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]
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.
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.
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]
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).
With a name like Congealed Chicken Salad, your meal is just bound to be a winner!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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]
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