Leonard Thomas - Cooking with the Chicken Man

Copyright 1998 by Leonard Thomas

All rights reserved.

Warner Books, Inc.

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10017

Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

First eBook Edition: September 2009

ISBN: 978-0-446-56481-6

To my uncle, Frank Shervington

First, I would like to thank God, without whom I would not have been able to write this book and make these changes in mylife. Next, I would like to thank my wife, Yvette, for saying yes when I asked her to marry me, and I want to thank her daughter,Anika, for finding me. (Anika and my nephew, Kevin, brought us together on a blind date.) Thanks and love to my parents, Thelmaand Henry Thomas, because without them there would not be a Chicken Man. Thanks and love to the rest of my family and allmy friends who support me. Thanks to my supervisors and co-workers for listening to me talk about chicken all day and beingguinea pigs for some of my recipesI know that must have driven you all crazy! Thanks to Vera Moore Cosmetics for allowingme to represent them at my first charity function, and to the two teachers who inspired me the most, Chef Belinda and ChefRoberts. Thanks to Ann Tripp and her radio friends for eating my chicken on the air, and to the journalists Randy Kennedyand Chester Higgins, Jr., for seeing more than a city worker on a bridge. Thanks to my manager, Renee Harriston, for all hergood advice, my editor, Amye Dyer, for seeing the potential in me and not giving up, and the others who helped make this bookhappenDiane Luger, Nancy Palubniak, and R. J. Matson.

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank the New York City Department of Transportation, Bureau of Bridges,for allowing me the time, space, and positive cooperation in writing my cookbook.

I would especially like to thank Mr. William F. Chasse, director of bridges, for his encouragement and latitude.

I M JUST AN ORDINARY GUY who works for the citys Department of Transportation raising the drawbridges so the barges and boats can pass. Ive beenworking on one New York City bridge or another for the past twenty-two yearsfrom the Harlem River Bridge to the Gowanus Canalto my current post at the Union Street Bridge in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Now, working the bridges wont make you rich, but itdoes give you the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people and because of the decrease in waterway traffic in pastyears there is often a lot of time to think. Some days Im hoppingopening and closing that drawbridge nonstop, and some daysIm just sitting there for what seems like forever and waiting for something, anything, to happen. I could talk forever about all my varied experiences on the bridges (Ill save that for another book!), but themost important, the one I want to tell you about now, is the story of how I became known as the Chicken Man.

A good friend of mine, Raven the Cake Man of Harlem, got his name because he makes the most fantastic cakes you have evertasted. One afternoon about four years ago, I took one of my stuffed chickens over to Raven because I knew he was hungry fora good meal. After a couple of bites, he gave me a big smile and said, This is good chicken. Im gonna start calling youthe Chicken Man. Im the Cake Man and youre the Chicken Man. Well, thats how the name came about, but its really justthe beginning.

I love chicken. I think about chicken and recipe ideas just pop into my head: fried chicken, grilled chicken, barbecued chicken,roasted chicken, Cajun chicken, tandoori chicken, chicken and rice, sauted chicken, and my specialty, deboned chicken stuffedwith wild rice, collard greens, and turkey sausageI love them all. After years of raising the bridge and thinking about chicken,I decided to get serious about cooking. My wife provided the nudge when she gave me an eleven-week course at the French CulinaryInstitute in New York City as a wedding gift (on our first date I cooked for her, and you could say the rest is history).Ive always felt at home in the kitchen and I was in my glory standing alongside Jacques Pepin, Chef Roberts, and Chef Belindaday to daychopping, deboning, sauting, and baking. I was inspiredwhat had once been just a hobby I wanted to turn intoa part-time career. After I completed the course, I started Lennys Stuffed Chickensa one-man operationserving chicken allover New York City. But I still work the bridges and the catering is done on my days off and weekends.

While working on one of the citys busiest bridgesthe Mill Basin BridgeI often called up the guys at one of the local radiostations to report any activity or traffic mishaps. These guys were great, so one day I decided to take them some of my specialchicken wrapped in foil. They must have liked it because next thing I know theyre asking me to call in every now and thento talk about traffic and chicken. After a while, some listeners who heard me on the radio were saying, Hey, Chicken Man, whats up? People I didnteven know were starting to call me the Chicken Man. But the real validation for the Chicken Man occurred when my face andstory landed on the front page of the Metro section of the New York Times. Now, everybody who read that article was calling me the Chicken Man and doors were opening. It was time for the ChickenMan to make his move. Who would have ever thought that cooking on those little stoves on the bridge would turn me into theChicken Man? Wow!

Heres an example of how my two worldsthe bridge and chickenare forever intertwined (and I wouldnt have it any other way).The average day shift for a bridge worker is eight hours, and the night shift is sixteen. For the last ten years Ive workedthe day shift, and occasionally Ill get stuck working my shift and someone elses. That makes for a very long day, but over the years Ive mastered some of the best fried, stuffed, grilled,boiled, broiled, steamed, sauted, poached, and roasted chicken that you can lay your lips on, and the aromait just dancesin your nose. (Getting hungry?) Believe it or not, one Saturday while working the Mill Basin Bridge in Brooklyn, I decidedto take my smoker to work to smoke a few chickens. On Saturdays during the summer, the car traffic is heavy because we haveto open the bridge for so many sailboats. So this guy, sitting in his car, rolled down the window and said, That smells good.What is it?

I said, Smoked chicken.

Man, can I buy one of those chickens from you?

Get out of here, Im not selling these chickens.

The guy was persistent. He kept after me, saying he had a party to go to that evening and needed to bring a dish. By thistime hes holding up a line of cars, causing a traffic jam, so to get rid of the guy I sold him the chicken, pan and all,for $15. In my mind I pretty much kissed that pan good-bye, but the next day hes back, returning the pan, and raving aboutmy smoked chicken. Since then Ive catered a few of his parties, including his daughters christening!

I have a specialty, and that specialty is deboned chicken. A lot of people cringe at the word deboned; they think its too difficult. Its not, but it is becoming a lost culinary art. Follow the easy instructions on ). (Getting hungrier?)