Chicken man gears up for Fieldays
Chicken Man John Neal has been gearing up for his first time at Fieldays, serving up fried chicken that is cholesterol and dairy-free.
Chicken Man John Neal has been gearing up for what he hopes will be a busy week for his first time at
Fieldays.
Neal, who has been on site since Saturday, is serving up fried chicken that is both cholesterol and dairy
free.
“The truck has been purpose-built for chicken and chips and one of the beauties of it is we use fresh
chicken, we use the very best cotton seed oil to cook it in and we use a dairy-free coating.”
Neal said he started using cotton seed oil years ago and that he’s never found anything better since.
When he first started all those years ago, he says everyone used fat.
“The beauty of cotton seed oil is that it’s a very thin oil that drains off the chicken extremely quickly, you get a lot of other oils that cling to it and that’s where you get your greasy type effect.”
Neal says the cotton seed oil blends with the coating they use which was developed in New Zealand.
“That fact it’s dairy-free is not something I consciously did, it was just something that just sort of developed because we know that our friends use a dairy mix flavour in their coating. So I thought, bugger it let’s do something different.”
Neal says the oil will last about 1000 pieces of chicken and then he replaces it.
“It’s funny the chicken tells us when the oil is going off as well, sounds a bit crazy but the chicken comes out a wee bit darker and also your nose tells you.
“So we’ll kick off with fresh oil on Wednesday and I imagine we’ll replace probably Thursday night, going from what I’m hearing.”
This is not the first major event for the chicken man who only built the truck in November last year.
“This unit has done the V8s at Pukekohe, Big Day Out, Rhythm and Vines at Gisborne and the Red Bull
Trolley Darby at the Domain.”
Neal says he was in the fruit and vege game for 25 years before he got introduced to chicken.
“If you said to me 25 years ago that I would be involved in the deep frying industry I would have said, no way, Jose.”
Chicken Box worker Jan Turner says in the end it is about how much they are selling.
“Obviously at the end of the day we’ve got to make some money.”
Neal says it is hard work, but he enjoys it.
“I’ve been in this chicken game about 26 years, that’s why they call me Chicken Man John.”
