Heritage Chicken Sampler
Eight 3 lb chickens, two each of four breeds, wrapped individually.
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Our Heritage Chicken Sampler is a remarkable opportunity to taste
chickens that your grandparents might have enjoyed. This is the
oldest continuous standard bred poultry in the country. Pure
standard bred poultry and the only farm with approval from the
American Poultry Association. These chickens are raised by Frank
Reese of Good Shepherd Ranch in Kansas. Frank specializes in
poultry, and if you ordered a turkey from us, chances are it came
from Frank's farm.
In this sampler, we offer four different and distinct breeds: the
Plymouth Rock, one of the oldest breeds in America, the Jersey
Giant, perfect for roasting, the New Hampshire, a cousin to the
Rhode Island Red, and the Cornish Game, an English breed with
darker meat and a fuller flavor profile. All our chickens are
pasture raised without hormones and antibiotics from a Certified
Humane facility.
What this means, aside from the great flavor, is a bird that has
almost no fat, and whose meat is firmer than commodity birds who
are pumped full of fluid and who never see the outside of a cage.
Cooking these birds is best done low and slow so they don�t
toughen. Poaching, or braising are great cooking options besides
standard roasting. They are muscular because they are outside
running around, doing what chickens should be doing�expressing
themselves vigorously, eating bugs and seeds, and generally
enjoying that very real thing called the pecking order.
This package allows you to taste chickens that are richly flavored
with velvety flesh that will completely alter your expectations of
chicken. Once you have tasted them all you can decide which breed
suits your taste and needs the best.
The 150-year-old Plymouth Rock, is the ultimate broiler chicken; it
is also a member of the American Poultry�s Standards of
Perfection. This was the original chicken produced in the United
States.
The New Hampshire is a descendant of the Rhode Island breed. Like
their less blocky relative the Plymouth Rock, they are a
dual-purpose chicken, known both for their eggs and delicious, very
fleshy but smooth meat.
The Cornish Game, a breed from England, arrived in America in the
19th Century, and was developed solely for its meat. That meat,
darker than your average chicken meat, is robust and firm, with a
flavor slightly reminiscent of game.
Frank Reese chose this last breed, the Jersey Giant, to illustrate
the diversity of heritage chicken breeds. The Jersey Giant is a
slow growing bird (it takes 24-28 weeks to reach market weight, as
compared to the Plymouth�s 16-18 weeks). A larger chicken with
silky and rich meat, this is the perfect chicken for roasting.
Dress it simply so you can taste its natural flavors.
