Poultry

Chicken and other forms of poultry are extremely popular in Indian cooking, even though the meat is expensive, and there is a thriving commercial industry to keep up with the demand. Chickens and ducks are also bred by many rural families and are kept in makeshift coops on smallholdings, and even in some highly urbanized areas. All over the country, vendors wend their way through the traffic on bicycles and motorbikes laden with live birds, on their way to the many open-air markets.

Used in a huge number of dishes, poultry is the first choice for most meat-eating Indians, although it is also the most expensive, so for poorer families its consumption may be restricted to special occasions.