For me, picnic rooster, Denver’s unique Elitch Gardens and my birthday in August have permanently connected the plan of what summer months is meant to be.
As a kid, becoming born in August meant I in no way got to have a classroom birthday party — the just one exactly where your mother exhibits up with a platter of chocolate-frosted cupcakes and all the other kids assume you are interesting for a working day.
For years, my mom always created up for this by frying a double batch of hen, baking cupcakes or brownies (anything at all was good as very long as it was chocolate), and cautiously tucking our picnic into two rectangular Tupperware containers. I try to remember them: just one had a mint inexperienced top rated, the other pale yellow.
I was allowed to invite a couple of buddies to shell out the afternoon at Elitch’s, driving rollercoasters, enduring the Octopus, and marveling at the park’s lush floral shows. When we received hungry, we headed for the picnic pavilion, the place overhead the roller coaster vehicles using the Wildcat’s rails creak, rattle and roar.
A long time prior to mobile telephones, someway Mom understood when we’d be hungry and had presently spread a crimson-and-white checkered fabric in which evening meal lay waiting around. Several hours in the cooler hardly ever influenced the taste of mom’s juicy fried rooster.
Quick forward a bunch of decades, and fried rooster is nonetheless my go-to for celebrations massive and little, together with birthdays, wrapping up a demanding hike or bike journey, or simply just acknowledging a working day when the weeds in my backyard garden did not get the most effective of me.
And even though fried rooster employed to be restricted to property-cooking and what KFC and its bigger-than-lifetime founder Colonel Harland Sanders pumped into the American culinary mainstream, these days there’s a great deal of extraordinary fried hen to be had that can easily be outlined as Colorado’s personal.
A single of the very best out there is The Publish Rooster & Beer. With spots in Lafayette, Longmont, Denver’s Rosedale community, Boulder and, given that this summer time, in Estes Park, there’s an conveniently obtainable outpost to obtain your up coming fried hen meal.
Soon after sampling fried rooster all about the place, tasting concerning 50 to 75 recipes right before environment up their initial shop in Lafayette on July 4, 2014, chef and operating spouse Brett Smith said the Post’s edition finished up applying a gluten-cost-free flour mix. That determination was made to assistance the coating absorb substantially less oil than frequent wheat flour.
Combined with a stress frying process, the Post’s fried rooster has a skinny layer of crust so the pores and skin stays intact, is much less greasy and clings to the meat better.
That is a great matter for a amount of explanations.
Through the pandemic, the Post’s hen made an monumental following even even though all they offered ended up the to-go versions.
“I normally explain to persons, all the unique levels of the chicken are fantastic, regardless of whether ten minutes following coming out of the fryer, 45-minutes afterwards following you have gotten it household, or consuming it straight out of the fridge the upcoming working day,” Smith claimed.
Now that the Post’s locations are open for in-dwelling dining, all of these alternatives are practical — along with a fourth a single: picnic hen. That’s the 1 you place into the glass storage container and tuck into the Yeti cooler with a reusable ice pack.
The crimson-and-white fabric is optional, but awesome if you’re likely for nostalgia.
The Post’s simple recipe shakes on a little bit of spice, together with cayenne and chili powder, offering it bold flavor. Refined warmth is No. 1 when you are hoping to determine what is fried chicken, Colorado-design and style.
If you’re into it, for $1.95 you can make your bird Nashville Sizzling. That edition kicks up the heat, prepping the hen before breading it with a household habañero sizzling sauce built with tomato paste, puréed habañeros and cider vinegar.
In case you’re apprehensive it’s not sizzling more than enough, don’t be.
If you are savoring your chook on web-site at a single of the Post’s places to eat, buy it with marginally sweet, cayenne pepper-spiked hushpuppies and spicy collard greens with rashers of bacon. Never skip the prosperous, chorizo region gravy for dipping and dolloping about buttermilk cheddar biscuits.
Or, get the mac & cheese, either basic or spiked with green chile, a different Colorado favored.
Until you’re picnicking. If that’s the scenario, a basic deli slaw may well transportation you back again to the 70s. If you choose a picnic in the right here and now, opt for a facet of quinoa and kale.
The Post’s fifth location opened in Estes Park this July on the grounds of yet another Colorado basic, The Stanley Lodge. The cafe is just within the principal gates in a renovated carriage residence making, higher than the Aiden Sinclair Underground theater.
The historic setting up also features considerable patio seating with views of the majestic Rocky Mountains. Open for weekend brunch, lunch and meal, marvel at the rumble of distant thunder just before afternoon showers roll in, or bask in the Alpenglow, surrounded by solar-kissed mountain tops and gilded wildflowers in the meadow.
Alongside with Colorado-model hen, appreciate the Post’s regionally crafted beers, including Wonderful American Beer Competition medal-winners El Corn, a Mexican design dark lager, and a western pilsner named Howdy.
It is fried rooster served on a patio whilst you’re soaking up mountain sunshine and sipping brews. There’s no head-rattling, creaky rollercoaster overhead to interrupt dialogue. It is just you, the chicken, a beer and Rocky Mountain clean air.
It appears like the ultimate Colorado picnic.
Extra Information about The Write-up Hen & Beer
Estes Park area: 333-D E. Wonderview Ave, Estes Park, CO 80517
Test web page for other Put up spots
Get hold of: (970) 287-5001 | [email protected]
Hours: Monday & Thursday: 4-9 pm | Tuesday & Wednesday: Shut | Friday: 12-9 pm | Saturday & Sunday: Brunch 10 am – 3 pm Supper 3 pm – 9 pm
What’s on the menu: Colorado-Model fried hen, sandwiches, salads, desserts, gluten-cost-free selections, craft beer, cocktails, wine. Indoor and patio seating readily available, or get your hen to-go.
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