Posted by Adam Kuban, August 27, 2008 at 5:45 PM
Sure, it's a rundown of the best rotisserie bird joints in Los Angeles, but everyone can benefit from the tips this article lays out on what to look for in a spinning chicken.
Golden Chicken Rule No. 3: Go at peak hours. Be there when the place is operating at full tilt even if you are not planning to eat your chicken right then. Don't go at 3 in the afternoon to find two lonely birds circling the chicken Ferris wheel probably since 11 a.m.
You won't catch me clucking about this advice.
Related: I Like to ______ With Leftover Rotisserie Chicken
Posted by Hannah Howard, July 29, 2008 at 7:45 PM
Chlorine is a nifty chemical often used to ensure swimming pool hygiene. Other times, it keeps chicken carcasses bacteria-free. After being defeathered and eviscerated, 80-percent of American poultry takes a chlorine bath.
Europe doesn't support the chlorine presence, and has banned American poultry since 1997. Now Slate wants to know: does chlorine really make our chickens taste funny? In 1999, University of Georgia researchers noticed a difference between treated and un-treated chicken, but only after cooked patties sat in the fridge for four days. If the chlorine is used correctly, according to Slate, people won't detect any traces of chlorine after cooking.
Good to know. Because I was hoping my chicken wouldn't taste like swim lessons.
Posted by Erin Zimmer, July 24, 2008 at 11:00 AM
That's too many seeds for a normal McDonald's bun. Spotted in Taiwan, the "Grilled Chicken Multi Grains" demonstrates the fast food industry's attempt to make us healthier—and what better way than with big, fat seeds. The sandwich isn't currently available in the United States, where the closest alternative is a Premium Grilled Chicken Classic Sandwich on a "toasted honey wheat bakery roll." (No seeds involved.)
Posted by Robyn Lee, May 16, 2008 at 2:00 PM
The disturbingly huge wings in this ad are probably due to someone getting too carried away with Photoshop rather than New York being a vendor for gigantic mutant chickens. But $6.99 for 10 giant chicken wings—each piece large enough to feed two people—would've been such an awesome deal. [via Photoshop Disasters and Boing Boing]
Posted by Raphael, May 12, 2008 at 10:00 PM
Opening this past weekend in New York City, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is the latest film by the schlock B-movie studio Troma, makers of classics such as The Toxic Avenger, Cannibal: The Movie, and Class Of Nuke 'em High. Set in a fast-food outlet built on top of a Native American sacred burial ground, the zombie chickens emerge and things get ugly. This is a vulgar, gory, zombie chicken B-movie (with musical numbers) to beat all past zombie chicken movies to date. If you don't know Troma films, think South Park but live-action.
The New York Times says it best in their review:
Within the context of its genre - the satirical sexploitation zombie chicken gross-out musical extravaganza - it is just about as perfect as a film predicated on the joys of projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea can be... Poultrygeist plays like a grindhouse analogue to the sloppy, psychosexual provocations of the performance artist Paul McCarthy and is, in its lowbrow way, every bit as liberating.
After the jump: NSFW, awful, gross, sickening trailers. Not for the faint of heart, the squeamish, your kids, or your mom. You've been warned. NSFW!
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, May 11, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Chicken fights usually involve a swimming pool, two teams, sitting on shoulders and slipping. Pretty harmless. But what happens when an actual chicken gets hold of a razor-sharp knife and wants to start something? All those times we stuffed him (and his kind), basted them, sizzled them, drowned them in herbal marinades. Nightmarish poultry revenge! [Via SwissMiss]
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, May 5, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Cinco de Mayo is a day of national pride for Mexicans around the world, commemorating Mexico’s victory over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. We join in the celebration with our favorite Mexican food and drink.
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 1, 2008 at 8:30 AM
As the blog Midtown Lunch pointed out, one difference between Chick and Mick is bag vs. box.
McDonald's Southern Style Chicken Sandwich hit New York City recently, and since it's designed to compete with the Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich, right down to the two—and only two—sliced pickles, we thought we'd grab both and do a head-to-head comparison. The results, after the jump.
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Posted by Michael Nagrant, April 24, 2008 at 3:30 PM
"Each of the 46 flavors spanning the international scene, from Jamaica (Fire Jerk, Rum BBQ) to Italy (Parmesan, Tomato Basil Pesto), is a study in balance and contrast."
Chicago's Wings Around the World is like the Baskin Robbins of Chicken Wings. When they opened in January of 2007, they had 34 flavors of wings. A year and a half later, another twelve have been added to honor their motto, “Flavors to Infinity”. Abeng Stuart founded the spot and concocted the sauces with his mother Lorna Greene and his manager Andre Palmer.
