As a nation famous for roast dinners, there’s no escaping the fact we Brits love chicken. With the ascent of Nando’s and hip London chicken restaurants, this flightless bird is firmly at the top of our favourites list. So much so, we now consume 2.2 million chickens every day. And we buy as much chicken as all other meats combined.
Some handy chicken facts:
40% of poultry producers reported a rise in demand and production in 2013.
Tesco now sources all its chicken from the UK.
70% of our chicken is home-grown. (does this mean my ranting is paying off?)
On average we each consume 190g of chicken per week.
Let’s take a look at Nando’s. It’s not a complicated affair. The average meal consists of a half or quarter chicken with chips, rice or coleslaw. The kind of thing you’d probably skim over on any other restaurant menu.
Yet their busier branches regularly enjoy queues of fifty plus people waiting patiently at the door. The brand loyalty they instil is phenomenal. And with 60 halal outlets and 20% discount for the NHS and emergency services, they know how to keep on the right side of their clientele.
In 2012 they made £14.7million profit after a loss of 7million in 2010-11. But they’re not the only one to cash in on our penchant for poultry.
In recent years –more recent than you might expect given Nando’s have been on the up for over two decades now – we’re starting to see a surge of simple chicken and chip restaurants in London.
Take Mark Hix’s Tramshed, for example. A no-nonsense ‘Chicken Shack’ where customers were given two options – chicken or steak. A strategy that massively paid off when it was voted ‘Best Meat Restaurant’ in Time Out’s Eating and Drinking Awards 2012.
But the most interesting of these trendy chicken restaurants is probably Chicken Shop in Kentish Town. Along with restaurants like le Coq in Islington and Whyte & Brown in Kingly Court, they specialise in free-range chicken.
As part of a 3-in-1 site including a Pizza East on the street and Dirty Burger in the car park, the underground Chicken Shop is the height of simple, quality dining for those who know good chicken.
It’s almost hidden from public view; the only sign being a paper bag on the side door handle of Pizza East saying ‘Chicken Shop Open’. That doesn’t deter the crowds though. Go there and be prepared to wait an hour wait to be seated!
The choice is simple – you can have a quarter, half or whole chicken. The actual menu is printed on the wall, giving you the impression that these people aren’t in the habit of adjusting their recipes. And for good reason. The chicken is expertly spit-roasted to keep the meat juicy and succulent, the homemade sauces are tangy and perfectly balanced with the chicken, and the sides are as good as you’ll find anywhere.
Attentive service is another bonus. The staff were friendly and professional and always on-hand to top up the enamel jug of house wine.
And that’s before the best bit. For a restaurant called Chicken Shop which specialises in chicken, chicken and more chicken, they know how to make a girl drool. The lemon cheesecake was zesty and moreish. Their apple pie was perfectly balanced between sweet and savoury. And as for the chocolate brownie… it was just as every chocolate brownie should be; crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside.
So for any of you still living in the past, when chicken was something deep fried that came in a grease-soaked box, I urge you to get on board with the chicken revolution. It seems after so many years of wasting this poor bird’s potential, we’re finally figuring out how to turn it into something phenomenal.