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Omnivoria:
“So, THAT’S What Chicken Tastes Like …”
by Nathaniel Orion Cousins, M.D., J.D (retired), from the March 2006 newsletter
“Yeah, this is what chicken is supposed to taste like!” I quite literally said this to myself the other night as I bit into my first piece of Petaluma Poultry’s “Rocky the Range Chicken,” readily available in our meat department. I have worked with more pieces of chicken over the last 16 years than I care to think about, and I will go on the record right now as saying this is the best chicken I have ever seen OR tasted. If you like chicken at all, you owe it to yourself to pick some up on your next trip to the Co-op. You will not be sorry.
Petaluma Poultry looks to be a purveyor worth supporting, too. The Sonoma County-based company was founded in 1969 by Allen Shainsky, who started working on his family’s chicken ranch at the age of 6, back in the 1930s. These pioneers in the raising of natural and organic chickens now incorporate a network of chicken ranches in Sonoma and Marin counties. They are also pioneers in sustainability and conservation, earning official recognition from the state of California in 2002 for “exemplary resource conservation.” They appear to take excellent care of their employees and the community in which they operate, which is always nice to see from a company I support.
Their chickens are raised on an all-vegetarian diet of corn and soy. They live in well-ventilated and lit barns, and their free-range chickens have free access to outside yards. They also sell what they call “Rocky Jr.,” which is not a “free-range” product, but is still fed the same diet and treated in the same humane manner. Rocky Jr. is harvested at a younger age for a smaller product. Commercial chickens are fed antibiotics to spur artificial growth characteristics, and their food is known to contain animal fats and “by-products.” Petaluma Poultry doesn’t use antibiotics or hormones, relying instead on good husbandry practices to maintain their birds’ health. If a bird does get sick, they then medicate that entire flock, and simply sell the birds as conventional poultry.
The Petaluma Poultry chicken is, quite literally, a bird of another color. I brought home a small package of bone-in, skin-on thighs (my personal favorite cut), gave them a light dusting of salt and pepper with a dash of garlic powder for luck, and baked them at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. I wanted to keep their preparation simple to better appreciate the flavor of the chicken, and boy was I glad I did! The thighs came out of the oven golden brown on the skin side. The flesh was a beautiful dark color, somewhat darker than the “average” chicken. It seemed, to me, to be a bit “denser” than typical commercial chicken, almost more like a game bird. I think between the birds’ diet and their ample exercise, they really are a superior meat product. This chicken reminds me of chickens I ate as a young lad, when my family kept a small chicken coop behind our old house in Palouse.
I hope that those of you reading who enjoy chicken will come down to our meat department and give Rocky the Range Chicken his day in court. Your taste buds will thank you for it, and it is worth noting that in an independent lab study, Petaluma Poultry’s products were shown to be 30-50% lower in fat (by weight) than conventional commercial chickens. Granted, this study was in 1997, in the San Francisco area, but I can certainly attest that the thighs I tried DID seem less fatty than usual for thighs with the skin on. I hope those of you so inclined enjoy Rocky the Range Chicken as much as I did!
1 can pitted black olives, drained
1/4 c. olive oil (extra virgin is best)
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
1 Tbsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed or crumbled
4-8 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 cut-up chicken or equivalent in parts
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
salt (optional, but good if you're not salt-restricted)
1/4 c. dry white wine (or broth or apple juice)
2 Tbsp. chopped parsley
Mix first 7 ingredients. Pour over chicken in large zipper-style plastic bag or plastic bowl with tight lid; seal bag or bowl. Marinate in refrigerator two hours or overnight, turning occasionally.
Arrange chicken with marinade in shallow baking pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar and a couple pinches of salt. Pour wine into pan.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until cooked through, basting every 15 minutes or so. Pile chicken on platter, scatter the delicious olives around, drizzle with some of the pan juices, and sprinkle with parsley.
Note: If you can get fresh herbs, by all means use them instead of the dried ones!
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