Biggins' the Chicken

Last night, my bf showed me how to cut up a chicken. We started by removing the wishbone, slicing down the sides of the sternum and then we popped the joints of the legs and sliced them off. It was more a watch and learn experience for me, but I got some hands on time slicing through the joints and feeling out the wishbone. (Click here for a Chow.com video demonstrating the process).

We bought our chicken from whole foods for $1.99 / lb. and we got about a 4-5 lb chicken that ended up costing about $8.88. The chicken appeared very large to me so I named him Biggins' (which co-incedentally is the name of the nudie magazine that Al Bundy reads in Married with Children).

Once Biggins' was chopped up, he(she?) was marinated in olive oil, paprika, cumin, honey, soy, red wine vinegar and garlic.



Biggins' journey continued into a cast iron skillet where he was braised with crushed tomatoes, parsnips, yams, mushrooms, and red wine with the help of some bacon grease for browning. My boyfriend did most of the cooking and I watched in wonder. Biggins braised for close to an hour, and then was served with shaved horse-radish on top. Wow!



I'm eating the chicken as leftovers tonight. That's 4 filling delicious meals for around $20.00 give or take. I can see how meals can get cheaper when you're know what you're doing. The meat that was cut apart at the butcher cost about 3-4 times as much per pound. It always seems like you pay more in time or money.

Blue Foot Chicken Feet

Last night I ate a blue foot chicken foot at Ottimista restaurant. The foot was confit-ed and finished off in the deep fryer.

This is what the foot looks like before being prepared. Kind of like a little dragon claw, huh? Or maybe the sort of thing you would grind up to make a magic potion.



The blue foot chicken is a larger type of chicken that has the ability to fly and possesses beautiful bright blue feet. See below. Click on the image to see the enlarged version and get a good view of those bright blue feet.



Blue foot chicken according to Wikipedia "is slaughtered later than the usual chicken and then air-chilled. It is believed that these two factors give it a stronger flavor and texture." Also, blue foot chicken is said to be salmonella free and it is one of the only breeds to be used in sushi (a special license is required to serve raw chicken in Japan).

The chicken foot I ate last night was the the final embellishment on half of a cooked blue foot chicken. Sadly my camera ran out of batteries and I had to resort to my cell phone camera, so my image of the dish is rather dim, but you can totally see those claws hanging out on top of the food!

I gnawed off as much skin as possible, and the toes had a similar texture to the end of a corn dog.



I found a New York magazine article from 2005 about blue foot chicken that discuessed the blue foot chicken's emergence as a boutique bird. Blue foot chickens have only been bred in North America over the last 20 years or so. They are a stateside version of the mythical French "poulet de Bresse." Restaurants often serve the bird with head and feet on, presenting it like a trophy. The one that I ate was juicy and supple and delicious, definitely the best chicken I've had in a really long time.