When you hear the phrase “dirty bird,” delicious take-out chicken might not come to mind but that’s what you get at Dirty Bird restaurant situated in the heart of New York’s West Village. They are known for using only hormone free, free range chickens from Amish country in Pennsylvania.
For less than 7 dollars, you can get 3 chicken strips with a side of honey mustard and a drink. For New York this is dirt cheap. At that price, my expectations of the food quality were even lower. However, I was pleasantly surprised.
The breading was crisp and flaky, revealing a succulent strip of juicy chicken breast meat with a nuanced flavor. It would have been easy for the meal to end quickly, but the portions are large. VOICE staffer Kenneth Napier, who identifies himself as a “notorious consumer of meat,” ordered the five-strip meal and said that he would have been satisfied with the three-strip meal.
You can get the chicken strips in a wrap with lettuce that has just-picked crispness. According to manager Joseph Ciriello, all the fruits and vegetables used at Dirty Bird are bought locally whenever possible. The wrap also includes a homemade buttermilk ranch that oozes out of the bottom and onto the plate.
Dirty Bird’s selection is limited; they stick to chicken, but they do chicken so well that you will forget that the Texas Longhorn even exists.
The setting at Dirty Bird is casual with minimal seating and a few pieces of folk art from an artist based in Ohio. The real focus is the food and the totally reasonable prices.
Dirty Bird, which has been around for six years, has been featured on The Cooking Channel and in the New York Times and The New York post, among other media outlets.
