Have you ever seen a black chicken? We don't mean a black-feathered chicken; we mean a Silkie chicken, which is black-pigmented right down to its bones. They aren't commonly found in the grocery store, but you might see them in Asian groceries. What's the deal with these black chickens, and do they taste different than the paler breed?
Silkie chickens are a highly-prized breed of chicken that has beautiful silky white plumage, and startlingly black skin. They are frequently found in China, India, and Southeast Asia. They have a mild-mannered nature and make excellent pets, and you'll often see them at poultry shows.
The chicken flesh itself is a dark bluish-grey or even black, and the bones are black as well. But the meat really doesn't taste different by nature; it's just chicken. The one difference, however, comes from the way the birds are raised. These obviously aren't factory-farmed birds, raised on the enormous scale of US poultry farms, so they're almost invariably free-range and slightly gamier in flavor. In fact, if you're looking for free-range and well-raised birds, choosing a black chicken is a good way to go.
Do you ever eat black chicken? How do you cook it? It seems that a roasted black bird would be slightly startling to guests; perhaps you're better off with soup? Here's an article from The New York Times on black chicken and soup:
→ Slow cooked silkie chicken
Related: Ingredient Spotlight: Silkie Chickens
(Top image: Flickr member ~MVI~ licensed for use under Creative Commons; bottom image: Wikimedia)
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totally blown away right now. silkie chickens, as in the fluffy silkie bantams?
Such a pretty chicken. Kind of looks like a shih tzu.
I'm going to track down one of these chickens and cook it - very curious. I've seen black footed chickens but not black skin and flesh.
Thanks for the lesson!
http://danamccauley.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/how-to-roast-a-chicken/
you mixed pets and food. No Thanks.
In Chinese cooking, black chickens are only used in soups and stews. I've only ever seen them cut into pieces, never served whole.
@Dana,
If you're in the Toronto area, the Asian supermarket chain T&T always has black chickens for sale, though sometimes only in frozen form.
hah! I've seen these in chinatown and always assumed there were treated in some way to get them black like that... maybe smoked in some way or something similar. Who knew it was natural?
Wow, I can't take my eyes off that photo...I've never seen anything like it.
My mother always makes black chicken soup for me after my monthly friend visits. Chinese consider black chicken to be more nutritious than white chicken but I am not sure if that is an actual fact or one of those things that we have accepted as a fact but nobody ever really tested to see if it is true.
any chinese food store in Brooklyn have black chickens, they are small, and I thought those were smth else.
PS: agree with chusmabilly - food and pets in the same article is a big no-no.
Just back from T&T Michelle with silkies in hand!
So, I guess I'll be making black chicken soup tomorrow. Since I bought two chickens I'm going to try cooking the second one like white chicken just for the heck of it. Back tomorrow with my report!
http://danamccauley.wordpress.com
wow. That's a huge eye opener. I had no idea.
Can you write at all about the Bobo chickens? My husband bought one the other day and it had FEET, which was rather shocking (though maybe not in a bad way). I am curious what the thinking is behind that.
Well, wiki states: "The black meat of a Silkie is generally considered an unusual or unpalatable attribute in European and American cuisines."
I've recently purchased one of these birds for my cat (she is on a raw diet), who loves chicken and I have to say if it tasted like chicken she would have scarfed it up but she smelled it, and licked at it and walked away, not wanting any part of it. So I guess we can say some cats find it unpalatable.
From what I've heard, the meat is not very good, or tough. It's usually for making stocks or sauces I think.
Uh...when some people eat chickens and some keep them as pets (and many do both), how do you NOT "mix" the two? Some people keep pet pigs, does that mean we can't have articles about bacon?
Eliza - don't most chickens have feet?
I've seen silkies before in their live state and have to say no one I've talked to has ever considered eating them because they are more layers than meat birds and layers generally are tougher and gamier (along with slower growing so you're getting a much older bird than your typical meat chicken which are often only 8-10 weeks old at slaughter).
