Free range chicken

[Shotan]

So, made my weekly trip to the butcher to get a whole chicken to roast.

He had this free range chicken in for a change and highly recommended it to me. He promised I would taste the difference and it was only 20 cents a pound more so what the hell.

Anyway, I am now a convert. It really did taste better.

I recommend trying it for yourself.

[Dythan Dabrave]

hippie


=P

[Shotan]

haha

Now we need free range beer

[Senadin A]

One of my budy got some chicken from a Hutterite colony and damn was it great chicken!

[Tamsin Dyresoul]

So, made my weekly trip to the butcher to get a whole chicken to roast.

He had this free range chicken in for a change and highly recommended it to me. He promised I would taste the difference and it was only 20 cents a pound more so what the hell.

Anyway, I am now a convert. It really did taste better.

I recommend trying it for yourself.

I'm curious about this. Would you say it tasted better and was leaner? That is to say was it fatty at all or was it more dark meat and more flavorful? Or none of the aforementioned?

Let me know since I'm curious about this for purely culinary reasons :)

[Shotan]

If anything, there was less fat. Sometimes you get chicken at the grocery stores, and they have these chunks of fat, especially around the dark meat. Those were completely absent.

As far as the fat content of the meat, I can't say as chicken doesn't really show marbling.

I can tell you it was equal in juicyness, but definately better in flavor.

I don't know if all free range chicken is good, but this guy definately has a great source. For the 20 cents a pound more I am never switching back.

[Oolapz]

Most free range chicken is a scam, and can legally be called that as long as the chickens are allowed to "roam" in their indoor pen.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that chickens raised for their meat have access to the outdoors in order to receive the free-range certification. Free-range chicken eggs, however, have no legal definition in the United States. Likewise, free-range egg producers have no common standard on what the term means. Many egg farmers sell their eggs as free range merely because their cages are 2 or 3 inches above average size, or there is a window in the shed.

In the UK, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says that a free range chicken must have daytime access to open-air runs during at least half of their life. Unlike in the United States, this definition also applies to eggs [1].

The European Union regulates marketing standards for egg farming which specifies a minimum condition for Free Range Eggs states that hens have continuous daytime access to open-air runs, except in the case of temporary restrictions imposed by veterinary authorities.


http://www.plamondon.com/faq_freerange.html