Tips for choosing good chicken

Chicken meat is delicious and nutritious. In addition to protein, albumin, fat, chicken meat also contains vitamins A, B1, B2, C, E, calcium, phosphorus, iron. This is a high-quality food, easily absorbed and digested by the human body, but the important thing is to choose good chicken.

Please refer to the ways to choose delicious chicken below so that whether you buy live chicken or meat chicken, you can choose the best ingredients for your family meal.

How to choose live chicken

According to the experience of good housewives, a rooster with firm, delicious meat has a bright red comb, flexible eyes, not lethargic. Comparing 2 chickens of the same size, you feel that the heavier chicken has firmer meat.

Some other characteristics that a good rooster should have: Smooth, shiny feathers close to the body; sharp beak, no mucus; straight, slender legs, even yellow and shiny leg skin; short spurs (if the spurs are long, it shows that the chicken is old).

You lift the chicken's feathers, if you see that the chicken's skin is thin and soft, and when you gently squeeze the body, it feels firm, not flabby, and has some large yellow streaks under the breast, wings... then that's a good chicken. Under the chicken's wings and armpits, if you can see meat and blood vessels, it means the chicken is firm and has no fat. If the crop is not tight, it means the chicken is healthy.

As for hens, you should choose chickens that have laid a few litters, have bright red combs that do not droop, and when you open the breast you will see yellow skin. The breast is narrow but firm, and the skin on the wings will be darker yellow.

You should choose chickens with small legs and long beaks. Free-range chickens often have blunt beaks because they peck at gravel a lot when foraging, and their ankles often have red mite nests.

The hens that have laid eggs have large testicles. If you don't like hens that have laid eggs, choose the ones with small testicles. Absolutely do not choose the ones with black spots.

Ready-to-eat chicken

Native chicken has light yellow skin, thin, smooth, highly elastic and dark yellow in some places such as breast, wings, back. Ready-made native chicken usually has a compact, firm body, narrow breast.

Good chicken meat should look fresh, not have a bad smell, and the skin should have no bruises or blood clots. If you want to buy good chicken, you should not choose chickens that are dark because those chickens have died before being processed.

In addition, you should press on the chicken's body, breast or thigh to check, if the meat is firm, the chicken is good. If the meat is flabby, slippery, deformed, or has a watery appearance, it means the chicken has been injected with drugs or water, absolutely do not buy it.

Check the chicken's neck. If the neck is shiny, without bruises or tiny red bumps, the chicken is healthy and delicious. On the contrary, if the skin on the neck has an unusual color, the chicken is sick.

You need to observe to see if the chicken is dyed or not. If the chicken skin is yellow and the fat inside is white, then the chicken is chemically dyed.

Is rooster or hen meat better?

This depends on each person's taste. Hen meat is softer than rooster meat, especially young hens. If the hen has laid about 1-2 litters, the meat is still delicious. If the hen has laid many litters, the meat will be tough, bland, and less delicious. If the hen is old, the meat must be simmered for a long time before it can be eaten.

Usually, a hen weighing about 1.8 - 2.5kg/chicken is suitable. If it is under 1.8kg, the chicken meat will easily become loose and too soft, and will not taste good.

Rooster meat is firmer than hen meat, and when boiled, it will not be as soft as hen meat. However, rooster meat when processed into dishes such as chicken stir-fried with lemongrass and chili, chicken stewed with bamboo shoots, chicken fried with salt, etc. is very delicious. Roosters that have mated for a long time will also be very tough, no different from the meat of hens that have laid 4-5 litters.

Boiled or steamed hens are tastier than roosters. Roosters are tastier when cooked in stews or stir-fries than hens.