Reddi Chick

A ritual I observe at the beginning of most weeks is a Monday morning stop at Reddi Chick at the Brentwood Country Mart. Lunch is not the first thing on my mind at 10 a.m. But since I’ve started doing all my grocery shopping on Monday mornings (Westside grocery stores are blessedly free of the confused and ornery masses on Monday mornings), making one more stop for a rotisserie chicken is no big deal. The same guy waits on me every Monday, and this week, when I confessed that I am not a prolific cook and don’t know my way around a meat counter, he shared some of the key elements of a good rotisserie chicken.

From Alex I learned that their chickens are actually roasted on a rotisserie for the full cooking time (approximately 2 hours), until the internal temperature is 165 F. This is in contrast to Costco chickens, which we all know taste good in that generic brined and golden sort of way. Costco apparently uses an industrial grade convection oven, which in Alex’s opinion is an inferior and dishonest way to cook something that one is selling as rotisserie chicken. We didn’t even talk about the travesty that is the Whole Foods rotisserie chicken. I was afraid to bring up the shriveled, dessicated bird that sells for about the same price as the juicy (and yes, greasy) Reddi Chick chicken – I didn’t want Alex or his coworkers to think less of me for being the kind of tool that ponies up for bad yuppie food. With all of the expertise of the best butcher at Gelson’s, he walked me around the way to quarter a chicken, including the best scissors to use, and which part to check for the tenderness and clear flowing juices that indicate when a chicken is cooked.

“You’ve never seen any blood inside our chickens, have you?” Alex asked. I had to agree that I hadn’t. The reason, he said, was that they never used a microwave or convection oven to finish the cooking.

After the chicken tutorial, I decided to try the baked potatoes. After all, it was only two hours until lunch, and the slow roasted chicken smell was making me hungry. The baked potato menu includes 30 varieties. For all of the retro charm that the Country Mart aspires to, Reddi Chick gives the place its authentic credentials.

Reddi Chick is at the Brentwood Country Mart, 225 26th Street, Santa Monica, 90402

telephone: 310-393-5238