Beacon Hill Bistro's self-styled farmboy turned chef, Jason Bond, is cooking up a curious take on classic chicken and noodles. It starts with a monthly trip to Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds, a small meat and poultry operation in Concord, where he helps slaughter pasture-raised heirloom egg hens. He then braises these lean but flavorful birds overnight in a rich broth made from the wings, feet, and bones, resulting in meat as tender as that of a pampered young chicken and with the flavor that only three years of a happy-go-clucky outdoor life can lend. Bond serves the meat atop hand-rolled pasta and garnishes it with the hen's unlaid eggs, gently poached. These diminutive Day-Glo-orange orbs—enriched by the bird's free-range diet—remind us of the way eggs should taste, and also answer the proverbial question: They come to your table at exactly the same time.
Beacon Hill Hotel, 25 Charles St., Boston, 617-723-7575, beaconhillhotel.com.
Originally published in Boston magazine,
March 2009