What’s crazy is that this isn’t some spot where they throw chicken in the deep fryer and haphazardly toss the half soggy/half crunchy overcrowded fried chicken with a drippy Franks Red Hot Sauce and margarine glaze. Each of the 46 flavors spanning the international scene, from Jamaica (Fire Jerk, Rum BBQ) to Italy (Parmesan, Tomato Basil Pesto), is a study in balance and contrast. The selection is a thoughtful cornucopia of glazes and seasonings spiked with the right amount of heat, sour, and sweet. The chicken itself is uniformly crunchy if deep fried, or soft, pliant, and smoky if you get the wings grilled. Of course, on this stretch of 35th street lined with a Churches, Popeyes, KFC, and a local JJ Fish and Chicken chain, you gotta bring the goods if you want to survive more than a year.
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Posted by Wan Yan Ling, March 17, 2008 at 9:30 AM
The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read her past market missions here.
I was going to headline this “Asia’s Red Bull,” but my colleague—who was listening as I mused aloud—chirped, “Red Bull is Asian, silly... I have the T-shirt with the funky lettering!”
I wasn’t about to argue with someone who has a “been there, done that” T-shirt, and granted, that sugary carbonated drink with two charging bulls on the can was a Thai concoction. But the version most of us are familiar with was made-over for “European tastes”—the original being way sweeter (if that’s even possible) and nonfizzy—by an Austrian entrepreneur employed at a toothpaste factory. I guess that’s why he cut down on the sugar.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, March 3, 2008 at 2:45 PM
Street preacher Michael Sucec and his wife Sheri of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, were so offended by a billboard advertising Sheetz's new Crispy Frickin' Chicken sandwich that they complained to Sheetz and contacted the advertising firm to have the billboard taken down. Sucec describes the word "frickin'" as a "euphemism for fornication," devoid of any humor when paired with "chicken" as a rhyme and intensifier.
I can't say that "Crispy 'Euphemism for Fornication' Chicken" entered my head when I first read the billboard, but maybe my mind is too corrupt to notice. [via So Good]
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 5, 2008 at 1:10 PM
The Col-Pop: emerging technology from South Korean fried chicken chain BBQ Chicken. Popcorn chicken rides up top; cola chills out below.
Proving yet again that South Korea is light years ahead of everyone else in fast-food technology is The Col-Pop. The nation that brought the world the spiral-cut potato on a stick and hot-dog-stuffed pizza ushers in a new era of snack portability with this mashup of drink cup and food container that holds popcorn chicken up top and a cold drink in the bottom.
The Col-Pop is the brainchild of BBQ Chicken, a South Korea–based fried chicken chain that has recently set its sights on worldwide chicken domination (though at this time, it only has locations in New York, New Jersey, and North Carolina). From the looks of this container, on-the-go America will certainly eat it up. It's perfect for handy snacking while walking, driving, talking on the phone, or—as we discovered the other day—blogging.
And the genius doesn't stop at popcorn chicken. In South Korea, sister company BHC Chicken also offers spaghetti, french fries, and fried mozzarella balls in Col-Pop containers. The Col-Pops we inspected come in two sizes: small (20 ounce cup) and large (32 ounce).
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Posted by Adam Kuban, January 2, 2008 at 1:00 PM
When it comes to tiny sandwiches, my devotion is huge. I love tea sandwiches in all forms. I'm totally in favor of the slider trend that's been rolling across the country the last couple of years. Heck, I even started a burger blog pretty much as an excuse to talk about White Castle and its awesome sliders.
So when I saw the Chick-n-Minis at Chick-Fil-A while visiting my parents last week in suburban Kansas City, I was all over them.
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Posted by Zach Brooks, December 19, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Photograph from c(h)ristine on Flickr
With the New Year approaching, there is the possibility of the chance that maybe I would perhaps consider having an inkling to make a resolution to eat better. With that (50/50 at best) chance of "improving" my diet looming, it's time to stuff my face with not so healthy things, just in case I decide to abstain after January 1st.
In my book of guilty pleasures, the number one at the top of the list, has got to be fried chicken—and what better way to enjoy it then in sandwich form, served out of a bakery in Oakland, by a former cook from the birthplace of California cuisine.
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With a name like Congealed Chicken Salad, your meal is just bound to be a winner!
Posted by Michael Nagrant, October 11, 2007 at 2:45 PM
Whether I’m pursuing goat eyeball tacos or iconoclastic farmers, my brain, nose, and palate are trained to dig out the obscure or novel. It seems I’m always on the hunt for the story about a former Wiccan high priestess CIA agent who chucked it all and became a sushi chef. What’s been there everyday just seems to fade into the background.
For example, because most of my family still resides in southeastern Michigan, I’ve been driving the stretch of I-94 between Chicago and Detroit almost every month for more than seven years. With its ubiquitous orange construction barrels, or, as we call them, Michigan flowers, and because of lobbying of Hoffaesque union folk for continued work, some part of I-94 has been under construction since my birth, which often makes it quite the haul. You’d think, as I hurtle on this five-hour trek on a regular basis, I’d be an expert on the food along this trail.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, August 20, 2007 at 5:15 PM
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Posted by Ed Levine, August 9, 2007 at 9:13 AM
When you love fried chicken as much as I do you get really bugged when Bon Appétit announces its three finalists in its search for the best fried chicken in the U.S. and Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken is not on the list.
