Chicken Beyond the Everyday

Why a lesson on chicken when there are none devoted to beef, pork, or lamb? There are a couple of reasons. The most obvious is that Americans eat a lot of it. It’s relatively inexpensive, and there’s nothing not to like about the taste. For the last twenty-five years or so, it’s been the low-fat meat of choice, especially in the form of boneless, skinless breasts, which are even available on every fast-food menu in the country. Does this sound like faint praise? It is. I think chicken needs help. The other reasons for focusing on chicken are the issues around its production and labeling, which are windows onto commercial agricultural practices generally. We twenty-first century types are pretty much disconnected from the farm and any thought of how our food is grown. By understanding more, you can not only choose, buy, and eat better chicken but influence the decency and quality of this part of our food supply as well. The food called chicken has become so much a part of our daily menu that we don’t even to think about the noble little birds that are its source.