Recently, I’ve been having trouble finding frozen whole chickens for roasting in our local Safeway. But they do have something called Ginseng-fed chicken, which seems to be the only roaster option.
Why ginseng-fed? and does it affect the taste at all?
Some studies have shown that a ginseng-supplemented diet allows certain fatty acids to be preserved longer, so the meat stays fresher longer. (including when frozen, if that makes sense.)
For what it’s worth,I don’t notice any appreciable difference in taste.
“Tastes like chicken.”
In general, diet affects the flavor of meats. It doesn’t necessarily translate to a ginseng fed chicken tasting like ginseng, but it could change the flavor in some way. It certainly has to be an improvement over the chemical chow they feed most chickens that must be designed with the intent of removing flavor altogether.
In one of the Nero Wolfe stories Nero, while still in hiding from Arnold Zeck, considers whether it would be safe to have his poultry supplier start some quail on a diet of blueberries. I think it was quail, might have been pheasant. I just googled it and couldn’t find a commercial supplier of such, so apparently he had a special arrangement.