As Food Safety Week kicks off next week, we asked some of our favourite food bloggers to nominate their all-time best chicken dishes in UK restaurants.
Why chicken? Well, three quarters of us eat chicken three times a week, and this year’s Food Safety Week is encouraging us to sign up to the Chicken Challenge, to improve hygiene standards in poultry preparation. Promoting best practice is key. Each of the restaurants recommended by our bloggers has a Food Standards Agency hygiene rating of three or above – just like 91% of restaurants in the UK.
Look out next Wednesday for our list of the best places for a roast chicken lunch.
Sign up to the Chicken Challenge here
Simon Binns (above), Eat Drink Manchester
Nominated restaurant: The Oast House, Spinningfields, Manchester
Nominated dish: Rotisserie half roast chicken
Why? Honest, simple and hearty. Charred, blackened skin gives way to juicy, yielding meat. Served in a wooden box, with chips. All for under a tenner.
Rosie Parkes (above), The London Whistler
Nominated restaurant: Clutch, Haggerston, London (above)
Nominated dish: 'put a wing on it' (12 wings)
Why? It is everything you want in food and in a restaurant. The free-range, rare-breed chicken is so succulent, the sides complement it perfectly, the staff are bubbly, the music is upbeat and you leave feeling great about life and London.
Jennifer Corcoran (above)
Nominated restaurant: Tramshed, Shoreditch, London (above)
Nominated dish: Half a chicken and chips for one
Why? I’m a fan of simple food and this dish takes me back to childhood. I adore the restaurant’s funky setting: a former tram shed. It’s great for parties, there’s a wonderful relaxed vibe, and Damien Hirst’s sculpture of a cow and a cock suspended mid-air is amazing. Dish presentation is innovative and humorous too, but most importantly the chicken is cooked to perfection. In essence it’s a modern twist on the chicken in a basket that I loved when growing up.
Andrea Petersen (above), Andrea’s Passions
Nominated restaurant: Sticks’n’Sushi, Covent Garden, London
Nominated dish: Chicken meatballs (yakitori)
Why? Because they are unique. Unlike traditional meatballs, these are deliciously moist, light and full of flavour. The Asian herbs and spices really bring the subtle, smoky tang of the ground chicken breast to life. The sweet teriyaki sauce adds amazing texture, as the outer surface of the meatballs get a sweet, charred, glazed edge. Conventional Italian meatballs will never do it for me again after sampling these beauts.
Adam Clarke (above), LDN Life
Nominated restaurant: Nay Thai, Surbiton
Nominated dish: Gaeng see ruedu (four seasons curry)
Why? Chicken plays an important part in this red curry by not being the main attraction; grape, pineapple, lychee and tomato take centre stage. Sure, you could have pork, beef or duck, but none suits the dish better than chicken, as the freshness of these tropical flavours comes through with every bite. Chicken knows its place and complements the other elements superbly well.
This article was published 15 May 2015