Prime Poultry

I am always happy to see chickens running around the backyard, and it is a common sight in rural France. Many are there just to provide a few eggs for the table, but some farming families still raise poultry in the open air, with no battery houses in sight. Retail farm poultry, or volaille fermier, which includes turkeys, ducks, geese, and guinea hens in addition to chickens, will have spent at least some of their life outdoors, as evidenced by the calluses on their feet. Most French supermarkets carry both volaille fermier and standard battery birds, and, in my experience, both are excellent.