Famous Kochin Chicken (2005-03-22)
Local chicken farmers take pride in raising special breeds of chickens that produce delicious and moist meat. Locally-bred whole chickens from selected farms are only sold in high-end department stores and are very expensive. The three most well-known breeds in Japan are Kochin chicken from Nagoya (
), Hinaichidori
chicken from Akita (
) and Shamo chicken from...I can't remember
where. Kochin chickens are by far the most famous here and I
really wanted to see for myself just how good it tastes. So I
hopped around Shinjuku (
) where there are five major department stores in
search of the priced poultry. I went to all of the stores and
found the one and only one Kochin in Isetan Department Store. At
just under US$50 for the 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) bird, it's the most expensive
chicken I ever saw and bought. It had better be good!To truly savor its taste, I cooked it the way Hong Kong people love,
which also happens to be my favorite way of eating chicken: steamed and
cut into bite-sized pieces and served with ginger and scallion dipping
oil. I don't know if I cooked the chicken just perfectly or
Kochin chickens have naturally tender meat, the meat of my chicken was
so moist and soft it was like biting into a well-cooked carrot.
The skin which was crunchy and not mushy was very good eaten with the
dipping oil. So, in the meat tenderness department, it wins hands
down (against imported chickens).
But to tell you the truth, although the flavor of the meat is no doubt sweeter and more fragrant than imported chickens, it was not as outstanding as I had expected; may be I was expecting too much. Go to any restaurants in Hong Kong that serve Cantonese cuisine or BBQ meat and order steamed chicken, the flavor of that meat is incredibly flavorable, even the skin which is always a deep yellow color is crunchy and aromatic. Kochin chickens are no match for that.
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