Poulet bresse in NYC

[Dryden]

Since returning from France, I have been wondering if there is anywhere people know of in or around NYC to find poulet bresse, either on the menu in a restaurant, or from a butcher.

Can anyone help?

[ned]

Well not quite but sort of. The charming and marvelous Sylvia Pryzant, owner of Four Story Hills Farms in Pennsylvania is raising chickens in the style of the Bresse chicken. She doesn't have a website. Here's an article about the chickens:

http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists/200...rubin0810p1.asp

[Stagiaire]

A little late but Per Se serves it. Tonight it was served with "Trufee Sous le Peau," Glazed Tokyo Turnips and Caramelized Mission Figs. The whole chicken is seared and cooked in a cocotte, and only the breast is served. And yes, the chicken is from Four Story Hill Farms.

[docsconz]

Well not quite but sort of. The charming and marvelous Sylvia Pryzant, owner of Four Story Hills Farms in Pennsylvania is raising chickens in the style of the Bresse chicken. She doesn't have a website. Here's an article about the chickens:

http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists/200...rubin0810p1.asp

Nice article. The things one learns here on eGullet. I never knew that Bresse chickens were milk-fed. I wish I had a chance to try this chicken when I was at Per Se. I'll need to keep a look out for it on menus.

Welcome to eGullet, Stagiere! Are you working at Per Se?

[Stagiaire]

Welcome to eGullet, Stagiere!

Thank you.

Are you working at Per Se?

That's right!

But I can't get you a table...

[alacarte]

To echo docsconz -- I learn something new every day from eGullet.

Now, not only do I know about poulet Bresse, I ALSO know that chickens are lactose-intolerant.

[Dryden]

Now of course, I'm sad that we didn't have it when we were at Per Se, but I guess that's something to look forward to for the next trip...

[adegiulio]

We enjoyed one of these chickens at Per Se about two months ago. They presented the roasted chicken to our table, then brought it back to the kitchen for carving. When we were presented with the plated dish, it consisted of a portion of the truffled breast with some garnish. No leg, no thigh. I jokingly commented that I thought there was a whole chicken the first time they brought it to our table. Our server chuckled and headed back to the kicthen. Five minutes after our plates were cleared, they returned with a second chicken course of the dark meat with a truffled sauce. Our server said she told the kitchen of our amusement at only being served a fraction of the chicken . They promptly pulled the rest of the meat off, came up with a new presentation, and sent it out...

It was cool-warm, but so delicious. Better than the breast meat we were served (which was also quite good). I sure could go for some of that chicken tonight, instead of the boring lemon-pepper grilled chicken breast I am going to make...

Anyway, can't wait to get back to Per-se....I just hope the bank will give me another mortgage on my house!

[alacarte]

dumb question -- what's the point of the poulet Bresse?

Does milk-fed chicken grow larger (sounds like it from adegiulio's post?), is the taste different, does it become more tender?

[Dryden]

It has a richer flavor, something like a capon, but not as gamey...

Of course, we've only had it once (at the Crillon in Paris, room service, no less) but it was wonderful.

[DutchMuse]

This is really informative. Does anyone know how one can actually get one of these chickens in NY? I doubt that Four Story would ship just a couple. Maybe they're available from some purveyor in NYC like Dean & Deluca?? Anybody know?

[TarteTatin]

There's a great link in the egullet France section about Bresse chickens also.

This is a recent link, still up on the main page.

As it says there, we ate at Georges Blanc in Vonnas outside of Macon (twice), and have to say the poulet bresse is the best I've ever, ever tasted. Soooo good!

Yes, I guess richer and more flavorful.

I believe its from the white chickens we see in that section of France. Really pretty, like the white Charolais cows from the same area.

