Free Range Chicken

2nd February 2015

Chicken doesn’t even taste like chicken. That’s what I remember what people were saying a few years ago. But now it does, taste like chicken. That’s because they can’t remember the old days when chicken tasted great.

Nando’s has become very popular, but not because of the taste of their chicken. It’s popular because of the sauces used to mask the lack of flavour. It’s also popular because it’s finger food, and finger food is good fun. Better still, kids like that kind of thing.

The brand is so big that I’ve never even seen a TV add, but I have heard many mentions on TV and radio. The point is that if I was a major restaurant chain owner I’d make a point of highlighting the quality of the chicken. But they don’t.

If I had a mind to, I could easily eat a whole Nando’s chicken. This would be dependent on laying off the chips (let’s face it, they’re French fries), and the power of the extra hot sauce I always feel I need to pour on the plate. This is a meal that would cost me roughly £15. But I could also, buy a supermarket chicken and let the slimy meat slip down my throat in one sitting.

This isn’t a pop at a very popular chicken eatery, it’s for context. Or for that matter supermarket chickens. But on second thoughts I’m not so sure.

There are times in our lives when we look at our spending, and wonder where the money went. The response may be to by cheaper, less, or more of the cheaper stuff. Quite often the solution could be to look to quality and spend more on some items. This can be counter intuitive, but if you could buy something twice the price that would last at least twice as long, and be a better overall experience, why wouldn’t you do it?

The first part of the question is answered – it’s counter intuitive. Secondly, for disclosure, my tasty free range chicken is in the oven, and about five minutes from perfection. There are other considerations too. One is that £10 may seem like a lot to spend on a chicken. After all, times are tough, and money is tight for many. When I buy my chicken, there’s the feeling that I might be judged. Not too much of a problem in Waitrose, but more so in Tesco – which incidentally has by far the better bird.

After some thought, the answer can only be that a chicken only has two legs!

Here is my thinking: Children like the finger food, and the chance to pick up chicken. It’s a little unfortunate for the chickens that they have easy handles for picking them up and eating. If a family has more than two kids, they can get four chicken legs on two chicken for £10 or even 3 for £10. Now that’s a bargain. And the legs are about the right size for children.

This is where the free range chicken is a problem. For a start, you only get two legs for £10, and they will have too much meat for a child to eat. This will lead to arguments at the diner table. I’ll leave the reader to let their imagination go to work.

Here’s the answer – breed four legged free range chickens. There’ll be more meat, each leg will be thinner, and everyone will be happy. Even me!