Sometimes I buy regular chicken. Other times I buy Kosher chicken. When I use the Kosher, it seems to turn out better. Does Kosher chicken tend to be a better quality of product generally? I know it’s more expensive. The brand I’m using is Empire Kosher, by the way.
My mother always bought Empire chickens, and swore they were superior. I’ve never done a side-by-side taste test though, especially since I’m a cheapskate, and buy whatever is cheapest . . . and it’s never Empire. And I can’t compare my chicken to my mother’s, since I don’t make it the same way.
As I understand it, Kosher chicken is essentially brined before you get it. You can get the same quality of flavor by brining your non-kosher chickens.
America’s Best Test Kitchen attribute the superior taste of kosher birds to: 1) the requirement that the animals are killed quickly and drained of blood, preventing a livery taste that you can get if the blood pools and 2) they are buried in salt for an hour after being killed, which as TheFifthYear says essentially brines them. (So don’t brine kosher birds.)
That’s interesting. I’m not about to start brining anything, so I think I’ll just pay a little extra and stick to the Kosher. The better taste makes it worth it, to me.
‘Kosher Chicken Superior’ sounds like the name of a restaurant’s signature dish.
I would be interested in finding out if “free-range” chickens who eat bugs taste better. Because it can’t taste much worse than factory farmed chicken that tastes like soy.
There used to be a restaurant in Chicago on Wabash that featured Amish raised chickens that were very tasty (though tiny).
I subscribe to a local meat CSA, and get chicken, beef, lamb and pork.
The chickens are allowed to roam fenced pasture and woodland by day and go in at night to roost.
Their meat is very chicken-y. I don’t know how to describe it really except to say it tastes like chicken x 10. It’s wonderful!
Also, our cat never showed much interest when we cooked with supermarket meats, but he begs desperately while we’re cooking and eating the CSA meats. It’s pretty annoying, but also interesting that he makes a distinction. When I told Kim, one of the farmers who distributes the shares, she was so amused and delighted she gave us a beef liver for the cat.
Now that I think about it, I remember my grandmother getting kosher chickens, and brining them overnight with kosher salt. It was the best I’ve ever had.
To some extent, but even then, the quality of the bird can make a difference. I’ve never done a taste comparison with chicken, but with fresh organic turkey vs. Butterball (or whatever) grocery store standard frozen…even brined using the identical recipe, the fresh organic is massively better.
Motorgirl, I didn’t know what a CSA was, but I did a little research, and now I’m all set to place my first order for free-range poultry from a nice farm upstate. And it’s all thanks to your post.