Black chicken is considered a superfood so there must be something about it that is very nutritious. I've never head people say eat more regular chicken.
Oh, I found it. Black chicken is high in anti-oxidant.
http://www.huliq.com/24593/chinese-black-chicken-for-a-healthier-life
I had it in a soup in China and it was okay - of course with all the tendons and cartilage that everyone loves to suck and crunch on and my husband won't eat chicken ever again since that meal! It was gamier than chicken and drier, even though it was in soup. I'm just not a meat girl but it was ok.
The bones are black?! That is so creepy. It kinda looks mean, both alive and dead.
black chickens were on top chef once...it is weird looking though
whoa. That picture of the live chicken is so amazing. Kinda looks like something out of Alice in Wonderland.
I totally want to pamper that bird. It's feathers look like fur! Come here, chick chick chick! Let me kiss your beak.
I want one as a pet, but not as a meal. would eat the eggs, though, for sure.
Well, I cooked up my black chickens with interesting results. Here's a link to my findings:
http://danamccauley.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/dana-and-the-black-chickens
Cheers!
Dana
From a chinese point of view...
We usually use black chicken for soup. It is very nourishing & really tasty. You could either boil on low fire the entire chicken, some crushed garlic & just add salt later for taste or you could add in wolfberry seeds & so other chinese herbs. Taste is fantastic!
Big Bird in miniature. Too cute and who knew their skin was black? It's a wild and wonderful world out there.
In Singapore, this forms an important part of post and pre-natal diets. Supposedly very nourishing for women after childbirth. Why? Beats me, really ...
There are cultures who think eating parts of grizzly bears and ground up rhino horns will help their sexual prowess. That's definitely been great for wildlife on the planet! So the fact that a culture has a tradition of thinking something is good for you does not impress me by any measure.
Wow. They are so beautiful!
I could never eat a sweet creature like that. You did mention they are so sweet natured that they are often had as pets.
Let them live their lives. No need to eat them!
No offense, but y'all commenting on mixing food and pets must be used to seeing meat nicely wrapped up in plastic and Styrofoam. Those of us who have fed and played with the animals have developed a fondness for one or another every now and then. That doesn't stop us from eating their eggs, frying up bacon from a pig we knew, or even eating a roast that Grandma so thoughtfully labelled with the name of my favorite cow. We don't currently have any farm animals, but are thinking of getting chickens because I find them a calming influence. I like them. Doesn't mean I won't be frying their eggs or stewing one of the older chickens. All of that certainly doesn't mean my cockatiel is going to be part of a stir-fry. A pet is a pet. A food animal, no matter how loved, is still meant to be eaten.
Silkie chickens have been used in east Asia for hundreds and hundreds of years for their health promoting effects. They knew the silkies were good for their health, but never knew how and why. Until recently, scientist in China found the specific health promoting element which is 7x more than in regular chickens. Carnosine which is used nowaday by athletes after straineous workout for fast recuperation. Chinese generally use silkies as health tonic for post surgery, during illness, etc. We think about chicken soup when we're sick. This is probably where it originated when Europeans were in Asia hundred of yeara ago.
We actually own one of these adorable little chicks! She's an absolute treasure, and we love her. Don't get me wrong, we eat chicken all the time, but the ones we have now are our Egg Layers, and we don't plan on eating them. They're our pets, and a source of food all in one! :) Oh, our Silkie's name is Nugget. (she's a blue Silkie)
i made this recipe http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/luke-nguyen/char-grilled-sapa-black-chicken-in-galangal-ga-den-nuong-rieng-recipe/index.html
totally fabulous and plan on making it again for a bbq this week.. plucked the lemon leaves right off my meyer lemon tree
Such a pretty bird! What do the eggs look like?
@Fisheggs: agree!
@Noadi: "...your typical meat chicken which are often only 8-10 weeks old at slaughter"
That's because they've been pumped full of hormones to make them grow faster.
