I feel like chicken tonight... how the humble bird is ruling the roost in London

The latest food trend at the hottest joints in town is gourmet chicken. And it’s fingerlickin’ good, says Victoria Stewart
Spring Chicken at Tramshed © Matt Writtle
© Matt Writtle
1 August 2012

Four legs are pointing upwards, toes clenched. The first pair is bound together on the table in front of me; the second is in front of a brace of businessmen seated beside us.

This duo are here for the chicken, of course. Well, they’ll claim it’s an early business lunch, but really they’re here for the chicken — carving through tender meat, ripping off skin and later chomping down on breast, legs and even claws is all part of the experience at Tramshed.

Mark Hix is part of a brood of chefs clucking along to the capital’s latest food fad. In southern America, it mostly comes fried. Now, in many London postcodes, not only is chicken being fried in oil and served crunchy but also gently roasted, covered in chilli, steamed and served with a carbohydrate to soak up the juices.

Since Londoners have become accustomed to living under a constant, soggy storm cloud, a piece of chicken — fried or otherwise — is just the sort of comfort food we look forward to having second helpings of. Hix’s new restaurant, Tramshed, sells variations of just two things — steak and chicken — and while plenty come for the former, that hasn’t stopped the kitchen cooking 600 birds in a week.

There, the fowls are delivered from Woolley Park Farm in Wiltshire to sit in a chicken cooler after which they are part roasted, part steamed, grilled, then placed on the table “arse over tip” — as described by the Standard’s David Sexton — spindly legs tied together and paraded on a special stick, a soft herby stuffing between the legs. The alternative is chicken breast or thigh meat served with green salad and an incredible bread sauce ball that oozes when pierced.

“Every week is different. Yesterday, for example, we sold 120 chickens … but people like the flavour and the moisture because we cook them to order. As soon as they’re cooked in the oven, they’re finished on the grill and taken out to the table,” says head chef Darren Lock. “When we’re busy, you’ve got four or five flying across the room, which looks rather good.”

Among those who think this particular piece of poultry is worth picking at is Jackson Boxer of Vauxhall’s much admired Brunswick House Café who, last Friday, launched Rita’s Bar and Dining in Dalston. The menu — still unfinished — includes BBQ rabbit bun and duck heart baked beans. But, according to the Standard’s restaurant critic Fay Maschler, “it was chicken that put the squawk in the project”.

Boxer’s bird will arrive in a roll for £6.50. Later in the year, during October’s London Restaurant Festival, Bincho Tapas in Exmouth Market plans to sell a £6 tasting plate with chicken skin, mint chicken with Japanese vegetables and marinated deep fried chicken with ponzu. And as Nick Jones, CEO of Soho House UK, is drawing up final plans to his newest offering — a fried chicken joint called Chicken Shop, in Kentish Town — so too is William Leigh in Brixton.

“The plan was originally to make great guilt-free (free-range) fried chicken — to give people the stuff they loved, wings, chicken burgers, drumsticks and thighs — just done as well as I could do them,” Leigh comments. “The menu has taken shape with research, eating plenty of fried chicken all over the place and a load of evenings and weekends spent in a kitchen. I’ve been a fried chicken nut for ever and wanted somewhere I’d like to eat it.”

The result will be Wishbone, a 40-seater place in Brixton’s Market Row opening in early September. The idea was thought up by Leigh — currently the taste specialist at Green & Blacks — and brought to life by Scott Collins, the man who co-owns the very hyped burger restaurants MEAT Liquor and Market and knows a thing or two about the zeitgeist.

At a recent preview, Thai Thighs were easily the most popular but Leigh — in keeping with all MEAT restaurants — wants to keep the supplier a secret. “[These] are deep-fried nuggets of thigh tossed with a hot, sweet and sour dressing, fresh chillies, shallots and whole mint leaves. It was the last dish I developed and one of my favourites.”

Fried chicken is also rolling into the markets. Roost food truck sells wings on wheels at Street Feast in Dalston while from a menu including poutine, rotisserie, pork, beef and “hot hot sauce”, buttermilk fried chicken is the most popular order at Spit and Roast, another street food van currently at Greenwich Summer Festival.

“We were originally just doing rotisserie chicken but we wanted something different. It’s a simple thing — it marinates overnight in buttermilk, which tenderises it. We serve it crunchy with a cornbread muffin and a herby sauce,” says chef Justin Unsworth.

Seeing all of this, Leigh isn’t surprised. “Chicken, I think, was due a renaissance. It’s been popular for ages but only at 11.30pm after the pub on a Friday night when, more often than not, you end up with a disappointing meal — greasy chicken, soggy fries. I wanted something better. For me, in the UK, we’ve fallen in love with Americana, diner culture and southern food in particular. Fried chicken was, perhaps, inevitable.”

And there you have it. So who feels like chicken tonight?

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