SO WHICH BIRD TASTES THE BEST?
ICELAND BRITISH MEDIUM WHOLE CHICKEN
£5.50. COST PER KILO: £4.23 BASIC supermarket chicken, no frills and no welfare ‘gimmicks’. Factory-produced but when contacted Iceland would not give any more details of its provenance or welfare standards. Before cooking, it felt and looked slimy. There was some improvement after cooking but the panel was divided. Two judges gave it five stars — one none, describing it as ‘awful’ while heading for the bin.
RATING: 11 OUT OF 20
COUR D’ARMOISE POULETTE AFFINEE
fineandwild.com £60. COST PER KILO: £30
BREATHTAKINGLY expensive, this is Pascal Cosnet’s chicken. Our judges were impressed with the flavour — ‘gamey and delicious’ said one. The dark marbling looked as though it was fresh from a rotisserie. A clear front-runner, but it was not worth the price of a fillet steak. It really needs professional attention if you are to do the bird justice. RATING: 13 OUT OF 20
SAINSBURY’S TASTE THE DIFFERENCE FREE RANGE
£9.62. COST PER KILO: £5.35 RSPCA-ASSURED, Britishraised chicken with a donation to the Woodland Trust. ‘Very moist, but not much flavour’ said one judge. Dry and inedible — ‘prefer Nando’s’ — said another. The wrong kind of difference.
RATING: 8 OUT OF 20
MARKS & SPENCER ORGANIC WHOLE CHICKEN
£15.59. COST PER KILO: £8.66 THE supermarket chain’s top-of-the-range bird — but deemed by all but one of our judges as ‘bland’. One even said it tasted like cardboard. A cheaper free-range bird from the same source would have done the job. RATING: 8 OUT OF 20
SPRINGFIELD FARM ORGANIC CHICKEN
springfieldpoultry.co.uk £19.64. COST PER KILO: £9.92
POSH organic chicken grown on a family farm in Herefordshire. The birds are all free-range and usually have the run of the farm, a small-scale operation catering mainly to the restaurant trade. ‘Suspiciously moist,’ said one judge, who noted that it carved with difficulty. Generally regarded as a good all-rounder — but not cheap. A high-end bird for high days and holidays. RATING: 11 OUT OF 20
PIPERS FARM SLOWREARED CHICKEN
pipersfarm.com £18.35. COST PER KILO £9.17 A TERRIFIC all-rounder, and the firm favourite of most of the judges. Pipers Farm is a small-scale, family-owned farm in Devon. Its chickens are not killed until they are 84 days old — supermarket chickens are grown to the same weight and killed after 32 days. Our judges remarked on the depth of flavour of the leg and the breast — and it looked succulent on the plate. RATING: 15 OUT OF 20