They were used last night on the secret basket on CHOPPED. It grossed the participants out as it did me....BUT AS AN ADORABLE PET. YIKES!
What a cute bird...but I would eat it. People like fisheggs need to get over themselves. Eating a chicken is nowhere near destroying nature. Frankly, if it was between me and a bear, I'd eat him, too. Get real!
I'm with the poster who commented that you mixed pets and food - no can do. You never name your stock. I wouldn't mind one of these as a pet, I would try the eggs (wonder what color they are?), but would have to keep the chicken as a friend, with a name.
Mellifico - I think Eliza meant the dead chicken still had its feet on, as many Asian chickens do. We're not used to that in the US. But long ago, you could get chicken feet to eat. My mother used to love them. I've never tried them.
what fisheggs said.
theres meat birds, egg birds, dual purpose birds and ornamental birds. this bird is ornamental. not much meat, gamey/ew to eat and not a heavy layer. why do you think silkies are called 'ornamental'? because theyre for looking at (or hugging ^^), not so much for eating.
you want a good chicken for eating? get something else!
We keep these (and featherfoot chooks) as pets. No eating! :( They're too scrawny, and cute, for the pot.
also... pretty much any dead animal will taste 'good' if you throw enough spices on it!! doesnt mean you have to eat them all willy nilly.
warning, they're usually sold with head and feet on
I had silkie chickens in 4-H as a kid and they were always the best for fitting and showing. I always loved to blow on their white feathers (which feel more like fur) and see the black skin underneath. These guys were always so special, I could never eat them. That said, it was also pretty tough to see my hogs hanging in the refrigerator cooler outside the barn at the fair and I certainly don't have a problem eating pork now.
Is that a head I see sticking out from under the bird that's closest in the picture??
OMG! I know..I know..yes, I eat chicken...and I have a pretty well rounded pallet...just was NOT at all ready for the black chicken...not even a little bit!..
I had to look again...Wow! So amazing!
I would like to point out that all the health benefits are from one, unrepeated study from China. China has a somewhat lack luster reputation, especially when it comes to justifying it's traditional medicine. Essentially they start with the results, and work backwards to some desired evidence. Eat it because it's good, eat it because it looks weird, just don't eat it for some nebulous health benefits.
They were an ingredient on an episode of Chopped. Let's just say that not one of the 3 chefs made a dish that was considered very tasty.
They are scrawny, chewy, and somewhat gamey. That's AFTER you get over the idea that you have to cut off the head, and stare at black meat on your plate.
OMG. Even black chickens are victims of prejudice... GBA!
I have to disagree that these chickens are inevitably free-range and well-raised. Silkies in the US are generally kept as pet or show birds. It's rare to see them available for meat outside of Chinatown markets. Anyone who thinks most of the poultry available in Chinatown lived a happy cruelty free life is delusional. Animal cruelty abounds in these markets, especially the live poultry markets that many of these birds come from.
http://www.twotastes.com/2012/07/the-chickens-are-big-in-japan.html
a lot of these comments make me sad. try to be at least a little more open minded, people. do you think your "normal" chicken feels less sad about being eaten than these "prettier" ones? and sorry to burst your bubble, but chickens have heads and feet.. removing them for the american palette doesn't mean they didn't have them at one point. i didn't grow up eating things doused in cheese and mayonnaise, but far be it for me to judge those who did.
It's funny the things that make our mouths water and turn our stomachs. I would find this unappetizing, but squid ink pasta? No big. What's the difference, really?
I was a child in Hong Kong and have seen my share of chicken feet on the table (though I don't actually like them; I feel like I'm chewing on a child's finger), but I was still unnerved when my CSA sent me a blue-foot chicken with its feet still on (presumably so you knew you were getting the bluefoot you ordered). And then I went a step further and ordered a five pound bag of chicken heads and feet for a frugal stock. Great stock, but ALL those FACES looking at me every time I peeked in the pot was...yikes.
