Rue St. Antoine Food Week-Boucherie Becquerel

One of the best blessings/curses of the rue St. Antoine food shops are the roasted chickens next door to me at Boucher Becquerel. Every time I step out my door there is the rotisserie on the sidewalk turning these rows of plump juicy chickens with a shelf underneath brimming with potatoes that are cooked with the juices of the chicken. I can't even begin to describe the intoxicating smell which also wafts up to my open windows in the summertime. It gets so distracting that sometimes I have to stop writing my blog and go downstairs to buy a chicken leg to satisfy my craving. The skin is crispy and slightly burnt and the inside succulent, moist, and authentically finger licking good, not some sales line from the colonel. The butcher offers two kinds, regular and farm raised. The regular is 10 euros for a whole and 5 for the half and the farm-raised chickens are 15 euros a kilo. They will also cut them for you upon request. I tell many of my tour clients when we pass that there is no better meal in Paris than one of these chickens, the potatoes, a green salad, and a good bottle of red. In fact I passed this advice to a very nice couple from the San Francisco area who are staying in an apartment near me in the Marais who did a tour the other day and here is what they wrote me just now: Wellllll...... H and I are sitting here having DEVOURED the pre-cooked chicken and mache salad and then we topped it off with a handful of macarones from Laduree....OMG!! Sooooooo frigging good!!!! Thanks for the dinner tip!!!!

Boucherie Becquerel offers an extensive variety of fresh meats and poultry including rabbit, whole farm raised raw chickens with the head and feet still attached, all cuts of beef, tripe, fresh ground beef, tongue, pork, veal, ham, kidneys, and blood sausage. Pre-made beef and chicken kabobs and roasts garnished with dried fruits and herbs, ready to go into the oven are available. Boucherie Becquerel is also a charcuterie with a large selection of patés, terrines,prepared salads, rillettes, and sausage. I bought one of their free range turkeys a few years ago for Thanksgiving and hands down, it was the best turkey I have ever eaten.

My friend E from New York who owns an apartment in the same building as the butcher, reveals the ugly side of the famed roasted chickens: Perhaps you should post an evening shot of 2 locals scratching each other's eyes out over the last roast chicken!  One of my nieces was appalled at my behavior one evening when the last one was bought right out from under my nez/nose! I was irate! The lesson to be learned is you better get there by 7PM so you don't have to physically assault someone to get a chicken.

Boucherie Becquerel
113 rue St. Antoine, 4th arr.
Open Tuesday to Friday 8AM-1PM, 4PM-8PM, Saturday 8AM-8PM, Sunday 8AM-2PM
Metro: St. Paul

 

I thought I saw a (dead) wabbit!

 

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I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotteís professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
Minimum of 2 students, maximum 6 students.

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Comments

[amy]

Just read your piece on the roast chicken posted today, and it is making me salivate!!! It looks too good to be true….you know how I LOVE a roast chicken!! Next time we come over let’s do a roast chicken(s) meal together washed down with lots of red wine……!!!

[Cheryl]

We were all counting on photos of the roasted chicken this week. But WHERE, oh where is our hot, hot, hot Chicken Man????

[Layla Morgan Wilde]

Sometimes, I have to time reading your foodie posts after I've eaten or I'll devour the screen. Nothing is better than a simple roast chicken but tell me: which tastes better the regular or farm raised? Surely France doesn't do those horrid chick farming like in the US. With all the salmonella scares lately about eggs, I'm wanting to know where my food comes from.

[Catherine]

When I lived in Paris, I would buy one of these chickens every Sunday on my way home from church and share it with my Old English sheepdog who was eagerly awating my return with our Sunday sared dinner....thanks for the memories! I share your bog with friends..great verbiage and beautiful pictures

[Alina]

oh my god I'm hungry !!! thank's Richard !!!

[Stuart]

Your series on Rue St. Antoine Food Week is bringing back wonderful memories. I am so happy I decided to live in that neighborhood, far, far away from the sterile and banal 16th

[Yuriy]

Richard, so all you have to do is leave your apartment, go to Boucherie Becquerel, then stop by the Aux Ducs de Gascone for some pate, then turn around and walk for another 60 seconds to get some nice cheeses. My jealousy defies my love to ipreferparis :)

[Uigei]

I would love a butcher shoppe tutorial. Are those beef kabobs actually $28/lb (K). How can folks afford those prices? Are my calculations incorrect ?
I love the blog. I am truly vicariously living my Paris life through you.

[Taobao buy]

Um...like the style of your writing.*_*