Cameron Hughes Wine shoot: Roast Chicken & Ciabatta Salad

It's starting to look a lot like summer! White wines are very popular right now, and my job was to make something to pair with Cameron Hughes Lot series #212, a Carneros Chardonnay.

For the shoot I decided to make my version of roast chicken and bread salad you would find at Zuni, a very popular SF restaurant. I first brined the chicken overnight in a very simple brine of water, sea salt, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, and bay leaves.  The brining adds such great moisture and flavor to the chicken.  I highly recommend doing this with any roast chicken, or pork.  The chicken was then rubbed with an herb butter (butter, salt, paprika, white pepper, chopped parsley) and prepped for the oven.  The twist on this recipe is that the chicken is then roasted on top of the bread for the bread salad.  Its ripped and placed into a pyrex baking dish, lightly oiled and salted.  The chicken, depending on the cuts, is then placed on top of a few slices of citrus which is then placed directly on top of the bread.  

In the 375* oven for about 45 min, the bread will absorb all of the delicious juices from the chicken and produce an amazing tasting bread salad.  Finishing the bread salad off with a simple balsamic vinaigrette and some dried currents and chopped parsley puts it over the top.  

The shoot was great. Jake did a fabulous job and everything looked just as it would on the Food Network.  Enjoy the shots and go visit www.chwine.com and check out some wine!!