I remember privately judging a friend who could not bear to eat from an entire fish on a platter (because of the eye staring back at you), but really, we all need to be more understanding of one another. It's not a character flaw to be squeamish about something to which you're just not accustomed.
I love my silkie, and have always wanted to see a picture of the carcass - curious about whether is it was really black.. Wow - very interesting - thanks for this post.
As a pet owner and someone who occasionally eats meat, I have NO PROBLEM mixing pets and food. Do people with houseplants shudder at the sight of a salad?
My friend keeps two lovely Silkie hens and she gave us some of their eggs, which were white, and slightly smaller (medium) than the eggs from her Buff Orpington hens (large, beige-shelled eggs).
The peculiar thing about her Silkies is that you have to PRY them off their nests. They sit placidly (stubbornly?) even while hands are reaching under them to retrieve the eggs.
I have these every once in awhile. Normally my mom would just boil it in a pot with some fragrant herbs. Yum.
What a cute chicken! Looks like something out of Sesame Street : )
"Gamier" is what we call "wild" tasting. Not good in turkey or chicken. Sounds yucky.
And not that other chickens are ugly but this one looks too much like a pet to eat!
I want to start to raise chickens in my backyard for food. These seem like an interesting variety. What is with everyone thinking that just because it's cute its a actual pet? doesn't anyone eat veal (which I don't) Lamb, rabbit or duck (love, love, love)? Also I wonder if the eggs for this breed are any good...
From the top photo, they do look like leaner birds (see how the breast bone visibly juts out? The leg and wing bones look big in relation to the body, too - a sign that it's a free range, slower growing bird. Lean and gamey is not a bad thing in chicken and other fowl. Better than the artificially plumped up, deformed birds that are often sold in the supermarkets.
Tori Spelling has one of these as a pet. Her name is Coco
To the people freaking out about "mixing pets and food" - you do realize that the neatly packaged fillets at your local grocery store were once living, breathing, possibly lushly feathered animals, right? If you couldn't handle knowing an animal before killing and eating it, you probably shouldn't be eating meat.
@PearMelon:
Hormones are used in beef, not chickens.
The chickens you purchase at the store are a hybrid (crossing Rock with Jumbo Cornish) that makes a very fast growing chicken that can be harvested at adult weight in under 8 weeks. The commercial farms fed a very high protein diet with a ton of soy. That's how they grow so big so fast.(I'll not get into water injection in this venue)
I have raised a hundred of these at my own farm using a more natural mix of grains and I get large-breasted, tasty chickens at about 12 weeks.
If you're interested in the eggs, try this : http://albertachickensetc.punbb-hosting.com/viewtopic.php?id=30847
how would you know when the meat was thoroughly cooked if it's black to begin with? we don't stand for pink chicken in my family. cook it through or be relieved of duty.
I. Just. Cant.
@esvoytko Amen!
As many people have said- black chicken is mostly used in soups where you're cooking for hours to tenderize and pretty much leach out all the flavor from the meat, bones and cartilage. So the meat is generally not eaten, and when you try it's often dry, tough and tasteless. I like them in soup, but not to eat. And yes, it's often given to pre and post pregnancy women because they believe it aides in a woman's recovery being rich in certain fats, vitamins etc.
It's not bad in soup, but I have yet to have it outside of soup. Plus if I remember correctly- they are kinda boney and have very little meat....
Probably won't seek out a black chicken for dinner, but I have really enjoyed reading this thread! Entertaining, educational and a little creepy.
In China, people use this chicken to make medicine pills for menstrual cramps. You can also cook in soups for the same effect. It's actually a old tradition in China .
Black chickens are not for roasting or even braising, they are used to make stock and they are amazing for it. Chinese believe that the stock from Silkies is medicinal/healing. In fact, my first Silkie was when my father-in-law was recovering from cancer treatment and mother-in-law scoured the area (Palo Alto) for a Chinese grocery. Since then I've discovered they do make delicious rich stock. I always share this story and photo of my stock made from a black chicken when giving Chinatown Tours.
