The economic downturn has claimed one of Manhattan’s iconic restaurants. The Rainbow Room’s Rainbow Grill is closing January 12. The owners hope it’s temporary, but employees are being let go. The Grill’s bar will stay open and the Rainbow Room will continue its banquets and weekend dinner dancing — jacket and tie still required.
Ironically, the Rainbow Room opened at the height of the Great Depression in October, 1934. By the Fifties, it was one of the city’s glamour nightclubs for the glitterati, such as Frank Sinatra, and for members of what was called Café Society, the rich and beautiful who were out almost every night and whose goings-on were chronicled by the likes of Life Magazine.
But in recent decades, the Rainbow Room and Grill were best known for their spectacular views from the 65th floor of Rockefeller Center. It was a popular tourist destination and a symbol of the city’s sophistication. Last year, the owners applied for Landmark Status to ensure its Art Deco elegance is never converted to office space.
This recipe is from a decade ago, when Waldy Malouf was the chef and demonstrated the recipe on TV in New York. I recorded it and wrote everything down. I made it and liked it enough to hang on to the recipe. The technique of finishing the cooking and resting the bird in the turned-off oven is one that can be used with any chicken. So many of our chickens at the market are huge these days, but this uses a younger, smaller bird and makes a splendid main course, a taste of the Rainbow Grill that lives on.
Rainbow Room Roast Chicken
Adapted from Chef Waldy Malouf
1 chicken, about 3 pounds
2 TB olive oil
salt and pepper
1 shallot, sliced
1 head of garlic, smashed, divided use
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 medium onion, sliced thick, about 4 slices
6 small potatoes, scrubbed
3 carrots, peeled and cut
1 celery root, peeled and cut
1 cup chicken stock
Preheat the oven to 400F/205C/Gas 6. Rub the chicken with olive oil and season it inside and out with salt and pepper. Put the shallot and half the smashed garlic, the bay leaves and rosemary sprigs into the cavity of the chicken and truss the bird.
Spread the onion slices in the middle of the roasting pan and set the chicken on top of them. Toss the potatoes, carrots, celery root and remaining garlic in some olive oil to coat and arrange the vegetables around the chicken.
Roast for 30 minutes, add the stock to the pan and roast for another 30 minutes.
Remove the vegetables from the roasting pan, arrange them on a platter, set the chicken on top and put the whole platter into the turned-off oven for another 20 to 30 minutes. Chef Malouf says, “This lets the chicken rest and finishes the cooking process without drying it out. It makes for a very moist and crisp chicken.”
Copyright (C) 2009 From Scratch All Rights Reserved 
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I love a good roast chicken, but it’s hard to find one 3 lbs or under.
Nate’s last blog post..Pandan Chiffon Cake
They can be hard to find, depending on location. Bell and Evans chickens tend to be smaller and so do kosher chickens and those from real, freestanding butcher shops — an endangered species in most of America. I have great luck finding them at farmers’ markets and get to support a local farmer at the same time. (I get farm-fresh eggs year round at my local, family-owned hardware store. Honest!)
We have a chicken farmer at the market we frequent, but he doesn’t sell under 3 lb chickens. Something to do with price points and recovering the cost of the care and feeding per chicken.
Nate’s last blog post..Getting Happy at Hog Island Oyster Co (San Francisco)
That’s a shame. I don’t think there’s any reason why a larger chicken, more ingredients and a longer cooking time can’t be used with this.