The Whole Chicken: 100 Easy But Innovative Ways to Cook from Beak to Tail

Carl Clarke has garnered the reputation from his industry peers and the general public alike as an authority and advocate on cooking ethically reared chicken. What he doesn't know about chicken isn't worth knowing, from brining and seasoning to poaching, grilling, and frying. The Whole Chicken is not only an homage to the world's most eaten meat, but also a demonstration of its versatility, from the pie that everyone wants to perfect, to the spicy and sour chicken thighs found on the hawker stalls on the streets of Seoul. With detailed, step-by-step photography showing exactly how to joint a chicken, the chapters that follow—whole bird, breast, wing, thigh, leg, skin, bone and offal—show exactly how to use every last scrap. This is in equal parts a cookbook, a compendium, and a love letter, with a whole lot of style and personality to frame it.

Carl Clarke, prior to being chef/proprietor of London's iconic—and arguably best—chicken restaurant, Chick'n'sours, has had both a widely revered and varied career. After accidentally stumbling into the restaurant trade as a 15-year-old runaway, he's been a cook in the Royal Marines, U2's head chef at The Clarence Hotel in Dublin, a private chef to a former US President, traveled the world, and worked in some of the world's leading restaurants, from The Fat Duck's development kitchen to Le Manoir. Among that, Carl was one of the UK's most highly regarded DJs in the 90s and early 2000s. In 2010, Carl met his now-business partner, David Wolanski, at a music festival; by 2015, after several highly successful pop ups, the pair opened Chick'n'sours in East London. By 2017, they had rolled out a Covent Garden branch, and in 2019, another site in Islington, as well as three fast food outlets, Chick'n. This is his first book.