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Food & Drink

Rare birds: The city’s best roast-chicken dinners

Roast chicken, the classic dinner staple, becomes a crisp-skinned, lusciously juicy event in the hands of Toronto’s clever chefs

By Chantal Braganza
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Rare birds: The city's best roast-chicken dinners
1. Dundas Park Kitchen
Rare birds: The city's best roast-chicken dinners

At Dundas Park Kitchen, Alex Tso fridge-dries the birds for a few hours, then salts the exteriors, and stuffs them with lemons, onions and herbs. He serves them up with whatever’s in season that week, which could be zucchini salad or rosemary-flecked potatoes or baby spinach with chickpeas. Full chicken dinners are only available during a two-and-a-half-hour window on weeknights, so call ahead. Whole chicken with two sides, $30. 2066 Dundas St. W., 647-351-4793.

Rare birds: The city's best roast-chicken dinners
2. Flock
Rare birds: The city's best roast-chicken dinners

The focus at Cory Vitiello’s Flock is nothing but rotisserie chicken and salads. The two-and-a-half-pound birds are dry rubbed with kosher salt for ultra-juicy meat; the 10-plus-ingredient side salads, assembled to order, include French-style niçoise and Boho kale. Whole chicken with salad and sides like sweet potatoes with chili-lime salt or steamed acorn squash with spicy yogurt, $29. 330 Adelaide St. W., 647-483-5625.

Rare birds: The city's best roast-chicken dinners
3. Café Boulud
Rare birds: The city's best roast-chicken dinners

The kitchen in the recently revamped Café Boulud uses a Rotisol—the Rolls Royce of rotisserie ovens. Chef Sylvain Assié’s poulet à la broche features crumb-stuffed Chantecler chickens seasoned with garlic, thyme and rosemary. Whole chicken, $63; sides like seasonal roasted veg, $9 each. 60 Yorkville Ave., 416-963-6000.

Rare birds: The city's best roast-chicken dinners
4. BPC
Rare birds: The city's best roast-chicken dinners

There are plenty of Portuguese churrasqueiras along Dundas West and College, but your best bet for crackle-skinned churrasco chicken is a trip to the Queensway, where the cooks at BPC marinate the birds in garlic, saffron, paprika and sea salt for a day before roasting. Whole chicken with paprika rice and fried potatoes, $19. 942 The Queensway, 416-255-7177.

Rare birds: The city's best roast-chicken dinners
5. The Chickery
Rare birds: The city's best roast-chicken dinners

David Adjey’s southern-inspired menu at The Chickery pairs his brined and roasted birds with gravy-soaked collard greens, California slaw, crispy mac and cheese and a pickly potato salad. His formula is so popular that he’s expanding to Dubai and Washington, D.C. Whole chicken with two sides, $25. 130 Spadina Ave., 647-347-2222.

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