Chicken, Straight Up

DEAR SOS: I know it’s a reach, but the vertical roasted chicken salad served at Le Dome in West Hollywood is fantastic. Would the restaurant be kind enough to share the recipe?

PATTI HAMLIN West Hollywood

DEAR PATTI: Le Dome came through, as it always does. The dressing will blow you away. It contains only three ingredients. By the way, Chef Jean Claude Bourlier of Le Dome cooks the chickens vertically on a stand (usually sold at restaurant supply stores). “We’ve been cooking chicken this way for 18 years,” Bourlier said.

But you can also roast the chicken in a baking pan. Substitute boned chicken breasts (with skin on) in place of a whole chicken, if you wish.

Le Dome Vertical Chicken Salad

Active Work Time: 40 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 1/2 hours

SALAD

1 red onion, chopped

1/4 cup chopped rosemary

2 (3-pound) chickens

1 cup water

1 head Boston or limestone lettuce

1 head frisee or chicory

1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms

1 tablespoon butter

2 small vine-ripened tomatoes, peeled and chopped

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the onion and rosemary in a small bowl. Spread the mixture between the skin and flesh of the chickens. Place the chickens on vertical roasting stands, wings down, in a roasting pan with the water and bake 50 minutes, until the juices run clear when the thighs are pierced with a fork. Be sure that the water level remains constant in the pan. Add more water if water level is too low.

Remove the chickens from the oven. When they’re cool enough to handle, split them into halves, and cut the bone away from the meat, starting at the breast bone and cutting each breast away from the ribs. Remove the thigh bone. Leave only the leg bone intact. Cut each half into 3 horizontal sections, making 6 sections in all. Set aside.

Mix the lettuce and frisee in a large bowl, then distribute onto individual plates.

Cook the mushrooms in the butter over medium-high heat until soft, 2 minutes. Place the tomatoes and mushrooms on top of the lettuce. Top each plate with the chicken. Serve with Dressing.

DRESSING

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

3/4 cups whipping cream

2 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Combine the mustard, whipping cream and vinegar in a medium mixing bowl. Using a metal whisk, whip the cream mixture until it’s smooth and slightly thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve on the side with the salad.

4 servings. Each serving: 1,083 calories; 654 mg sodium; 368 mg cholesterol; 67 grams fat; 25 grams saturated fat; 20 grams carbohydrates; 98 grams protein; 8.60 grams fiber.

Give Me That Reno Sauce

DEAR SOS: I’ve never made tiramisu with Amaretto sauce, and the combination served at Monte Vigna in the Atlantis Casino Resort in Reno is out of this world. I desperately need the recipe for the sauce.

GLORIA VRANJICAN-DE LUCA Woodland Hills

DEAR GLORIA: It’s definitely an unusual presentation for tiramisu. The sauce, created by Robert Valdez of the resort’s bakery department, is a creme anglaise flavored with Amaretto liqueur. It’s also wonderful on pound cake, ice cream or other cream puddings.

Atlantis Amaretto Creme Anglaise

Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 30 minutes

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup whipping cream

1/3 cup sugar

1 vanilla bean, split

2 teaspoons Amaretto

4 egg yolks

Combine the milk, cream, sugar, vanilla bean and Amaretto in a 2-quart saucepan. Stir to dissolve the sugar.

Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl just enough to break them.

Bring the sugar mixture to a rolling boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Whisk about 1/3 of the liquid into the yolks. Return the mixture to the saucepan and heat over medium heat until boiling. Continue to whisk until slightly thickened, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Pour the sauce through a strainer into a bowl.

Cool the sauce over a bowl of ice water, stirring occasionally, 3 to 5 minutes. Cover the creme anglaise with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on the surface until serving. This can be chilled up to two days.

2 cups sauce. Each of 2 tablespoons: 80 calories; 12 mg sodium; 71 mg cholesterol; 6 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 5 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 0 fiber.