SA’s top restaurant chicken dishes show poultry isn’t predictable
THE favourite meat in Australian home kitchens can easily be ignored on a restaurant menu. Simon Wilkinson sets out to right the balance with this selection of top chicken dishes.
delicious SA
Don't miss out on the headlines from delicious SA. Followed categories will be added to My News.
It’s the great chicken contradiction, a poultry paradox. On one hand, chicken has become the go-to choice of the home cook, a meat that has streaked past beef and lamb to be the country’s biggest seller, a rise fuelled by its comparatively low price.
Whether it is breast, thigh or even a rotisserie chicken picked up at the last minute, chicken is a key part of the midweek dinner repertoire for most families, a trend confirmed by its dominance of recipe searches on taste.com.au.
Head out to a restaurant, however, and it’s a different story. A mix of factors can work against the chook. For adventurous diners, it might seem too familiar and safe. For those accustomed to paying a relatively low cost, the time and resources put into raising a proper free-range bird can make it seem expensive. And, until someone has tried a top-quality chook, they might wonder what all the fuss is about.
Africola’s Duncan Welgemoed, for one, blames the chefs. “The idea that chicken is boring comes more from the chef than the customer,” he says. “And a lot of chefs don’t know how to cook chicken either.
“It is daunting for them to make it better than the home cook. It is very easy to get pigeon or duck on the menu because people don’t cook that at home.”
Andy Davies at Press Food & Wine wants more diners to understand that chicken can justify the same price tag as other main meals.
“People maybe think they should be getting more for their money but a good piece of chicken costs more than a good steak sometimes,” he says.
So, in the interest of putting poultry back in its proper place, here are some of SA’s best chicken dinners.
SHOBOSHO
Korean BBQ charcoal chicken, steamed rice, lettuces & herbs (1/4 Bird $26, 1/2 Bird $38)
The chickens spin slowly above a pit of glowing charcoal, their clawed feet reaching out as drips of fat cause the fire below to crackle and smoke … The rotisserie is one of the main attractions of Shobosho’s kitchen theatre, best viewed from a seat at the bench.
Here you can order the chook that, in its latest version, is coated in a Korean barbecue marinade based on gochujang, plum syrup, soy, yuzu and rice wine.
The same combination is reduced and used as a sauce for the chicken, which is served with steamed rice, herbs and lettuces to use as a wrap in the style of a Korean ssam.
Chef Adam Liston says that the chicken sells well at Shobosho.
“People can see the chicken cooking on the fire,” he says. “It doesn’t seem like a cheap option and, when it’s a bit of theatre like this, people are drawn to it.”
The story of how the birds are raised, by Tom Bradman at Nomad Farms, also helps.
“We’ve been out to his farm and it was hands down the best meeting with a supplier I’ve had,” Adam says.
17 Leigh St, city, 8366 2224, shobosho.com.au
AFRICOLA
Peri-peri chicken, boom! chakalaka ($24)
When Duncan Welgemoed decided to revamp Africola and shift its inspiration from the barbecue culture of his upbringing to the spices of the northern Maghreb tribes, one dish was always going to survive.
As well as having a very personal connection to peri-peri chicken, Duncan reckons it continues to be the East End hotspot’s biggest seller.
“It’s the first and favourite restaurant dish I had growing up in Johannesburg,” he explains. “I’ve been eating it since I was a toddler. Dad had a number of restaurants and they always had peri-peri on.”
Duncan explains that the dish is also culturally significant in his old home town, where the large Portuguese community adopted and adapted a dish originally from Mozambique, and the Nando’s chain was born.
His recipe for Africola is based on the family heirloom, with a few twists of his own.
Chicken is soaked in brine and air-dried, before being cold smoked and then grilled while being basted with the peri-peri marinade. It is finished with peri-peri sauce, lemon juice and a side-serve of “boom! chakalaka”, a preparation of fermented and curried radicchio.
4 East Tce, city, 8223 3885, africola.com.au
MAXWELL RESTAURANT
Nomad chicken, pumpkin, pepitas
(from $60 for two courses)
This main event chicken dish at Maxwell Restaurant is an elegant presentation that uses only the breast, alongside a quartet of pumpkin variations.
However, chef Fabian Lehmann ensures that nothing is wasted, using other cuts for a chicken and pine mushroom croquette among the snacks and a chicken and chorizo terrine which is part of a platter at the adjacent cellar door. He even has plans to use the livers and hearts, which will be dehydrated.
“If you find a good producer like Tom Bradman, from Nomad Farms, as a chef I see it as a challenge to make sure I use the whole bird,” Fabian says. “It’s definitely a high quality meat.”
The breast for the main dish is first brined, then gently poached with butter, thyme, rosemary and garlic in a sous-vide bag, and finally fried in a hot pan to order.
It is served with four pumpkin elements — fondant roasted in chicken fat, pickled, a caramelised puree and dried chards — as well as toasted pepitas and a chicken skin crumb.
“It is one of the favourites in the new menu,” Fabian reports.
Tom Bradman will be one of the producers featuring in a series of “Chef’s Table” dinners at Maxwell.
Chalk Hill Rd, McLaren Vale, 8323 8200, maxwellwines.com.au
BISTRO BLACKWOOD
Australian jerk 1/2 chicken with roast sweet potato & hot slaw ($36)
A jerk seasoning is given a distinctive Australian accent for the chicken at Blackwood.
Chef Sam Christopher reveals the rub includes three myrtles (aniseed, cinnamon, lemon), as well as dorrigo and mountain peppers.
“It’s a Caribbean seasoning made with Australian ingredients,” Sam says.
“It is spicy, tangy and smoky.”
