If you like chicken, and especially if you tned toward simpler preparations, like some of the roasting recipes we've posted, then the bird matters. Share tips here on where the best birds come from.
Here's what I've learned over time:
1. Aplogies to the Tyson and Purdue families, but those industrially-bred and water-rejected birds usually disappoint. The flesh cooks mushy and meally and lacks good flavor.
2. At the opposite extreme, I haven't discerned a taste advantage to the free-range, antibiotic-free, expensive birds. I think the birds probably had a nicer life, and I am glad to do without the antibiotics in my food, but otherwise I can't taste a real advantage.
3. My best results have come from grocery Kosher chickens, and from this butcher counter variety at Whole Foods that they call air-chilled.
Yours?
