On a Wing and a Prayer: Bon Appetit Says We Love Chicken

And chicken we had—in pot pie, in stews, in soup, and mixed with other meats in main courses… They were depression food and if, throughout my career, I have printed more recipes for chicken than any other meat it is because it is the most versatile of viands. Although I dined on chicken at least once and oftentimes twice a day during my early years, my appetite for it has never faltered.

–Craig Claiborne

Not long ago, we, the Food Media, tended to sniff at people who ordered boring chicken as we picked the heritage pork off our delicious slabs of fat. By which I mean Good Housekeeping was helping home cooks relieve the drudgery of repeatedly serving poultry and Josh Ozersky was bragging about his cholesterol. But times have changed.

This month’s issue of Bon Appetit offers us its Top 10 Chicken Recipes culled from the very types who, a few years ago, probably would have rolled their eyes at our poultry passions as they sautéed sweetbreads: America’s of-the-moment chefs. The article claims that chicken is “the hottest item on restaurant menus” right now, and while this is not exactly earth-shattering news, since Americans have been gobbling up chicken forever, it does register a shift.

Bon App titles the piece A Chicken in Every Spot, hearkening back to the promises of the RNC (who in turn borrowed from a 17^th century French concept of prosperity). The RNC ad claimed that Republican administrations had put a chicken in every pot and Hoover would continue the trend. The chickens in our pots nowadays reflect a similar wish fulfillment. Isn’t it sweet that when we go out for a nice meal these days—a splurge—we feel like sharing a simple roast chicken with someone near and dear? But I’m compelled to point out how out of step those humble, homey desires are with the considerable financial side dishes that accompany that breast and wing.

Consider: the mark-up on a nice plate of poultry at a good restaurant these days is nearing 1,000%. At Savoy, for example, offering a special chicken menu through September 5^th, a roast heritage bird for two to three diners is $60 (including wine and sides). Meanwhile, over at Momofuko Noodle Bar, the $100 fried chicken dinner gets you two birds, fried different styles, and a bevy of fixins. Now these are full meals based around pedigreed birds, and they sound great, but I don’t need a chef to roast my chicken (fried two ways, maybe).

I lean more towards the $10 local bird at our food coop (no thanks on the $35 one at the Union Square Greenmarket). My hens come from a Chinese-American butcher who processes them as quickly as possible, bringing a level of freshness to the poultry case that is truly eye-opening. The breeds, White Feather and Black Feather, are incredibly flavorful, leading me to predict that heritage chicken hyperbole will soon eclipse heirloom tomato hyperbole along the lines of “you’ve never tasted a chicken until you’ve had…” or “unless it’s spring and you’re on a South Carolina poultry farm, there’s no point cooking with chicken, it’s all just cardboard.”

My Williamsburg-slaughtered chickens come “Buddha style,” and hacking off the feet and neck is a nice reminder that I eat meat. I freeze these extras, adding to them the gnawed-on bones that come back to the kitchen after dinner. This makes for a grizzly collection in the freezer, then bobbing in the stockpot (fingernail soup, anyone?) but the resulting stock reminds me why I eat meat: not so much for the hunk of flesh, that’s my husband’s bag, but for the extras. The chopped liver. The oomph homemade stock gives risotto. The potatoes and carrots I roast next to the bird.

Hot or not, haute or humble, I hope you have a source for truly fresh heritage birds. I’m sure you’ll agree that the original white meat still has it. I’m glad chefs are giving the old yard bird its due. That said, next time I make it to Momofuko Noodle, I’m ordering the roasted foie gras. To borrow a line from Forrest Gump (sort of?): eating chicken is like sex. Sure, you can go out and pay for it, but if you do it right, it’s even more enriching in the comfort of your own home.

Photo by jemsweb