Prather Ranch (SF) – Heritage Chickens are the new Hoffman
There was a small crisis in the SF food community earlier this year – Hoffman opted to stop selling their chickens at the Saturday Farmer’s Market. If I were prone to waking up before 11am, I would have been sounding the alarms too. Unfortunately, Hoffman was always sold out of chickens before I arrived and the Hoffman lady wasn’t too keen (nor consistent) with saving a chicken for this late sleeper.
And they were pretty good chickens. Their best feature was the ease with which they cooked – plop them into the oven for any reasonable time and you were guaranteed a juicy roast chicken. So consistent these chickens were, I failed to see why any native would spend $40 on a Zuni chicken – you could do it yourself for $8. The taste was better than your average supermarket variety but they did fail to come close to a Bresse chicken from France.
No doubt sensing a market opportunity, Prather Ranch began carrying Heritage Chickens. The chickens are Dark Cornish Chickens, shipped frozen from Kansas. They are a tad pricey at $5.99/lb but they are also quite small – these are not mass-produced chickens from calculated breeding techniques that consider yield the most important attribute of a breed. They are humanely raised and organic – a happy chicken is a tastier chicken; a happy chicken eating good food should be tastier yet.
Ethics aside, how do the birds taste?
Remarkable, for an American chicken.
The first thing one notices is the texture – it’s not unlike a Bresse chicken – the meat is firm and toothesome. The chicken does not flake apart with a fork – it takes a bit of effort to cut it. And then you notice the taste – it actually tastes like something – “chicken” for lack of a better adjective. It’s a slightly gamier taste but, really, it’s just a more concentrated chicken flavor. The skin crisps rather nicely when roasted.
No contest – I actually get a bit upset when I miss a shipment of these birds. Far better than the Hoffman birds ever were.
I use a pretty basic recipe:
- Massively salt the exterior the night before
- Pour olive oil between the breast meat and its skin; stick rosemary in there if I have any
- Stick an orange in its cavity (I’ve found this tastes better than a lemon)
- Salt, pepper, and olive oil the outside again
- Cook @ 425 for 45 minutes
Go buy one now. For more information, you can read the following articles:
- Meet the Farmer – Frank Reese
- KSU profile on Frank Reese
- chuck
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Anita said,
February 21, 2007 @ 1:31 am
holy crap — $15 a pound? that’s right into Zuni territory
Wilbur M. Reeling said,
February 23, 2007 @ 3:28 pm
We have a couple of chicken farms in the area here in Maryland but my favorite has become this FREE RANGE, ORGANICLY GROWN & FED de HEN from a local Mennonite farmer. BELIEVE IT WHEN I SAY …”$1.65 per pound and killed the day you order it”… I think they are killing the famous S.F. “Screaming Eagle”, at the price you are paying and at that price selling it to you poor San Fran Rhubs.
Here’s a pix of one I recently prepared for the famous gourmet, Mr. Art Bocutti, in Ragged Point, Maryland.
QUINTESSENTIAL C U I S I N E©
by Wilbur M. Reeling
epicurean raconteur
http://www.WilburMReeling.com
Married …with dinner » Blog Archive » Home again, jiggity-jog said,
February 26, 2007 @ 3:34 pm
[...] I’m getting a chill just thinking about it, though. Damn, it was cold! Quick, inside the building, chat up the guys at Prather, flirt a bit, get a lovely flat-iron steak for the grill and one of those heritage chickens we’re hearing so much about. (That’d be $15-ish each, not per pound, thank god.) After warming up — and a stop at Miette, of course — it’s back out front to pick up chips, tortillas and Yellow Eye beans from Rancho Gordo… where Steve tells us we just missed Alan Richman from GQ and that the NY Times will be singing his praises two weeks hence. Let’s hope he remembers us when he’s well and truly famous. [...]
steve said,
February 27, 2007 @ 6:02 pm
Howdy all,
The chickens are not $15/lb. They are actually %5.99/lb. and are about 3 lbs each. Thanks for your support!
Thanks!
Steve
Prather Ranch Meat Co.
415-391-0420
steve said,
February 27, 2007 @ 6:06 pm
Above, that should read $5.99 not %…
Also, the chickens are available at our Ferry Building location and at the farmers markets we attend: Oakland’s Grand Lake on Saturdays, and Marin Civic Center on Thursdays and Sundays.
Administrator said,
February 28, 2007 @ 5:02 pm
sorry, yes, they are $5.99/lb. text corrected.