Chicken
Somehow it has turned out that I love chicken the best. It is mild, moist, and filling, but with one requirement – it must good quality meat, which means free-range, organic chicken. As far as I can remember, starting way back in my childhood, making chicken on the weekends was a weekend ritual – a whole roasted chicken or smoked chicken after a trip to the sauna, along with a malt beverage. It seems that my favourite way to have chicken is roasted in a covered pan with adjika. That was a treat that symbolized the weekend and time spent together with family, having something wonderful to eat. There were always potatoes and something from the garden or the cold cellar (typical in the 1980s). Today, when all types of chicken are available, not just grown in Latvia, but also from other European countries, it is my favourite even more. Local country-raised chickens are a real treasure, especially if they have been fed pears, grains, and everything else from your own garden. There are also organically grown chickens from my favourite farmers, and the French birds (corn, blackfoot, broilers) that I get upon occasion. It’s amazing how varied and flavourful chicken can be. Many try to abstain from meat, but I do eat meat and have done since I was pregnant with my first daughter, and, as I already mentioned, it had to be quality meat. I eat it because I have learned to listen to my body, and if it requires meat, I eat it. You don’t need a lot, and the tenderness of a breast always wins out. And even though it seems to be the same type of bird, varieties differ. So you don’t get confused in the store, I will describe a few that I enjoy the most and that are worth trying. If you know how to prepare them well, enjoyment is guaranteed.
Stewing hens, of course, are used for broth. Boiling a large pot for freezing guarantees a supply for a while. This hen will not do for roasting, because it is tough, and even with long cooking, it will never become tender enough.
Pullets usually weigh 0.6‒1 kg and are known for their mild, moist meat and light skin. It is easily prepared, because it is not very big. It’s ideal for a small roast and the meat has a mild flavour.
Spring chicks, originally known aspoussinor coquelet,is a young chicken that is younger than 28 days, and usually weighs between 400‒450 g, but not more than 750 g. It has a mild, light pink flesh and skin. It’s great for preparing quickly and is very moist with a mild taste and texture. Usually, one chicken serves one person. If you have some side dishes, one chicken can feed two.
Corn chickens and hens, with their yellow skin and meat,are a traditional southern French product – they are yellow because the chickens are fed corn. The meat is tender and juicy. The young chickens usually weight between 300–400 g and the hen between 1.3‒2 kg. It’s ideally suited for frying on a pan or cooking in the oven.
Pea hens belong to the pheasant family. This meat is quite valuable – it contains amino acids and little fat. The taste resembles that of wild fowl. It’s known as the bird of royalty. In comparison with regular homegrown chickens, it has 10‒15% more meat, primarily muscle tissue.
Broilers or fryers are young chickens weighing between 0.9‒2.5 kg. The meat is light pink and the skin is light-coloured. It cooks quickly. It is ideally suited for cutting up into pieces – breasts, legs, wings, backs, and everything else. It is currently the most popular type of chicken used in cooking.
The blackfoot hen (pouletnoir)is a chicken star in France. It is known for its black feathers and feet, but the taste of the flesh is more similar to game. Blackfoots are usually slaughtered at least 81 days old, so they have a distinct flavour.
The meat and texture of farm chickens will always be more firm and muscular, because its body works like that of a human – living in the countryside, it moves about freely outside more than other types of chickens. As a result, farm chickens need to be cooked a bit longer than factory-raised chickens.