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Health & Fitness

Best Chicken Ever at Studio City Farmers Market

Think you know chicken? Think again!

“Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral,” Frank Lloyd Wright

I am so thankful that John de Bruin of Best Beef Ever decided to build a chicken house instead of a cathedral. If you have never had the pleasure of cooking and eating one of John's pasture-fed, certified organically raised chickens then you have been missing out on one of life's true culinary experiences.

In truth, John’s chicken houses, a.k.a. coops, are more like chicken cruise ships than coops. Each coop is built on a platform that can be moved easily from pasture to pasture. Every day the coops cruise to a new spot in the pasture, allowing the chickens a new port of call and a fresh buffet of clean grass and bugs on which to feast. This constant relocation is not only beneficial to the chickens (apparently the grass is naturally cleansing, kind of like wheat grass is to humans), the pasture benefits as well from the natural fertilizer (a.k.a. droppings) left behind by the chickens.

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As if luxury cruising weren't enough, these chickens also dine on the finest food money can buy. Yes, you guessed correctly, organic chicken feed. Not wanting the chickens to get bored with the same old grass and bugs, John also offers his chickens high quality certified organic feed to supplement their diet. This relaxed environment and pampering means that John's chickens come to market healthy and fresh and, as a result, they contain more nutrients and flavor than other chicken.

Now, imagine that it is Sunday. You are standing in front of the Dey Dey’s Best Chicken and Beef booth. You are approached by a cheerful woman, Sharon, who works the booth every Sunday, and you ask to see one of her chickens. Sharon brings out a beautiful three and a half pound bird. When you first set eyes on the bird you notice that it is a slightly different color than the chickens you are used to seeing. The bird's skin has an orangish hue to it, think pale marigold, and the flesh a pink hue. You think, “Oh my gosh, I’ve been lied to. This chicken can’t be real!” Well you would be wrong. In fact the exact opposite is true. What you are looking at is what a chicken really looks like when it has not be treated with dyes or fed coloring agents. The vibrant looking skin and succulent pink flesh is a direct result of the bird’s diet – insects, grass, and pasture flowers. And, because the coloring is not artificial, the meat retains its pink hue, even after cooking. Therefore, John suggests that when cooking his chicken you rely on a meat thermometer to tell when it is sufficiently cooked. The old adage that if the meat is pink it is not cooked does not apply to his birds.

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The beautiful color and flavor is only part of what makes John's chicken a much better choice than other chickens. First the breed. John raises a breed known as Cornish Cross, a voluptuous breed prized for its large breast to thigh/leg meat ratio. In many breeds the bulk of the meat is found on the legs and thighs, with the breast meat being a smaller proportion of the meat. Cornish Cross chickens have more breast meat in relation to the meat found on the leg and thigh, making them a better value if you are partial to breast meat.

Next, processing and storage. Unlike most chicken producers, John goes to the trouble, to air chill his chickens, meaning that you get exactly what you pay for, chicken, nothing but chicken. You may not know this, but the most common method for bringing chicken meat down to an appropriately safe temperature for storing is water chilling. When chicken is water chilled, the meat absorbs some of the water and this water affects the flavor and texture of the meat. In addition, the water adds weight to the meat, which means the consumer is buying water along with his or her chicken and is paying for weight that will be lost when the chicken is cooked – literally money going up in smoke. Because there is nothing for the meat to absorb during the air chilling process, when cooked, an air chilled chicken retains most of it original weight and the meat has a finer texture and more robust flavor. This makes John’s chickens a good deal, in spite of the slightly higher than average price. I call this bang for my buck kinda' chicken.

Now that you have purchased, what, I will say it again, will be the best chicken you have ever eaten, it’s time to cook your bird. My personal favorite recipe is one from the April 2006 issue of Bon Apetit magazine for Mustard-Roasted Chicken with Warm Frisée Salad and Fingerlings and Bacon (here are the links  - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mustard-Roasted-Chicken-with-Warm-Frisee-Salad-and-Fingerlings-and-Bacon-234428; http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Warm-Frisee-Salad-with-Fingerlings-and-Bacon-234418).

Off to finish shopping. Here is the grocery list. Start at Gama Farms where you can pick up a few heads of garlic. Next, head down to Zuckerman’s Farms where Juan will supply you with those darling fingerling potatoes that are almost too cute to eat. Then off to either Living Lettuce Farms or Scarborough Farms for the frisée, parsley, thyme, rosemary and sage, and Uncle Berch or The Olive Press for extra virgin olive oil. Stop and visit Jose at Fisherman’s Catch and pick up some sole for tonight’s dinner and hit Dave’s Korean Barbecue for a salad to go with it. And, finally, down to Givens Organics for the dandelion greens. (I have to make a confession here, I do not like dandelion greens so I do not use them in the recipe. I know they are really good for you, and have a pleasant bitterness to them that really works with the sherry vinegar and mustard in this recipe, but I just do not like the texture. I have only recently learned to love raw kale, so perhaps dandelion greens are in my future, just not yet. Now, back to the grocery list.)

Next, walk to the stoplight, and if you are feeling brave, when the signal allows, cross Ventura Boulevard and make your way over to Trader Joe’s for the bacon (I like the bacon ends and pieces package that they have for this recipe), Dijon mustard, and bottle(s) of Sauvignon Blanc (my favorite wine with both the sole and the chicken). As for the sherry vinegar, Gelson’s is your best bet. They have several brands, and my favorite one is La Posada de Vinagre de Jerez, and costs more than the others, but is totally worth it.

Now exhausted, go home, put the wine and the salad in the refrigerator to chill, put the bird in the marinade, pop it into the refrigerator, cook the sole that you bought from Jose (it takes about three minutes to cook, no joke – melt about 1tablespoon of butter or olive oil in a sauté pan on medium heat, throw the sole in and after about a minute and an half gently flip it. After another minute and a half or so, turn off the heat, squeeze half a lemon over the fish, a little salt and pepper and dinner is served), pour a nice crisp glass of Sauvignon Blanc and sit back and enjoy your dinner and dream about the best chicken you will ever eat. 

For more information on the health and other benefits of grass and pasture feeding go to www.eatwild.com., or read Jo Robinson's book Pasture Perfect, which is available for sale on the web-site.

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