A Very Samin Saturday Dinner

We always long for some delicious comfort food for the Saturday evening. Samin Nosrat’s buttermilk chicken and roasted vegetable salad are definitely proven choices. The dishes are unpretentious and easy to make, but are seriously delicious.

The roasted vegetable salad uses the most common vegetables in the market: cauliflower, Romanesco, carrots, Brussel sprouts and beans. The trick is to cook the vegetables separately and use the beans to pull the dish together.

The roasted buttermilk chicken is a two day process. It is the best when the chicken is marinated in salted buttermilk for at least 24 hours. The buttermilk tenderizes the chicken and gives the skin a glorious golden glow when roasted. Even the chicken breast is moist and so tender that you don’t need a knife to eat.

Here are the recipes.

Samin Nosrat’s Roasted Vegetable and Beans Salad

1 head cauliflower

1 head Romanesco

8 carrots

1 pound Brussel sprouts

1 cup white beans

Grapeseed oil

For the dressing:

1 sprig of Italian parsley

2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

5 tablespoon olive oil

Salt for seasoning

Soak the white beans a day before overnight. You can also use canned beans to save time (the flavor wouldn’t be exactly the same, obviously, but it won’t be deal breaker.)

Cut cauliflower and Romanesco horizontally into 1 inch thick steaks. Season generously with salt. Place the cauliflower and Romanesco steaks flat on separated cook sheets with parchment paper. Make sure that every piece is on a single layer and there is no overlap. Set aside.

Peel the carrots. Season with salt and mix with grapeseed oil in a large bowl. Lay the carrots on a cook sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Half the Brussel sprouts. Season with salt and mix with grapeseed oil in a large bowl. Spread the Brussel sprouts on a cook sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Drain the beans and cook in a pressure cooker for about an hour until soft.  

Heat the oven to 375°F. Put the cook sheets with vegetables in the oven. Cook for about 35 to 40 minutes. Cooking time for different vegetables varies. Check frequently. The vegetables will be done when the stems of cauliflower and Romanesco, and the carrots are soft.

Finely chop the majority of the parsley leaves. Mix the chopped parsley leaves, lemon juice, salt and olive oil well in a small bowl.

Take a large shallow serving bowl. Place the roasted cauliflower and Romanesco at the bottom of the bowl. Put the roasted carrots and Brussel sprouts on top.

Pour the dressing over the cooked beans. Mix well and pour on top of the roasted vegetables.

Coarsely chop the rest of the leaves for garnishing.

Samin Nosrat’s Buttermilk Chicken

3½- to 4-pound (about 1.5 kilograms) chicken

Salt

2 cups (475 ml) buttermilk

The day before you want to cook the chicken, season the chicken generously with salt and let it sit for 30 minutes.

Stir 2 tablespoons of kosher salt or 4 teaspoons fine sea salt into the buttermilk to dissolve. Place the chicken in a large ziplock plastic bag and pour in the buttermilk. Refrigerate for 24 hours.

Pull the chicken from the fridge an hour before you plan to cook it. Preheat the oven to 425°F, with a rack set in the center position.

Remove the chicken from the plastic bag and scrape off as much buttermilk as you can without being obsessive. Tightly tie together the legs of the chicken with a piece of butcher’s twine. Place the chicken in a 10-inch cast iron skillet or shallow roasting pan.

Slide the pan all the way to the back of the oven on the center rack. Rotate the pan so that the legs are pointing toward the rear left corner and the breast is pointing toward the center of the oven (the back corners tend to be the hottest spots in the oven, so this orientation protects the breast from overcooking before the legs are done). Pretty soon you should hear the chicken sizzling.

After about 20 minutes, when the chicken starts to brown, reduce the heat to 400°F and continue roasting for 10 minutes and then move the pan so the legs are facing the back right corner of the oven.

Continue cooking for another 30 minutes or so, until the chicken is brown all over and the juices run clear when you insert a knife down to the bone between the leg and the thigh.

When the chicken’s done, remove it to a platter and let it rest for 10 minutes before carving and serving.