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Boston’s $20 Chicken Challenge
By: Patrick Maguire
Book Chapter: Human-to-Human Service
Posted: 06/18/2010
I’m going a bit off-topic with this post. I apologize in advance to supporters of this blog who live outside the Boston area. The consolation is that should you visit Boston, you’ll know more about our restaurants, and you’ll certainly know where to enjoy great chicken.
Sometimes the simple pleasures in life really are the best. The same can be said about food. It doesn’t have to be exotic, fancy or sophisticated to be great.
In Boston’s South End where I live, you’ll find more than fifty sit-down, full-service restaurants. The far-reaching variety includes Ethiopian, Indian, Mexican, Spanish, Japanese, Venezuelan, Italian and simple American fare, all within a fifteen minute walk. The options run the gamut from casual to fine dining, and just about everything in-between.
I love trying new foods and restaurants, but on those nights that I don’t feel like experimenting or risking disappointment, I want a guaranteed sure-thing. My go-to, comfort food dish in the South End is the Roasted Chicken at Metropolis Café on Tremont Street. This savory dish has never let me down, and I’ve often walked away thinking:
Is that the best chicken dish, for the money, in the South End? What about the rest of the Boston area and beyond?
That’s the genesis of the 2010 Boston Chicken Challenge. So let’s have some fun with this.
Like most cities, Boston’s friendly food and drink fights involve all of the usual subjects; Burgers, BBQ, Canolis, Chowder, Coffee, Cocktails, Chicken Wings, Dumplings, Fried Clams, Ice Cream, Lobster rolls, Nachos, Pork, Pizza, Steak, Sushi, and Tacos, to name a few, along with “best” cheap eats and ethnic food battles. This competition will be a little different because it will disqualify the high-end and the low-end of the spectrum, and shoot straight for the middle, the neighborhood restaurants with entrées less than twenty dollars.
The chicken dish at Metropolis is listed under the Main Course section of the menu as follows:
Pan Roasted Free Range Chicken with Oyster Mushrooms, Potato Purée and Savory Pan Drippings $18.95
I love this dish, and here’s why:
- The crispy skin in every bite.
- The butchering of the bird really sets this dish apart. No bones to deal with except the small bone left in for a little flavor and presentation.
- The hearty portions of white and dark meat in this entrée, along with the potatoes, are substantial and filling.
- The combination of simple, complimentary textures and flavors in every forkful: crispy skin, moist chicken, creamy mashed potatoes, oyster mushrooms, and watercress, all combined with the pan drippings including rosemary and thyme from around the edges of the warm plate.
- The plate itself is always served hot, so the entrée stays warm throughout the meal.
- They serve a nice Huber Grüner Veltliner for $7.95/glass, complementing the dish perfectly.
- The crusty ciabatta bread from B&R Artisan Bread is perfect for clearing the remaining potatoes and drippings from the plate.
- The consistency of the execution.
- The service, charm, comfort, atmosphere and vibe of the intimate, 38-seat Café. (Even when I get the wobbly stool next to the kitchen.)
- The tremendous quality and value for the price. (I’ve had several chicken dishes in Boston far more expensive than the Metropolis version that don’t compare.)
- This dish defines simple comfort food for me.
I sat down with Rob Morotto, Chef de Cuisine at Metropolis, to learn a little more about the dish:
PM: Is the chicken one of your most popular dishes?
Rob: Yes, definitely, along with the Rigatoni, Risotto and the Veal Scallopini.
PM: How long has the chicken been on the menu?
Rob: 13 years.
PM: Where did the recipe come from?
Rob: Seth Woods, who founded Metropolis and is still one of the owners.
PM: Have you tweaked the recipe at all?
Rob: Yes, I added rosemary and thyme to the sauce.
PM: Tell me about how you receive and prepare the chicken.
Rob: We receive the birds whole and break them down into halves and debone them.
PM: So you debone the birds in-house?
Rob: Yes, I or Anthony Palmisano, (Metropolis Sous-Chef), butchers them daily.
PM: Statler-cut chicken breasts are boneless breasts with the small wing bone (drumette) left attached. How is your chicken different?
Rob: Our cut is unique because it includes the breast, leg and thigh so you get both white and dark meat with each serving which averages 12 oz. (pre-cooked).
PM: How is the chicken prepared?
Rob: Seasoned with salt and pepper, dropped into a hot pan with oil, skin-side down, then we pop it in the bottom shelf of the hot oven to render the fat. That’s what makes it crispy. When it’s almost done we flip it over and let it cook a little longer.
PM: How do you prepare the sauce?
Rob: We use the pan that we cooked the chicken in to prepare the sauce so the roasted flavor of the chicken comes through in the sauce. We save a little bit of the rendered fat and combine garlic, oyster mushrooms, white wine, chicken stock, a little butter, and fresh rosemary and thyme. We use oyster mushrooms because they don’t shrink as much as other mushrooms and they’re neutral in flavor so they pick up the flavors of what you cook them with. They also provide a little texture.
PM: Tell me about the potatoes.
Rob: We use Red Bliss potatoes. After boiling the potatoes we leave the skin on then whip them with cream, butter, salt and pepper. Whipping them really fluffs them up.
PM: Anything else we should know about the dish?
Rob: We add watercress dressed with our house dressing to give the dish additional flavor, texture and color.
PM: Have you ever taken the chicken off the menu?
Rob: NOOO!
PM: What would happen if you did?
Rob: I would probably get lynched…
 Before |
 After |
I’ve tried most of the chicken dishes in the South End, and I can say without reservation that the Metropolis version is definitely one of the best. Let’s find out who the challengers are in the Boston area. Please submit your nominees in the comments section at the end of this post.
