Does American Chicken Taste Like Wood?

Two of my co-workers are originally from China. They both mentioned to me over lunch the other day that when they first moved here, they thought that the chicken here tasted like wood. In order to get yummy tasting chicken they would often resort to buying fresh killed chickens from stores in Chinatown, such as Wings or Ming Kee. You can also get t-shirts from this place in Cambridge, Mayflower Poultry.

To test out this theory, I asked X. to help me buy a live chicken this week. We walked over to Ming Kee which is only a block from our office and she helped me pick out a nice 3 pounder. She speaks Chinese, which helps as the workers there were limited in their English communication. My feathery friend came to $8.75 and they de-feathered him and separated all the giblets for future use.

I polled the Chinese people in my office (n=2) and decided to opt for cooking it by boiling with green onion and ginger. It takes about 1 hour, but the process is pretty easy because it just involves throwing everything into the pot.



I've got my eye on you!!! This is a little creepy. But delicious. I think it is the combination of the skin, dark meat and giblet bits that makes it extra tasty and so non-wood-like. I also saved the broth for other tasty recipes.



It was served with a green onion, ginger and sesame oil dipping sauce!