KFC, PFC, RFC,FFC

Ah yes, chicken,  here in London as you can see from the sign outside my terrace it is readily available in so many forms, KFC (from our grocer Kivre Food centre), PFC next door( Perfect fried chicken), FFC (I guess thats Fried fried chicken), RFC ( Real fried chicken) and so many other places where you can get unfresh and tasteless chicken. Or maybe you simply want to wander the supermarket aisles to find  "fresh" "healthy" breaded, stir fried, marinated, shredded,  or ground chicken versions of the overly processed un healthy lil buggers.  I walk through aisles at the grocery store and realize one thing, and one thing only.  The only way to buy a chicken is WHOLE, uncooked, frozen or fresh, but whole.  Buy the whole damn thing, its just a lil chicken.  Whether you are simply feeding yourself or your whole family...buy it whole, buy it free range (its a flavour and environmental must), buy it locally ( if you can find them), buy it organically ( if you can afford), but just buy it whole.  

What could be easier than sticking a bird in a pan in your oven with a little salt and pepper...  What could be tastier than slow cooked chili smacked chicken legs for your next plate of tacos to compliment home made tortillas and salsa.  What is more satisfying than making a stock/broth from the leftover bones and then using that for risotto on a rainy evening.

I walked through the aisles of a major supermarket this morning as I was purchasing items for a cookery course that I teach, and i would have to be more of a genetically modified misfit than the chicken products I saw to have enough fingers and toes to count the number of ways you can buy chicken things.  Frozen nuggets, marinated breasts, pre-cooked legs, pre-roasted, deli sliced, drumstick shaped pre-baked frozen snack bites, stock, broth, oven ready.  Oven ready,what is that?  A sprig of fresh herbs on top, salt and pepper, a bit of butter, a few slices of carrot, onion and celery inside, wow that's a bargain they are really saving me time and effort, no one could have done that in their own home!!!!

Why not buy a whole chicken?  Do people like paying more for less?  Is the economy that great?  Do people enjoy unflavourful food with lots of additives?  

That is my rant and over the next couple week I will be following it up with some posts with recipes and methods all in regards our lil friend the chicken... and lest i forget how pervasive chicken is in my lives....the photo from my roof terrace says it all...

So let me know if you have any specific chicken questions and I will incorporate them with the blog entries that shall be coming out alongside other, non chicken posts...