Chicken 101

Justin and Kate Meddis of Rose's Market and Sweet Shop performed a chicken butchery workshop at the market this weekend.

Their shop opens in downtown Durham soon and will feature locally sourced cuts of meats, housemade sausages, charcuterie, soups and stocks. They will also offer rotating dinner options and desserts. In the meantime, they're offering butchery classes and teaming up with local farms to create themed dinners, like their upcoming whole hog dinner with Okfuskee Farm.
Justin offered great tips during the chicken workshop. Some of my favorites were:

- Salt moves through meat at the rate of one inch per day, so season your chicken early and generously.

- instead of tying a chicken's legs together before roasting it, cut slits between the leg bones and Achilles tendons and slip one leg through the opposite slit.

- Meat should be room temperature when you cut and cook it. Roasting it straight out of the fridge will reduce the oven's temperature and cook unevenly. it takes about 90 minutes for a refrigerated chicken to reach room temperature.

- After Justin eats roasted chicken, he puts the bones back into a saute pan and roasts them in a 425 degree oven again until they're brown. Then he removes them from the oven and makes a stock. He doesn't season the stock, since you're going to season whatever recipe you add the stock to anyway.

Watching Justin handle his knife during the demonstration reminded me what an art butchery is. Try his tricks next time you buy a bird and check out their shop!