Is this Queensland’s fanciest rotisserie chicken?

In-house chicken salt, potatoes cooked in duck fat and French gravy – welcome to Queensland’s new gourmet chicken shop.

Move aside supermarket roast chooks, the humble rotisserie chicken has been given a gourmet makeover by one of the country’s top chefs, with his new Queensland takeaway turning out fine dining-inspired birds and spuds.

Former Becasse chef-owner Justin North has just opened JD’s Chicken Co in Noosa offering chicken salt made in house, potatoes cooked in duck fat, gravy made using French techniques and chicken cooked in a three-step process.

Roast chicken meal at JD's Chicken Co.

“There is quite a process to get to what we think is the ultimate roast chicken better than Gran used to make,” North said.

North said setting the venue apart from the competition was firstly the quality of the chooks used – a free-range bird from the Sunshine Coast hinterland grown to a plump 1.6kg. The birds are then marinated overnight in a salt solution to make them “super juicy”, left to dry so the skin goes crisp and golden, then flame-cooked before being rested.

“A lot of testing and research has gone in to find the perfect bird and the entire process to get to this point,” the former fine dining chef said, with a quarter chicken selling for $8, a half for $12 and a whole for $19.

The chooks also comes dusted with the takeaway’s own chicken salt made from dehydrating chicken skin and blitzing it into a powder with salt, spices and secret aromats.

“We find people love chicken salt and being a chicken shop we needed to have it but didn’t want to serve a highly processed product so went about developing our own,” North said.

Justin North from JD's Chicken Co.

There’s fancy roast potatoes too, parboiled then roasted in duck fat, salt and rosemary until super crisp; plus gravy that North claims is “the best”.

“Years of experience in French-based kitchens learning the art of good stock and sauce making, fresh ingredients, roasted bones, reduced, layer upon layer of delicious flavour. The gravy is then finished with an infusion of burnt butter and rosemary,” North said.

But it’s their roast chicken roll ($12) that the former Australian chef of the year said is sure to become the venue’s signature.

“We use a freshly baked roll spread with butter and salad cream, lettuce and fresh chicken carved from the rotisserie finished with lashing of gravy and seasoned with our chicken salt – it’s pretty special,” he said.