Brazilian Pavilion "Chicken Bossa Nova"
The old Brazilian Pavilion restaurant on E 53rd St served fried chicken with crisply fried garlic and parsley: Chicken Bossa Nova.
I ordered this many times over many years and continue to miss it. Does anyone have a recipe for their version, which I should point out was fried with a batter, not grilled with herbs?
It was particularly light and crispy, and I have wondered if tapioca flour was used as the breading.
Thanks for any guidance!
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Toot
Sep 23, 2011 07:15 AM
There is no dish called Chicken Bossa Nova in Brazil (or at least I have never heard about). The restaurant probably used the name because it sounds very Brazilian... You might want to do a search under "frango a passarinho" This is a very traditional way to do fried chicken (or grilled) in Brazil. It can be battered or not and in general has a lot of garlic.
›1 Reply-
re: Toot
edbattle
Sep 23, 2011 08:57 PM
Thank you! I used the restaurant's name for this dish in case someone else who knew the actual restaurant remembered the recipe. Brazilian Pavilion preceded the Brazilian restaurants on W 46th, as the project of the guy who ran the Brazilian pavilion (hence the name) at the 1964 NY World's Fair. The food was good, but I never had to figure out how to make it because I simply had to walk up 53rd St to eat it. Once they closed, it took me several years to find a caipirinha recipe that tasted like theirs--and I have never gotten the chicken right. One trick I just picked up from the Google search for 'frango a passrinho' is to use a slotted spoon to control a quick fry of diced garlic and parsley and/or cilantro at the end of cooking. That garnish was a big part of the flavor of the restaurant's recipe. Thanks again!
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