The marinated bird is roasted in two stages, initially at low temperature and then, after being carved and lacquered, in a hot oven to crisp and darken the skin.
Half a chicken is served with rice that is “seasoned” with the roasting juices and a hot savoy cabbage and fennel slaw.
285 Rundle St, city, 8227 0344, bistroblackwood.com.au
FINO AT SEPPELTSFIELD
Chicken, savoy cabbage, chicory, celeriac (from $48 for three plates)
Since the early days at Willunga, Fino has always had a chicken on its menu. Those dishes, however, have taken many forms.
That versatility is chicken’s great strength, says chef Sam Smith. “It never gets boring to cook with,” he says. “It is such a versatile protein, it can lend itself to so many techniques and cuisines. It can take on so many different flavours … robust and delicate.”
For winter, Sam is using the leg from a Greenslade free range bird, which is soaked for 12 hours in a salt and sugar brine. It is then taken off the bone and left to air dry for at least a day, before pan frying to order.
“That way we get really crisp skin,” Sam says. “The skin is such as amazing part of chicken.”
A velvety celeriac puree, chicory and savoy cabbage sprinkled with caraway and mustard seeds complete the dish.
Seppeltsfield Rd, Seppeltsfield, 8562 8528, fino.net.au
LAWASH BAKERY
Alfam — a chargrilled half chicken with salad and naan ($10)
“Charcoal chicken” is a term used loosely but the “Alfam” served at the fabulous Lawash Bakery has plenty of telltale scorching and smokiness to confirm that it is the real deal.
Half a bird with spice-rubbed skin is plonked on a plate along with chunky-style salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber), two sauces and a big disc of the naan bread that comes from the domed ovens in an adjacent room. It doesn’t get fresher than that.
At $10 “Alfam” is ridiculously cheap, and one of those bits of Adelaide intel we’re not sure should be shared too widely.
115 South Rd, Thebarton, 8354 0707
THE LION
Masterstock chicken, peanut caramel, sweet potato, shiitake ($46.90 for two)
The masterstock chicken at The Lion has developed a following, says chef Jay Chalmers. And little wonder when, after four stages of cooking, it has developed the sweet, sticky, meaty qualities that Jay compares with barbecued ribs.
“Everyone has the mentality of chicken just being chicken,” Jays says. “But if it sounds interesting, you can lure people in.”
Jay first prepares a masterstock flavoured with soy, orange peel, cinnamon, star anise, garlic, ginger, cardamom and, unusually, Adelaide Hills cider.
A chicken chop (thigh) and drumstick are vacuum sealed with the stock and marinated for two days, before being cooked sous-vide.
They are then dipped quickly in a deep fryer to crisp the skin, chargrilled for extra caramelisation and, finally, roasted in a hot oven with some of the stock, which reduces to a sticky glaze.
A two-person serve is then finished with peanut caramel sauce, peanut crumble, a burnt orange syrup, ponzu-soaked shiitake and plenty of coriander sprigs. A roast potato and green bean salad on the side helps balance the meal.
“Think of barbecued ribs,” Jay says when asked to describe the chicken. “It’s very sticky and the flavour is in your face.”
161 Melbourne St, North Adelaide, 8367 0222, thelionhotel.com
PRESS FOOD & WINE
Roasted Uraidla chicken, grilled gem lettuce, jus gras ($38)
Chef Andy Davies takes a simple approach and allows the inherent quality of the chooks he uses to shine in this dish at Press.
Slices of roasted breast and a drumstick are arranged around half a grilled gem lettuce, with sauteed onion and a lip-sticking jus gras. That’s it.
Andy is quick to credit Carey Schultz at Nature’s Chicken, who allows his flock to wander about in the pasture around the apple trees in an orchard at Forest Range.
“They are working birds that get out and about, foraging for their food and scratching around,” Andy says. “The result is a fuller bird, with meat and fat in the right places and good working muscles. They have fuller, darker thigh meat and, while the breast might be a little smaller, they are more supple.”
Andy says he is happy to pay a fair price for chicken when he is eating at a restaurant he trusts.
“I will choose chicken if I know it comes from a reputable grower and won’t come out dry as a bone,” he says.
40 Waymouth St, city, 8211 8048, pressfoodandwine.com.au
2KW BAR AND RESTAURANT
Lenswood apple pasture shio koji chicken, miso tahini, crispy skin ($38)
The marinade that makes 2KW’s chicken so special is based on an ancient fermenting technique. But, in describing its umami-laden impact, chef Trent Lymn falls back on an ingredient that is very much an invention of this generation.
“You know the way that chicken salt amplifies a flavour?” he asks. “What I’ve done is amplified chicken flavour and put it through the roof. And the meat comes out so moist and tender.”
Trent starts by making his own “shio koji”, a paste made by fermenting the “koji” with salt and water for at least two weeks.
The chickens, raised in an apple orchard at Forest Range, are rubbed with the paste and left for one to two days. “It helps tenderise the meat and gives the bird an umami coating,” Trent explains.
The birds are then broken down, before the portions are cooked in two stages: firstly poached at low temperature and then finished in a charcoal Josper oven, so the skin colours and crisps.
The dish is completed with a miso tahini, chicken skin crumb and shiso.
“It is elevating chicken to a different level,” Trent says.
2 King William St, city, 8212 5511, 2kwbar.com.au
Black, White and Reds: $150k lawsuit over top wine
A vineyard has accused a winemaker of blending lower-quality grapes into its top-shelf product, costing it $150,000 – but the winemaker says the entire harvest had “fundamental problems”.
Revamped Adelaide food court gets second tenant
A previously unused food court in a key CBD precinct now has a second tenant following a multimillion-dollar facelift, but COVID-19 has made hard work of filling the remaining spots.