Not that the other three contenders, Blackberry Farm (Walland, Tennessee), Price's Chicken Coop (Charlotte, North Carolina), and Willa Mae's Scotch House (New Orleans) are not worthy of serious consideration.
I have written lovingly of Willa Mae Seaton's wondrous fried chicken in GQ and Business Week. (Those stories don't appear to be online or else I'd link to them.) My friend John T. Edge, whom I trust implicitly in these matters (he did write the book on fried chicken), speaks very highly of the other two chickens, though I'm sure he would agree that including an extremely fancy-pants place like Blackberry Farm on a list of fried chicken joints is a questionable decision. But pondering a cosmically important question like who makes and sells the best fried chicken in America and not including Gus's is like arguing about who the best heavyweight champion of all time is and not including Muhammed Ali in the discussions.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 3, 2007 at 3:00 PM
Photograph from digitalprimate on Flickr
Beer-Can Chicken has probably been around ever since folks started sitting around campfires or grills drinking beer, so Elizabeth Karmel wisely takes absolutely no credit for its invention. But she's also smart enough to recognize a winning recipe when she sees one. She has two versions in her book Taming the Flame, but I prefer the one with the simple salt-and-pepper spice mix. You won't believe how moist and flavorful the chicken meat gets using this method.
Karmel also gives a recipe for beer-can turkey in her book, which you can win here.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 11, 2007 at 1:24 PM
It's sort of a blogging triple play, but what the hell. Serious Eats friend Ganda Suthivarakom linked on Eat, Drink, One Woman, to another blog Jozzard, which had a not very appetizing photo of what sounds like an incredibly delicious dish they both had at Amazing 66, a newish Chinese restaurant in New York: "it was essentially a hollowed-out chicken, deep fried, then stuffed with rice and sausage. So there was no actual chicken in the chicken." That last sentence could have been a Yogi Berra-ism, but this chickenless chicken sure sounds good.
Amazing 66
Address: 66 Mott Street, New York NY 10013
Phone: 212-334-0099
Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 18, 2007 at 2:36 PM
Jonathan Levitt of the Boston Globe interviews food writer Tony Rosenfeld on his new book, 150 Things to Make with Roast Chicken and 50 Ways to Roast It:
According to Rosenfeld, not many consumers roast whole birds, which account for about 8 percent of chicken sales. "Most people are buying their chicken pre-marinated and pre-cooked," he says. "Old-fashioned cooking has been marginalized. I wonder if the day will come when you can't go into the market and buy a whole chicken at all." To encourage more people to begin with a whole bird, the first part of the book focuses on how to roast a chicken, the second on what to do with the cooked meat. Rosenfeld says, "You've had dinner, but you still have a bird and a half staring at you -- so now what?"
Rosenfeld is the son of Globe contributing food writer and stylist Julie Riven, so clearly culinary curiosity runs in the family. Levitt says he's still enthusiastic about roasting chicken, even after preparing about a thousand or so birds in the last few years while researching his book! Rosenfeld shares his recipe for roast chicken with shallots and fingerlings, so make sure you have a proper roaster for the job.
Posted by Adam Roberts, March 20, 2007 at 7:00 AM
Photograph by Adam Roberts
“This is a really big step: you should be really proud.”
I’m talking to Molly Stevens, author of my new favorite cookbook—All About Braising—and she’s patting me on the back for something I haven’t done yet.
“When you don’t use recipes anymore, when you call on your own techniques, that’s when you can call yourself a chef,” she says. “Coming up with your own recipe is a big moment in your development.”
What Molly doesn’t know and what the voices in my head keep reminding me is that this big step I’m about to take is one I’m not ready for. Like some kid who likes to dive in the family pool and then enters the Olympics, I am in over my head.
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Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 27, 2007 at 1:42 PM
Thomas Keller's recipe for My Favorite Simple Roast Chicken from his cookbook Bouchon is up on Epicurious, and boy is it simple—six ingredients total including the chicken, and the thyme is optional. The writing is great too: "Cut the breast down the middle and serve it on the bone, with one wing joint still attached to each. The preparation is not meant to be superelegant. Slather the meat with fresh butter. Serve with mustard on the side and, if you wish, a simple green salad. You'll start using a knife and fork, but finish with your fingers, because it's so good." 183 user reviews on Epicurious, and 94% of them would make it again.
[via Drive-Thru]
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 16, 2007 at 2:52 AM
Chinese food expert and cookbook author Fuchsia Dunlop was at Williams-Sonoma in New York City earlier this week to promote her new book Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province
. Serious Eats tagged along with her to bring you this video, in which she prepares a Taiwanese version of General Tso's chicken.
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