Nomination Requirements
- Chicken entrées must be $20 or less.
- Restaurant must be sit-down, with full table service.
- Restaurant must have at least a beer and wine license.
- Nominated dishes must have been on the menu since June 1. Exceptions will be made for restaurants opened after June 1 with a chicken entrée on the menu as of 6/18/10. (This prevents restaurants from temporarily running a dish just for the competition.)
- Entrée must be a regular item on the regular dinner menu, not part of a special menu available during limited days or hours, or on a temporary prix fixe menu.
- Restaurant can not be part of a national chain. (One of the goals is to encourage business and friendly competition between local, neighborhood restaurants, not tourist traps.)
Nominations should include as much of the following information as possible:
- Restaurant name and neighborhood/location.
- Description of the chicken per the menu and the price of the dish.
- How long it has been on the menu.
- Portion size of the chicken (pre-cooked).
- Bone-in, deboned, cut, style, butchering?
- Skin (on/off, crispy?)
- White meat/dark meat?
- Legs, thigh, breast, ½ chix, whole?
- Ingredients, recipe and preparation.
- Sides, sauces, accompaniments. Is bread included in the price?
- Brief description of the neighborhood and the restaurant. Why do you like to go there? While the primary focus is on the dish itself, minimal consideration will be given to hospitality, ambiance other factors like physical space, décor, wine list, vibe, neighborhood, comfortable booths, etc.
- Disclosures about your affiliation with the restaurant.
- Why you love the dish.
(Yes, there are lots of rules, but serious contenders won’t be scared off.)
Disclosures & Why I’m doing this:
- I love food and sharing and learning about new dishes.
- I want to tell as many people as possible about a great dish and a great restaurant.
- I want to know what other people think about the Metropolis Chicken.
- If there is a chicken dish in Boston as good or better than the one at Metropolis for twenty dollars or less, I want to try it.
- To support Metropolis and all local, nominated, neighborhood restaurants during a traditionally slow summer season for the industry.
- I have no financial or investment interest in Metropolis or in the Aquitaine Group.
- I’m friendly with the Metropolis staff, but only know them as a result of frequent visits as a customer.
The gauntlet has been thrown down. Let the nominations and voting begin.
If someone nominates your favorite dish before you get a chance to, vote for that dish and add your own comments. Please fill in the blanks that the original poster missed, and add your own reasons why you love the dish.
Owners, chefs and restaurant staff are welcome to nominate their own dish and to fill in the details and facts about the ingredients, preparation, etc. Please disclose your affiliation with the restaurant when you are commenting.
Boston food writers, bloggers and restaurant reviewers are strongly encouraged to participate and solicit nominees from their readers. Please re-post this link on your site, facebook, and share with everyone who might be interested. If we get enough qualified nominees, we’ll need several judges to help determine winners by neighborhood, etc. Please contact me if you are interested in judging the competition.
Thank you for your participation. Let the games begin.
7 Responses to “Boston’s $20 Chicken Challenge”
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Permalink | Posted in Human-to-Human Service | 7 Comments »
Probably my favorite chicken dish is the boneless fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy at Grumpy White’s, a classic old-school family restaurant in Quincy (between Houghs Neck and Quincy Center). The dish, which goes for about $12, has been on the menu forever and has some of the most lean, tender, and tasty white meat chicken you’ll ever try. The batter is moderately thick and with very little grease, and the portions are big enough for many people to take half of it home.
Chicken eaten any style with good company is my kind of chicken!
Hugs,
Penelope
Ever had the pan roasted chicken at Marliave in the Downtown Crossing area? It’s $18.50 and sounds similar to the dish you described in your post. I’m no foodie, but it was crispy on the outside and moist on the inside with a creamy mushroom risotto. I had it about 4-5 months ago and I think it was a leg + thigh with just the bone left in the leg for presentation. Scrumptious!
I usually go to Marliave for the amazing Prohibition-era cocktails and a feast of raw oysters, but wanted to try something different this time. I was not disappointed.
First of all, you made me hungry, so thanks for that. I’ll go have a sugar packet or two. More importantly, from Boston or not, I love this idea. I know you apologized for going off-topic, but I don’t think it really is. The idea of our “favorites”, be it dish or restaurant or server, goes to the very heart of the customer-server relationship. This is fun, and I really look forward to trying the chicken at The Metropolis, and to seeing the other nominations that are submitted.
Patrick,
Exceptionally well written article. Love the way you laid this out for us and it was most entertaining. Couldn’t wait to get to the next sentence. Enjoyed listening to the interview most. Loved the comment on the “wobbly stool next to the kitchen.” Like the way the dish was “Pre-paired” with a nice Huber Grüner Veltliner for $7.95/glass, complementing the dish perfectly.
You think and write “outside the box”. Learn something new every time you post!
My sincere compliments to you!
Hugs,
Penelope
All the way up Route 93 on the Tewksbury/Andover line is Luna Rossa Ristorante. Tucked into strip mall on Dascomb Road, this is a good Italian restaurant for dining and or take out. While the pasta is great a favorite dish I’ve ordered a lot is the Whole Roasted Chicken.Seasoned with garlic, rosemary and lemon served with garlic mashed potatoes. $16.99
Like the Metropolis dish (which I intend to try very soon), this is great simple comfort food that does the job without a lot of fuss. Beautifully roasted, the meat is moist and delectable, and the mashed are smooth light and still dense…
I work at the East Coast Grill, in Cambridge, and we serve a really great chicken dish. Its a half chicken, spit roasted, served over maple – pecan sweet mashed potatoes and garlic seared greens. With a rosemary – thyme – lemon jus. 16.50. Please give it a try.