Poulet, Please
I've eaten chicken here and I've eaten chicken in France, and chicken in France is far better. Here's a WSJ letter to the editor about a Matt Ridley story on the rise of fast-growing, cheap chicken in the USA:
As I read the essay about the efficiency of producing chickens, I recalled what Julia Child wrote some years ago in her delightful book "My Life in France": "The American poultry industry had made it possible to grow a fine-looking fryer in record time and sell it at a reasonable price, but no one mentioned that the result usually tasted like the stuffing inside of a teddy bear."In my humble opinion, she was completely correct.
Martin Rosenthal, Phoenix
The worst chicken I've eaten in the US is from Whole Foods. Perhaps serving the fat-anoia of their customers, their chickens seem to have been on some sort of low-fat diet and taste like Ikea furniture.
The best chicken I've eaten is from Costco -- $4.99 for a big, juicy, fatty bird. Once, when Gregg couldn't find parking in my neighborhood after we'd gone to Costco together, I told him to wait -- to keep driving around the block -- and I'd make it worth his while.
No, pervos, I didn't do anything children shouldn't be exposed to in the car; I put a leg and breast in a Ziploc bag and brought it out to him. He called me later and understood why, saying, "That's the best chicken I've ever had." Or something like that.
I'm a Sam's club member, and they too make a damn good chicken (for $4-6).
However, the best chicken is down the street at a place called Brown's Meat Market. It's a ratty, dingy place, but that rotisserie chicken is huge for that four dollars. And it's normally very, very juicy.
I hate lean chicken. The fatter, the better. I'm hoping for duck this hunting season from a friend...
Cat at November 1, 2011 12:51 AM
+10 on the Costco rotisserie chicken! Compared to what's sold in supermarkets, the Costco bird is bigger, cheaper and better tasting. It is so loaded with win that the Co of Cost could open stand alone chicken stands.
BlogDog at November 1, 2011 5:18 AM
Stuffing is my favorite food that's prepared in a bird's ass.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at November 1, 2011 5:39 AM
Costco rules! It isn't just the chicken; their beef and pork get great marks as well. Whole foods sells chicken at twice the price and no taste at all. Whole Foods appeals to those with more money than brains.
BarSinister at November 1, 2011 6:33 AM
Costco gets their chickens that they rotisserie shipped to them in a seasoned brine. I have come awfully close to reproducing the flavor, but I lack the monster gas-fired rotisserie. My Ronco Showtime Rotisserie is not quite the same thing. I get a Costco chicken almost every time I shop there, which is weekly. Good stuff. And no clean up. Yay to no roasting pan to wash.
LauraGr at November 1, 2011 7:38 AM
I raise my own chickens, I throw out all the tablescraps which they eat most of, the thousand of bugs that come it for the scraps also get eaten,
worst part of it is I have to drain the blood and pluck them myself
The eggs though, delicious, and the shells are so though that on the few occasions Ive dropped one that even after a four foot drop onto rocks the inner mebrane of the shell isnt peirced
lujlp at November 1, 2011 8:47 AM
I have laying hens. Sort of. I HAD laying hens that some predator ripped through their fence and killed. I currently have half-grown pullets that will start laying in about 4 more months. Fresh eggs are amazing. Any my girls live in a yard constructed to hold in (or out) a mess of hungry coyotes, raccoons, owls, stray dogs or any hungry critter up to bear size. I have no interest in killing/plucking chickens. I get mine from the store and wrapped in plastic.
LauraGr at November 1, 2011 8:56 AM
I'm confused... If you start with the same set of untreated chickens, don't you think costco and whole paycheck would taste the same? Isn't it what costco pumps them with that tastes good? In France do they have those selective breeding monstrosities, or are the more likely yard chickens?
Really good chicken is very relative to how it's cooked like anything, so what're we really railing against?
SwissArmyD at November 1, 2011 9:51 AM
Er...the chicken and meat at Whole Foods isn't bred to be low fat. It's bred to use humane farming methods and natural feed. Chickens raised that way don't have the enormous fat breasts you find on a Butterball. The one from Costco was almost certainly injected with a lot of chemicals. A free range chicken is probably a lot closer to any bird our caveman ancestors used to eat.
Am eating leftover coq au vin made from chicken from Whole Foods at this moment. And it's quite moist and delicious.
"Low fat" is not at all what Whole Foods is about. Indeed, I pick up a lot of decidedly not low fat things there like salt pork for the coq au vin. Whole Foods, to the extent it's about anything, is about not injecting things with chemicals. And FYI, you can buy some conventionally grown/raised vegetables and meat there.
Gail at November 1, 2011 11:39 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/11/01/poulet_please.html#comment-2729924">comment from GailThe chicken in France isn't all injecto, as far as I know. The chicken from Whole Foods has very little fat on it. Bleh.
Amy Alkon at November 1, 2011 11:54 AM
This brought back a nice memory. On my second visit to Paris, in 1994, my girlfriend and I stayed in the 7th. After the ride in from CDG and a short rest at our hotel, we strolled down nearby Rue Cler to get a bite to eat. We had planned on going to a restaurant or cafe but when we saw these delicious-looking chickens with the "poulet roti" sign next to them, we got one of them to go, and then picked up a baguette, wine and cheese from other stores and walked over to the Champ de Mars where we had a great picnic.
Jim at November 1, 2011 12:36 PM
"The worst chicken I've eaten in the US is from Whole Foods"
Yes! I've really been into Whole Foods lately.
Yesterday I got a chicken breast and rice for lunch. It was honestly the driest chicken I've ever eaten. Combined with badly cooked rice. Ugh.
Purplepen at November 1, 2011 12:48 PM
I am another person who agrees that the meat from Costco tastes better in general than meat from other stores. Their pork chops are the best.
DebbieF at November 1, 2011 12:49 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/11/01/poulet_please.html#comment-2730284">comment from DebbieFRemember Frank Perdue?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5jNoChX_3k&feature=related
Amy Alkon at November 1, 2011 1:30 PM
"The one from Costco was almost certainly injected with a lot of chemicals."
Aww, crap. Not this again.
A friend at work runs a chicken house here in SC. He has 30 thousand at a minimum. Want to explain that injection process?
By the way, I can show you a gas station in Williston, SC that makes ridiculously good bird. There is generally an enormous black woman back of the counter. When I asked her what she did to make this so good, she was happy to say, "I put my feet in there."
Yahoo!
Sometimes there's a better reason for somebody to be huge. Some of these cooks can make it tough to push back from their table.
Radwaste at November 1, 2011 5:09 PM
(lost tweet)
shelby fero
Stuffing is my favorite food you cook in a bird's ass.
6 Mar
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at November 1, 2011 8:55 PM
Wait, there are more kinds of food you can cook in a birds ass aside from stuffing?
lujlp at November 1, 2011 10:03 PM
The whole foods chicken is probably raised on a all natural diet and free range. The Costco one is probably pumped up with whatever. I would guess the Whole foods who be more similar to how the french chicken is raised though I could be wrong.
I had some of the best chicken the other day. It was at a BBQ hole-in-the-wall and I got the smoked chicken with the BBQ sauce on the side. Didn't even bother with the sauce.
The Former Banker at November 1, 2011 10:12 PM
"The Costco one is probably pumped up with whatever."
Yeah?
What?
Radwaste at November 2, 2011 2:35 AM
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