WOW! The age of these birds at slaughter and the color make them a great choice for coq au vin! Thanks for the tip.
"In China, people use this chicken to make medicine pills for menstrual cramps... It's actually a old tradition in China."
As someone already mentioned, old Chinese traditions are somewhat dubious. They also believe that rhino horn, tiger bones and bear paws have medicinal properties. I'm sure paracetamol is more effective for menstrual cramps.
On the last season of Top Chef someone made a dish for guest judge Charlize Theron. I believe it was braised. They couldn't get enough of it.
As an owner of a flock of silkies, I feel compelled to say: they're not always white! I have lavender silkies, along with black and a nice variety called "cuckoo." Try to find other color combos, they are adorable. I'm sure they would be tasty, especially mine since they are super spoiled- but alas, they are my egg producers.
"They have a mild-mannered nature and make excellent pets." Now lets discuss how to cook them, and our other pets. Really.
I've never heard of or seen these before. I can see how they are more nutritious since black foods are supposedly (according to dr.oz) higher in anti-oxidants. I think fish eggs comment is racist.
Most supermarket chicken tastes like nothing - a little hint of game would be awesome. Gamey is the word Americans attach to any meat with flavor - lamb, venison, etc.
I have silkies and they are great pets and great layers! I don't think I could eat one...
These are totally excellent little bantams. They come in many colours not just white (on the outside) and have 5 toes rather than 4. They are wonderful pets but have a problem with going broody all the time (many people use them to hatch other breeds eggs out). We have never eaten any of ours although you have to work out what to do with the extra roosters and the exorbitant price of these chickens at the chinese deli have made me start to look at our extra roosters in a not entirely friendly way.
We have several silkie and silkie cross. They go broody year round and I try to limit the eggs to 2 because if you pull all the eggs, they quite often set until they are emaciated and almost dead. You just cannot break their set, at least I can't. If I let them hatch a few they are fine and usually only set two or three times a year. They only set 19 days to hatch so it's not so bad. We eat them quite often. They are chickens and pets. If we are going to eat them, they go to the feed pen to be with the other roosters and are allowed to free range daily until about 3 months old. Anything older and they get tough. Some have all dark skin, meat and bones, some are spotted, some are not, none are very big. One thing that is funny I found when butchering, the roosters testicles are black too. All the other breeds I've only found white testicles...??? Hey, they lay eggs and taste like chicken. They free-range well and eat tons of bugs. What more do we need to know? I never really realized how odd they were until someone ask me about them. I don't guess we are quite so particular here in TX.
I remember reading a post saying the breed of my rabbit was a popular fur and meat breed. While we won't be eating her, when rabbits that decided to harvest my garden for me, neither my husband or I have a problem with making Essex Fried Rabbit. No, that article didn't bother me either. To each his own purpose.
agreed.
jen 83, you're right of course and we all know it and while i accept that by nature man is a carnivore i have begun to question my adherence to meat when my stomach turns at seeing a story of someone very normally eating a cat or dog when i have them as pets. i recently decided to not eat pork after seeing a pig save a goat on youtube and i know there are people who keep them as pets and claim they are very smart. i never considered chickens as smart or pretty but that white chicken sure looked beautiful.
I'm very curious to try this out! I'd heard that Silkie chickens are some of the best out there, and I've seen them in T&T and other Asian markets before, but I've always been a bit too intimidated to actually buy one and cook it.
As for all the people who were made squeemish by this, something tells me that they were the same people offended by last week's post on beef heart. While I get that the chicken is cute, it's livestock. Some people choose to keep livestock as pets, but that doesn't change the fact that it's livestock. Our meat comes from living creatures, and as responsible carnivore-omnivores, we need to know where our food comes from and adopt a nose-to-tail attitude to eating. That means looking past the vacuum sealed boneless-skinless chicken boobs and knowing what the bird looked like and how it lived. That means sometimes you see the cute, fluffy creature your lamb chop came from.
