Alan Davidson

Chicken

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

chicken dishes are possibly the most nearly ubiquitous menu items of a non-vegetarian kind. They may be taboo in certain circumstances in some cultures, but are generally available to all, irrespective of religion and with fewer financial constraints than other flesh.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Americas, Oceania, South Africa, Australia, and Russia consumed more chicken (by weight) than any other meat. In China, where intensive chicken production did not get under way until the 1970s, they eat a quarter as much per capita as the USA’s goliath 45 kg per person per year. In many ways, this is transformative.