An Elevated Chicken and Rice ‘Family Meal’

Looks like a recipe I'd make at home, but would not have made in restaurants because when I had to make family meal, it was just me and whatever I could find in the walkins and dry storage.

BTW: for readers interested in what some of the best restaurants in the world do for family meal, Jody Eddy and Christine Carroll wrote "Come In, We're Closed" several years ago, long before Ferran Adrià and other chefs wrote their own "family meal" books. All the recipes they included are eminently doable for home cooks who have good basic knowledge.

Where is the bloody recipe?! Saw in paper this morning and at store now.

Great piece on restaurant life and culture. But Worst.Recipe.Ever for a dish that is usually the definition of homeiness and simple pleasures. Affected. Precious. Ok, not if you have someone to chop the parsley, julienne the lemon peel, slice the scallions. A perpetual pot of stock. Someone to brown the chicken thighs. Someone to dunk the chicken skins in fat. A pantry with the ingredients, always. A million little steps and all supposedly while you're doing laundry, supervising homework, tending to little business task? What's with the toasting and grinding of rice...a tedious and demanding step (watch out for burning the rice!) And why render the chicken skins between two baking sheets, heating an oven and making more things to wash? Stick them into a saucepan and do it on the stove! And since the chicken in the dish is skin-on, am I supposed to have some extra chicken skin to render? Yes, in a restaurant kitchen. No in my kitchen. Sad and sorry to say, this is so bloody typical of the Times! Great food and cooking resource but too much of this precious, effete stuiff

The worst is chicken legs cooked skin on in some sort of liquid and just left soggy, with a few pieces of potato...difficult to eat with any sort of grace, or gratefulness. Then it's time to sneak down to the walk in for a bite of something better...

This took me right back to my days of table-waiting. I miss it.

Being honest here: I'll eat just about anything if it comes to me mixed in rice.

What great writing; felt like I was back on the line again.

This is a great article - answered all the questions I've ever had about the meal the servers and staff eat before service... along with how it actually feels to pull it together there (so easy!) and then at home. Geat piece - love this!

just wondering why you grind the toasted rice?

Love chicken and rice...arroz con pollo...risotto con pollo, poulet avec riz...pure comfort and easy with the use of the oven...my go to home meal when its cool (all year in SF;)...delicious...

PS...Saw your talk at The Swedish American Hall...SF...just like your cooking it was full of flavor!