DISH OF THE WEEK: Snowdance Farm Half Chicken at THE BANTY ROOSTER

Every week, I document another dish that impressed and satiated me during my food adventures around New York City

SADLY, THE BANTY ROOSTER IS NOW CLOSED.

My heart is breaking for restaurant owners and employees during this unimaginable pandemic. From the most high end to the smallest mom-and-pop immigrant run joint, they are all suffering right now.

But in some ways, the ones that hurt especially hard are the restaurants that just opened. It takes months if not years to get a restaurant off the ground, find the space, hire the staff, etc. And just as you’re building momentum, everybody is ordered to not eat at restaurants anymore. Everybody was told that the NYC restaurant scene was difficult to survive. But nobody mentioned this.

One of those new restaurants was one I discovered just a few weeks before we all went on quarantine. And they had only opened about a month prior. I enjoyed my meal so much, I was already giving the name out for visitors who asked for general New York restaurant recommendations.

The Banty Rooster looked like many new casual but nice chef-driven restaurants. It was modern and sleek with some little nooks and crannies. But the menu was a bit different.

Southwestern cuisine is the focus of the menu, which is very under-represented in the city, especially in a fancier setting like this. There was a restaurant years ago called Hell’s Kitchen (unrelated to the TV show or the current restaurant with that name) that specialized in this food. And for years, it was my go-to when going to the theater. But since they closed, I can’t remember the last time I had something similar.

Any meal here should probably start off with a heart attack… I mean, the plate of fried chicken skins. They are salty and crispy and served with a very cool buttermilk ranch.

Both appetizers we chose were spot-on. I really want to rave more about the octopus tentacle, but I noticed it’s no longer on their listed menu. Regardless, it was impossibly tender and had a thrilling white molé sauce.

The delicata squash was roasted and blistered and had its own rich inventive molé made with more squash.

I have to say both main dishes also showcased expert cooking and hearty spiced flavors. The pork collar was fatty as expected but was cut with a hatch chile sauce and some tangy cotija cheese.

Really any of the aforementioned dishes could have been my pick here. We really had a phenomenal meal, but I’m going to choose the most comforting of all which was the half chicken.

From a prized upstate farm, this generous portion of fowl retained so much tender butteriness, it almost tasted milky. I’m sure the butter helped. I’ve had a number of excellent restaurant chicken dishes that really make you question the poultry you’ve been eating all your life. How can chicken taste this good?

The chicken was also accompanied with “mom’s rice” which was a comforting plate of wild rice cooked in chicken drippings, and some white sauce called sauce supréme. A squeezer of hot sauce was served on the side and addeda nice zing.

Looking back at what I’ve written, this is one of the longer and most detailed posts I’ve done in a while. Just goes to show how excited I was about The Banty Rooster and how much I’m thinking about them during this difficult time.  Price: $29

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