Name: Roasted Half Chicken with Smoky Braised Kale
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 3 to 4 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil; 2 cups [480 ml] Chicken Stock; 3 bunches Tuscan kale, thick stems thinly sliced, leaves cut into 1-in- [2.5-cm-] wide strips; 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar; 1 Tbsp tomato paste; 4 garlic cloves, sliced; Kosher salt; Freshly ground black pepper; ¼ tsp smoked paprika; 2 Tbsp Tomato Confit; 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil; 1 dried bay leaf; 1 dried guajillo chile; ¼ cup [55 g] sugar; ¼ cup [50 g] kosher salt; 4 fresh thyme sprigs; 1 lemon, cut into thin rounds; 2 cups [240 ml] room-temperature water, plus 2 cups [240 ml] ice water; Two 2½-lb [1.2-kg] whole chickens, halved and deboned, with airline breasts detached; 1 yellow onion, cut into small dice

Preparation info

Serves
4 to 6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Gjelina

By Travis Lett

Published 2015

About

I have been serving this chicken, prepared in exactly this way, for quite some time now and it’s remarkably well received year after year. Some Gjelina customers order this and only this, despite having more than sixty items at any time to choose from; it’s one of those classic dishes that neighborhood regulars seek. We bone the leg, brine the chicken for a few hours, and then cook the legs to order in a cast-iron skillet instead of roasting them with the breasts. This cuts down on the cook