Sunday roast or not
What is a meat chicken or meat breed?
As the name suggests, the meat chicken, also known as the broiler chicken, was bred for meat production. However, we are not talking about meat hybrids here. Meat breeds are usually large and heavy breeds that are reluctant to fly or are unable to fly at all. They also lay eggs, but relatively few compared to their laying hen sisters. Meat breeds are usually very calm, friendly and good-natured animals. These chickens are generally good feed converters and grow up quickly.
The chicken meat you buy in the supermarket comes from meat hybrids that are bred to put on meat super fast so that they can be slaughtered at the age of 6-8 weeks. Yes, that’s right – a roast chicken has usually not even reached the age of 2 months and often can no longer stand at the end because it has become too heavy too quickly for its bones and barely existing muscles to carry it. These chickens are also much leaner than a “real” chicken – the fat has been bred out of them. The meat from the supermarket is white, fibrous and tasteless when cooked.
A chicken from your own garden, regardless of whether it is a meat chicken, a ruskchicken or a laying chicken, has a much firmer, darker meat that is more reminiscent of a duck or goose. It is also marbled like a nice steak and puts on fat. This is not only due to the better feed that the animals get in their own garden, but is also due to the fact that a garden chicken is allowed to move around and can therefore develop more muscles.
Here are some examples of the meat breeds
Dorking
German Salmon Chicken / Faverolles
Houdan
Jersey Giant
Niederrheiner
Sussex