Backyard Poultry Forum

What is the best breed for a eating chicken?

Assuming you are not keen on the mass produced 6 week old chicken and you still want some eggs as well.

I would guess there would be some sort of compromise with between
flavor, tenderness, growth rates and final size.

There may be other characteristics I have not thought of.

It has been mentioned on here that wyandottes are tasty.

"Never met a chicken I didn't like...the taste of."

Anything really. I have Wyandottes, and have grown Australorps, RIR, Barnevelders and Welsummers in the past, all were just fine. My son now has Orpingtons they are on the list to try as well.

They are slower growing than some breeds, but I feel you get a more textured meat that actually tastes like chicken!

Typically I grow them until they are 25-32 weeks of age, seems to be around the time they start to crow, and will process 4-5 at a time. Any smaller birds I butterfly for the bbq,




Ron

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"To the Core"

I think anything with enough meat on it's bones will probably be good eating, anything has to be better than the tasteless broiler chickens surely. Some others I've read about are Dorking, Sussex, either of those crossed with Indian Game (rooster), Marans and Transylvanian Naked Neck. I'm sure there are more though.

I'm personally going to go for the Dorkings, Marans and Sussex under an Indian Game rooster, Maybe even crossing them before adding in the Indian Game. Just from the ones I have at the moment, the Sussex are growing a lot quicker than the Dorking so that may be a useful thing to note when thinking about feed conversion and meat growth, etc.

Tried Aracauna cockerals and they weren't much chop, wouldn't eat them again. Have some Wyandotte cross boys growing will give them a go. Can't butcher them when the kids are home but as the fussy Bugger s turn their noses up at eating our own roos .

Like Ron I think they are all OK and slower growing breeds have better flavour and texture than fast growing breeds. Fast growth rates are important for commercial producers but I wonder whether that is also why their products have the taste and texture of cardboard.

My choice is Indian Game because I want to keep purebreds, they are good eating and one big chook is easier to process than two small ones. If you keep purebreds there is usually a good market for pullets which I like as I don't liking killing good healthy pullets.

Any of the dual purpose breeds are good. My Barnevelder cockerels are very nice as roasters.

We eat our excess Pekin cockerels.

They're surprisingly meaty for a bantam under all those feathers and a nice little roast to split between two. Sure I wouldn't choose them as a meat bird but since I love breeding my walking tea-cosies, that's what we eat. They're actually very tasty and I have one friend who will swap me a whole leghorn carcass for a Pekin one and think she's got the better end of the deal!

I'd love to cross an Australorp to an Indian game to make a meaty all-purpose bird, but I've never tried it.

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Shairlyn's Genetics Lessons

I'm the one who will swap Leggies for Pekins. Actually I'll swap Wyandotte for Pekin, and that's saying something. Pekin is like all the flavour of a full-sized mature boy in one little concentrated package. It's amazing.

Lorp x IG isn't bad but still a late bloomer. Leghorn x IG is a quick maturer with good flesh, not bad flavour.

I must try Wyandotte x Leghorn for flavour and maturity, actually. Dotte is still my fave full-size chook for eating, but best at 26 weeks +.

Marans is very good value. While lankyish at 16 weeks, the flavour is amazing and they're meatier than they look.

Araucana crosses and pure are solid eating, I've found. Again, at least 6 months of age. Solid, muscular bodies, lots of dark meat which is my fave.

Sussex was fine but not as good as dotte:)

Lots of discussion in this sticky: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7999633

http://www.heritagefoodsusa.com/chickenbreeds.php
check out the tasting notes on some of these breeds

Wow! Did you see the prices on those? $44 US each for heritage chicken and $58 US each for duck

Just going to duck out and get me a few from the backyard now

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Erika

That is a GOOD page. I should write me up some flavour profiles on my birds. I am planning to move into supplying mature meat birds on a tiny, local scale - just as soon as I find processing and storage facilities - and I'll have to charge something like that just to cover costs. Hope people don't mind paying $20/kg or more!!

$44.00 USD for a Size 20 chicken

http://georgesfinemeats.com.au/shop/chicken/chicken-roasts/chicken-chem-free-whole-roast-chicken-size-20.html

looks like a bargain by comparison

Perhaps I work to hard for my money because I wouldn't buy one.

Hmmm. There's an interesting claim there about them being processed by a "chemical free" method which makes it tasted better.

Other than that, as far as I can tell, it's a standard commercial meat bird - and I don't even think it's free range, let alone pasture fed, or has seen the sun in its entire life. That's why it's "only" $15.50 ...