- So at the butcher shop, you know, everyone talks about
different cuts of steak, what has the best fat,
you go to steak houses.
Nobody talks about chicken.
- I wanna know how old's that chicken,
what breed is that chicken,
what's that chicken's personality.
So we're at Le Coq Rico and we're gonna learn a thing
from Chef Antoine Westermann.
Let's go.
(soft stylish music)
- I don't think most Americans have ever thought what type
of chicken are they going to buy.
You just go to a grocery store and you buy chicken.
- You know, when I came the first time to United States
I took two years to find the best chicken,
not only in the United States, but in the world.
And here, from New York, from the country around New York.
I have five different kinds of chicken.
I like Brune Landaise because it's easy to eat.
It's smooth.
I think you have to start with them.
Plymouth Rock, it could be the same family
than Brune Landaise.
The Plymouth Rock eat only grain, like the Brune Landaise.
- Okay.
- He's not always outside.
- These two are kind of the most, I would say of the five,
the most similar to what you would expect to see
in the grocery store.
- As more we go on, this is more wild, more rustic.
This is the New Hampshire.
This is more fat.
- [Brent] Very different.
- The New Hampshire
(makes soft whistle with lips)
is always running, running, running.
- [Ben] It also has the breast bone like a wild turkey.
Look at that, that leg and thigh, and then you look
at that one and it's like, yeah, this guy's been putting
on miles, yeah.
- You understand immediately, you see it.
What is very different with the New Hampshire
and the Cornish is they eat not only grain,
they eat all what they find outside.
- Could you say that these chickens are more similar
to grass-fed beef and these are more similar to USDA beef?
- You are right.
Here I have the Guinea fowl.
It's more dark under the skin.
- [Brent] Yeah.
- And the taste, it's very strong.
For me, when I will have the maximum of pleasure
I will choose this.
- I'm really impressed by the length.
You can see how big that thigh is.
- It's a fly from morning until night.
- [Brent] You have the age of the chickens noted.
Most chicken, is what?
30, 40 days old?
- This is the problem, when the chicken is
only 30, 40, 50 day, the taste cannot be the same.
- I've never tried a chicken that's over
probably six or eight weeks.
- I'm a lucky man to give you the possibility to.
- We're the lucky ones.
- We're very excited.
- [Ben] Well, let's cook some chickens.
- [Brent] Cook some chickens?
- [Antoine] Yes.
My way is to put the chicken in the chicken stock
with some vegetable, and poached it slowly going
half an hour.
After that I put in the oven and roast it.
- I've never heard of this technique.
In every like f*cking article I've ever read
about how to make the perfect chicken
no one ever says poach it first.
- [Antoine] It's easy to understand.
- [Ben] Yeah.
- Look at this.
- [Brent] Wow.
(laughs)
- You have all the birds turning in here, getting that nice
even flame, then you're collecting the juice down here
with some of the bones so we can make the perfect jus.
- [Antoine] Yes.
- [Ben] From what we are getting down here.
- [Antoine] When it's roasted at the bottom of the casserole
then it has to caramelize.
And you have to put the water in it exactly
the right moment.
Jus!
Taste my jus!
It's very strong.
This is the brune landaise, yes.
- [Brent] The lazy French one.
- [Antoine] Yes.
- That's a special chicken.
- How's the breast?
- [Ben] Really tender, but that is like creamy.
- Holy shit, I mean, but this is very comparable
to, you know, a regular chicken just much more elegant.
- Just so much better.
- Yeah.
- [Antoine] Do you like it?
- It's amazing. - It's incredible.
- Sure.
- If you see like a white kind of translucent fat,
you know there's really not that much flavor there.
And when you have this like really, really yellow,
kind of like denser fat, this is the richest leg meat
I think I've ever had on a chicken.
Especially with the jus.
You're right, the jus.
- What can I say?
- [ Ben] Yeah.
(laughs)
- Perhaps you can try the guinea pig.
- [Ben] The Guinea?
(upbeat music)
- [Antoine] This is more dark now.
- Yeah, right, but look at this thigh.
It doesn't even look like a normal chicken.
- [Ben] And the leg is like smaller than any leg
you've ever seen before, but look at the color on it.
- Whoah.
I've never tasted anything like this before.
Like the texture feels like you're eating a turkey leg,
but the flavor is so much more complex than any other
chicken or turkey.
- [Antoine] Now we will start with the big oaf
who I cook in this pot all together.
Vegetable, lemon confit, rosemary,
and white whine, chicken stock.
45 minutes in the oven and it's very different,
but you will see it's tasty.
- [Brent] It's cooked covered.
- [Ben] Was this one also poached first?
- [Antoine] No, broiled.
- You get the thigh, I got the breast.
We all get the juice.
It's the wishbone.
- Give it to me, man.
- Yes.
- [Brent] I keep saying how rich it is,
but the potatoes are just as good as the chicken.
It's all the jus, it has so much flavor.
- Perhaps it's my favorite.
- I think so, yeah.
- [Ben] These are both two wings
I've never done before.
- This is also a really interesting fun way to eat.
At a steak house you get one steak.
- [Antoine] Yeah.
- [Brent] And everybody tries the prime rib,
that's one thing.
But being able to eat the legs, and thighs,
breasts, wings.
- In America, why do you think we don't
have poultry houses?
- Because I was not an American.
(laughs)
- If one day in my life I will see that the customers go
to the poultry house than to the beef house,
then I can die with pleasure.
(laughs)
- I would love to see more poultry houses around.
New York is lucky to have you.
- I say one day I will forget my ticket for going back
to Paris and I will stay here, stay.
(laughs)
- For more episodes like this.
- Click right here.
Yeah.
- [Male Voice] Okay, different style of cooking of short rib
or use an open fire.
Then we're going to be doing some, kind of Argentine-style,
more traditional.