For five years I drove by Bill The Butcher in Redmond, telling myself each time I would stop and go in on my next trip. But I never did...I just kept driving by. Then a friend invited me to go to a class at Bill The Butcher to learn how to properly cut up a chicken. I went. I learned a thing or two and I came home with all kinds of goodies, including a chicken to brine (more about that in another post.)
Bill the Butcher has several locations around Seattle, check their website to see where they are. I'll bet there is one near you, well, if you live in Seattle that is. The Redmond shop is rather charming - not only do they sell meat/chicken, but they sell organic milk and cream plus they have a really nice selection of salsa, BBQ Sauce, and pickled things - like Pickled Figs and PIckled Raisins. I bought a jar of the Pickled Raisins (they are surprisingly delicious!) and plan to use it with a pork tenderloin, sounds yummy, no?
Meet Bobby the Butcher. Bobby taught the chicken class, in the back-room of the shop. It was about an hour long and he was chock full of good info - definitely worth the $50 cost of the class, which included a whole organic chicken ($21.00) and then we were given $25 to use on anything in the store...so basically the class cost us $4.00. Is that a deal or what?!? And Bobby the Butcher said he would be willing to teach a class on whatever we wanted to learn - they are open for suggestions and love to teach what they know because they love what they do - super nice people!
The chickens at Bill the Butcher come with the neck attached, that was a new one for me - so I learned how to remove it.
I also learned how to locate and remove the big pieces of fat that are usually attached on whole fryers. Bobby showed us how to fry those pieces of fat until they are rendered/liquified creating a nice flavor enhancer for sauteing veggies or potatoes or to use with fried rice...anything that could use a boost of chicken flavor.
With the $25 from the class I bought some of their cinnamon bacon - it was SOOOO good! Just the tiniest hint of cinnamon - can't believe what a difference that made! I also bought some of their sausages - they were outstanding - will be buying more very soon! And I came home with a couple of steaks - not too thin, not too thick - they were just right for us, because at Bill the Butcher, they'll cut it however you want.
Listen kids, if you haven't been to Bill the Butcher, get yourself on in there - they are friendly, their prices are not out of whack and they are probably on your way to wherever you're going!
(I was not paid to write this post - I just happen to really, really like Bill the Butcher...and I hope you will, too!)