This is the fourth time this article has been posted:
March 2009
October 2011
July 2012
Today
Recycling is great and everything, but...
The first time I saw black chicken was on Top Chef a few seasons ago when Grayson made a dish with black chicken (http://www.bravotv.com/foodies/recipes/black-chicken-with-beets-quail-egg-and-foie-gras). The challenge was to create a dish that could be served to an evil queen, and boy did she deliver. The presentation was dead-on (pun intended) with the chicken and cooked egg symbolizing the baby that had been inside the chicken. Completely creepy, but apparently pretty tasty.
I've only seen black chickens in food form (cut up, de-feathered, etc). I didn't realize they are so cute alive!
Carrotsticks, I think they keep reposting this article to show how ethnocentric many people are.
Ugh, again with the article recycling. So lazy.
Anyway, I am in the "food and pets... so what?" camp. Either way, it is the same animal. Some people will like them as pets, some as food, many as both. If you think that loving animals and also eating them is disrespectful and gross, then you probably just shouldn't be eating animals, period. And if that is the case, you probably already know other people don't really want to hear whining about meat-eating any more than you want to hear people whining about vegetarians.
I mean, really, isn't the best possible way to raise animals for food would be to treat them like pets? Otherwise, it is a lot like saying animals are objects and not worth really taking care of, which is pretty gross. If you think loving animals and eating them are mutually exclusive, then I guess enjoy your vegetarianism, or enjoy your unconcernedness with the lives of animals. But spare us your judgement of people who love animals and care for them before taking their lives, because it makes you sound ridiculous.
I see that some folks have already commented on black chickens and their role in pre and post natal diet. My mom insisted on black chicken stock after I had my daughter and for the month that "I sat" I had all sorts of things to eat to keep up my chi--lamb, feet washed with rice wine, etc.
My story is one of childhood when I went back with my mom to Taiwan for the summer. My sisters and I grew up in Southern California with big supermarkets and had never been to an open air market before--this was the 70s. My mom was so excited to find live black chickens that she bought one on the spot. My sisters and I watched in horror as the vendor grabbed the chicken, wrung the neck, plunged it in hot water, feathered it and handed the chicken over to my mom, dead as a door nail. My mom ended eating the soup by herself since none of us girls would touch it. I still remember it today and am always a bit queasy about whole chickens!
Wow I have not seen these in years, decades even! My grandmother, who died when I was 15, used to own a restaurant supply company based out of San Francisco's Chinatown, and would constantly bring one of these home when I'd have really bad menstrual cramps, make a nice soup with some onion and other heating elements, would cure the cramps right up! We'd also braise it and grill it like duck, or my Spanish-Israeli grandfather would make coq au vin out of it. This article brings back some really wonderful memories of my childhood and teenage years.
Gourmet foodie or not, this adorable chicken will never be found on my dinner plate.
I bought one today from a local farm and thought it had some serious health issues so I bagged and threw it in the bin. I never saw one before and my Google search to get to the bottom of its medical issue brought me here and I am grateful for the education. I am not sure my children will eat it though, neither do.
Hello! I have a Black Chicken Farm in Udon Thani (Isaan). The best black chickens are about 6 months and 1 kilo for the soup. After they get older the meat is getting to hard. So that is why you see @ Tesco, Big Sea, Rimping Supermarket, et. only black chickens from not over 1 kilo (ofcourse it will be to expensive if they sell chickens from 2 kilo). You have small species and big species. Big species can be 5 kilo each, this black chicken you should cook very very long or make it in small species (laab kai dam). www.udonfarmresort.com has pictures from the XXL Black Chickens. I am still confused about where they origianally come from? Java? Sweden? Sakon Nakhon? I advice not to barbeque the Black Chicken, it does not look so dillicious because it will be very very black, same like it has been burned...