Well, where do you start when you have been asked to write about something you have been enjoying for most of your life? Naturally, you start at the beginning. My family immigrated to Canada in 1970 when I was four years old. Food memories didn’t really start for me until the mid-70’s, and when they did I distinctly remember smelling and then tasting Jerk Chicken. As a Jamaican native, chicken is something you’ll eat almost every week of your life.
Chicken is a staple in most homes across Canada. I’ve witnessed the ingenious ways people cook with chicken. From Fricassee to Jerk to Cordon Bleu, chicken is incredibly versatile. Mature chickens generally can grow from 2-5 kgs easily feeding a family of four. I like the fact that there are two distinct types of meat in one bird; the breast is the white meat and the dark meat comes from the legs and thighs. For best results roast chicken with its skin on and use simple seasonings such as salt and pepper. It is so delicious, full of flavour and an ideal way to eat healthy. If you want to be more adventurous, butterfly the breast and stuff it with sundried tomatoes and a bloomy rind cheese such as Brie. The traditional time honoured classic is Chicken Cordon Bleu filled with ham and Emmental cheese. Dark meat tends to be easier to cook with despite being an underrated cut and often not the first option. I’m a big fan of using dark meat for JerkChicken. It tastes great especially when you try it with my special jerk marinade.
When I began working professionally in a kitchen I was expected to hone my culinary skills with poultry preparation. This may seem like a fairly benign action to take but not in the traditional culinary world. I started cooking in the 1990s and to become a serious professional chef it was expected to learn the classics like Coq Au Vin (which of course I did). That being said I also made time to fiddle with recipes from my childhood and yes that did include attempts at KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken). My grandmother was a force to be reckoned with setting some pretty high standards and fortunately her influence helped me along. Every chance I had I would experiment and would test on my fellow chef friends. Believe me when I say this, I made some great friends with that fried chicken.
It was in 1988 when I fell for another part of the chicken - the wings. There aren’t many people who wouldn’t devour 20-30 of those bad boys (I know many people who also wouldn't necessarily admit to that). I would often find myself frequenting this relatively well-known hot spot for wings in mid-town Toronto. I even took my wife there on one of our first dates (don’t tell her this but it was a bit of a test; if she didn’t like wings we weren’t going to get married). Well, maybe that was a bit of a stretch, but needless to say she enjoyed them as much as I did and I’m happy to say we’re going into our 14th year of marriage. This just goes to show you that from gastronomic Haute Cuisine to casual pub dining to a Sunday family dinner, chicken is a staple and is something that will be on menus as long as Canadian farmers and farms continue to raise them.
Outside of wings and fried chicken, my wife and girls absolutely love whole roasted chicken, especially on chilly Fall or winter Sundays. My favourite stuffing includes a mirepoix (mixture of onions, carrots and celery), half a head of garlic and lemon rub; the skin rubbed with a little olive oil, and sprinkled with kosher salt, black pepper, rosemary and thyme; and roasted in a 350°F ( 177°C) oven. My girls adore roasted potatoes and asparagus to accompany Dad’s chicken. It’s quick and easy and we get to do that thing we love most: bonding as a family over Sunday dinner. And that, like chicken, is a wonderful thing.
