or, not.

from the NYT:Then, instead of roasting a chicken, sear some mushrooms with olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper. For extra crisp mushrooms, try placing a heavy pot or pan on top to squish them — a life-changing tip I got from the writer Bettina Makalintal.Squished mushroom link from Bon Appetite: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/squish-your-mushrooms?campaign_id=222&emc=edit_veg_20221027&instance_id=75706&nl=the-veggie®i_id=42457327&segment_id=111224&te=1&user_id=60147323b3a5259bbe2744cf86f260

Instead of adding chicken stock, use pan drippings from Zuni roast chicken recipe.

Watch end step carefully. Croutons burn. Just do ten mins

Yes, important to note that the warm chicken juices with the seasoned flavors, soaking into the bread salad is where the magic lays!

Unless I did something wrong, I didn't think this dish was worth the effort. The salad part was very heavy. IMO, overloaded with olive oil. I couldn't even taste the currents in the final dish or the garlic and scallions. It was just so so. I've had much better meals that only took 1/4 of the time this did to prepare.

To make this vegetarian you could replace the meat with an olive oil fried egg (look up the recipe) or even a poached egg. The article suggests replacing the meat with mushrooms but to keep it a complete meal it needs protein.

The mushrooms aren't in the ingredient list.

from the NYT:Then, instead of roasting a chicken, sear some mushrooms with olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper. For extra crisp mushrooms, try placing a heavy pot or pan on top to squish them — a life-changing tip I got from the writer Bettina Makalintal.Squished mushroom link from Bon Appetite: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/squish-your-mushrooms?campaign_id=222&emc=edit_veg_20221027&instance_id=75706&nl=the-veggie®i_id=42457327&segment_id=111224&te=1&user_id=60147323b3a5259bbe2744cf86f260

I just loved this. Great combination of flavors.

Made this with raisins because I couldn’t find currants and very good!

It tasted good but way too many steps to make it worthwhile.

I like the idea of the bread soaking up chicken juices, so I put the bread in the oven 15 minutes before the (spatchco*cked) chicken came out. I also roasted 2 sliced tomatoes in a separate pan. Then I tossed bread, vinaigrette, arugula and tomatoes together and topped with the chicken, which rested on top of the salad. Fabulous meal.

Instead of adding chicken stock, use pan drippings from Zuni roast chicken recipe.

We made this with homemade sourdough and added 1/2 can of butter beans. Delicious!

This was really tasty! It was a bit of prep time but well worth it!

Recipe is a bit fussy for a weeknight salad but it's so, so good. I used straight arugula and didn't have currants, so I used Aldi brand dried cranberries like a heathen but there were zero complaints. I could eat this every day (if someone prepared it for me).

Re the last step - they idea is replicate how they do it at Zuni Cafe - the salad is served under the roasted chicken, letting the chicken warm the salad and the juices from the chicken flavor it. So warm accordingly, or, not.

Hella work and underwhelming. Maybe the book version is better?

Watch end step carefully. Croutons burn. Just do ten mins