Rest assured ladies, I am talking here of chickens of course! A good roast chicken dinner is one of life’s great pleasures but the quality of mass-produced “battery” chickens, even here in Portugal, leaves a lot to be desired. That said though, I do believe that even the cheapest supermarket bird sold at Portuguese supermarkets provides for better eating than (for instance) its UK equivalent at Tesco’s.
But for a serious chicken roast, any good cookbook would recommend an organic bird, something not easily found here in the Algarve. The best are the “Ecológico” branded chickens from Spanish organic producer Coren, available from Apolónia and Baptista supermarkets. But they are expensive at around €9 per kilo averaging 2 kilos in weight. These are, however, top quality birds, with great depth of flavour and succulent meat that sets them in a class of their own.
For less money and still offering good flavour, the free-range “frango do campo” can be good. The problem here is that the birds vary a great deal from producer to producer both in terms of size and quality. They will always provide a roast chicken that actually tastes of chicken but the meat can be a little tough.
The Campoaves brand is one to look out for and at less than €4 per kilo, compared to just under €3 for a battery bird, it is certainly worth the extra money. They weigh in at between 2 and 3 kilos and as a rule of thumb – the smaller they are the better for roasting.
The big difference, of course, between a battery bird and organic or free-range is not only what they eat but, most importantly, how long they live. A standard sized 1.5 kilo battery bird will have literally been pumped up with food and growth hormones to reach supermarket shelf size as quickly as possible and less than half the time of a naturally-reared bird.
The difference can be seen from the bone structure; the bones of a battery chicken are light and brittle whereas those of a free-range bird are fully developed.
There is, however, a good alternative here in Portugal for those who may not wish to pay the price of an organic bird and perhaps find the free-range option a little tough.
Nearly all supermarkets in Portugal sell the smaller chickens usually labelled as “frango para grelhar” (grilling chickens). Usually weighing around 800 grams they are somewhere between the size of a small “poussin” and a standard chicken.
These birds are mass produced but unlike their larger supermarket cousins are not pumped up to reach maximum size. Priced similar to free range chickens at around €4 per kilo, one bird is the ideal size for a “diner à deux”.
By PATRICK STUART [email protected]
