Happy Mouth...

The first post of a blog created to share our cooking and eating adventures, with an emphasis on "adventures", is ironically enough…..about chicken. Admittedly, the most mundane ingredient in a world of ingredients, chicken gets more of a bad rap than it deserves. As an avid chicken eater for most of my life, I can tell you that I have had it in all its variations…..broiled, roasted, fried, braised, stewed, sautéed, barbecued, jerked…and they've all shared one thing in common….The Yawn Factor….

As of last night, that has changed. Yesterday, Pig1 (the boy) decided to visit the Champlain Valley Rabbitry (which does exactly what it sounds like it does) in West Haven, VT. With the promise of rabbit for dinner, he set off for West Haven. 7 hours later, instead of the rabbit that I had been expecting, he returned with a chicken…a freshly slaughtered chicken, but a chicken just the same. 2 hours after that, chicken became my new favorite fowl. He served up the most flavorful, succulent, tender, perfectly cooked roast chicken perfection, which almost made me want to build my own chicken coop, get some chickens, and start slaughtering hens on a daily basis….it was THAT delicious….

I was served a breast, with a piece of the wing still attached...the skin was a golden shade of maple, with the crispness of the thinnest of wafers, the meat itself was plump, juicy, and bursting with flavor and most surprising of all, it had a slight barnyard flavor....almost gamey...which might have been a side effect of the hours old slaughter, but might not appeal to chicken purists who would rather not have their chicken taste like anything other than chicken. Served with a side of toasted crusty bread atop a mound of shredded pork (yes, we do manage to eat pork at every meal), it bore absolutely no resemblance taste wise or otherwise to the bland supermarket chickens of my pre free-range/organic/ hormone free/pastured chicken days, nor of my current post free-range/organic/hormone free/pastured chicken days, a result which I credit not only to the bird itself, but also to Pig1's superb culinary skills.

Unfortunately, being new to this blogging thing, it never occurred to me to take a pic of the finished dish until after my last bite, but take my word for it, last night, chicken was the new pork....