[emsny]

Just to be an old bore, let me note that there are poulets de Bresse and poulets de Bresse. Yes, restaurateurs of note will get them from great suppliers, but those sold retail can vary in quality. (I'm speaking here of France and neighboring lands, not of the Bresse style chix from PA - which I long to taste.) I rarely get to cook when on vacation, but quite a few years ago I bought a Bresse chicken at the nice market in Geneva and cooked it at my sister-in-law's apartment. I don't remember what I made, but I *do* remember that the flesh was bland; very tender, very delicate, but bland. On the other hand, earlier this year I tasted one cooked en vessie at the Bristol hotel in Paris, and it was certainly the best thing of its kind I've ever had: all that tenderness and delicacy combined with a true chicken flavor. So know your farmer.

Still, the chix I've been most impressed with in France on recent visits have been the more robust-tasting birds from the South-West; perhaps some enterprising smuggler could hide some of their fertilized eggs in his luggage and hatch them out in his back yard.

Edited August 12, 2004 by emsny (log)

[DutchMuse]

So again I ask, New Yorkers, where can we find such a bird in New York to cook at home and try?

[MobyP]

I think there's a prohibition on importing them into the states (and Canada). And if there wasn't, it would set you back about 50 bucks a pop. In the UK, they're in the 20-30 quid range. The breast meat is tremendously delicate, rich. The thigh meat is probably far gamier than you would expect. The feed is milk and corn - and you can taste it.

The problem with most store bought (free range or otherwise) birds in the US is that they've been bread to be mostly neutral and tasteless - relative to the European birds - with larger breasts to satisfy the market. It's difficult to qualify this as a statement without you tasting some local French birds.

As French birds go, the PdBresse is still relatively mild. I picked up a corn fed (Non Bresse) chicken at a local French market, and was blown away at how powerful the taste was. It made me realise that most of the chickens I've eaten in the states or the UK were really tasteless factory-bred shit.

Unfortunately, even through somewhere like WholeFoods, there just isn't the market in the US for slow raised, flavour-developed birds, as they take for granted in France. You need to get Adam Balic in on this - what he doesn't know about chickens...

[Mister_Cutlets]

I wonder if, in lieu of this pseudo-bresse chicken, there is a farm somewhere upstate that provides this kind of chicken. Or maybe one of those caribbean poultry ranches in Queens. I can say that the organic birds sold at the Union Square greenmarket don't hold a candle to the prodigious poultry of old Europe.

Mr. Cutlets

[Sandra Levine]

Not a Bresse chicken, by any stretch of the imagination, but the Giannone chickens sold at Jefferson Market and Gourmet Garage are far more flavorful than those you usually see. They are from Canada and appear to have a narrower breast and somewhat more dark meat than the usual Cornish cross available.

[emsny]

Another good thing about the Giannone chickens (one of which we happen to have eaten last night) is that, like most of the better European poultry, they're "dry processed" - they don't hang around in ice water for hours. I don't know anything about the technical side of this, but I can tell you that they brown and get crisp far more readily than the "wet" chickens typically sold in the US. They're not, for instance, shipped in Cry-o-vac.

Edited August 17, 2004 by emsny (log)

[Mark Sommelier]

We enjoyed one of these chickens at Per Se about two months ago. They presented the roasted chicken to our table, then brought it back to the kitchen for carving. When we were presented with the plated dish, it consisted of a portion of the truffled breast with some garnish. No leg, no thigh. I jokingly commented that I thought there was a whole chicken the first time they brought it to our table. Our server chuckled and headed back to the kicthen. Five minutes after our plates were cleared, they returned with a second chicken course of the dark meat with a truffled sauce. Our server said she told the kitchen of our amusement at only being served a fraction of the chicken . They promptly pulled the rest of the meat off, came up with a new presentation, and sent it out...

It was cool-warm, but so delicious. Better than the breast meat we were served (which was also quite good). I sure could go for some of that chicken tonight, instead of the boring lemon-pepper grilled chicken breast I am going to make...

Anyway, can't wait to get back to Per-se....I just hope the bank will give me another mortgage on my house!

On the menu at Michel Rostaing's Bistro D'a Coté in Paris is Poulet de Bresse en Deux Services. The breast garni is served first, then the dark meat. Voila!

Oh, yeah....... it was delicous.

Edited August 17, 2004 by Mark Sommelier (log)