This was my first time cooking roast chicken as well as my first time eating a free-range bird. If it came out tasting wonderful under my amateur hands, you know the animal was raised right!
I painted the bird, lightly, with butter and salt before putting it in the pan, and the 5.5 pounder took 1 hour, 40 minutes to bake. I served it with Pennsylvania peaches and the chicken tasted amazing! From the first bite, my family could tell that this animal had had a different life. For most of our lives, we've been eating factory-farmed chicken. When we taste this meat, we can taste joy. The animal was happy to be alive! The same cannot be said for all industrially-raised chicken in the US.
The meat has a slight bounce and density: chicken al dente, in a way. A little salt enhances the robustness, but even salt isn't crucial to delight in the flavor of this chicken.
We also noticed how much bigger and thicker the bones were, when compared to those of factory-farmed animals. The bone of a poulke (that's "leg" in Yiddish) from this chicken was 30-50% bigger than its factory counterpart. The bones were longer, thicker, and more dense, and the tendons were much stronger, and a bit difficult to separate from the muscle. Use well-sharpened knives when you carve the chicken!
The density and strength of the bones and tendons tell us that the animal was healthy and robust. I used the healthy bones to make broth for my daily leafy green stir fry!
