Chicken (food)
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Chicken is meat that comes from chickens. Chicken serves as one of the most common meats in the world, and are frequently prepared as food in a large number of ways. It is one of the easiest meats to digest. There is significant variation in cooking methods amongst cultures; historically common methods include roasting, baking, and frying. Today, chickens are also cooked by deep frying and prepared as fast food such as chicken nuggets. Modern varieties of chicken, such as the Cornish Cross, are bred specifically for meat production, with an emphasis placed on the ratio of feed to meat produced by the animal. In Chinese culinary culture, chicken is highly-valued, as in the phrase "無雞不歡" (roughly translates as 'no chicken, no satisfaction').
Chickens raised specifically for meat are called broilers. In the United States, broilers are typically butchered at a young age. Modern Cornish Cross hybrids, for example, are butchered as early as 8 weeks for fryers and 12 weeks for roasting birds. Typically, the muscle tissue (breast, legs, thigh, etc), livers, and gizzard are processed for food. Chicken feet are less commonly eaten, though they are popular in both Chinese and Jewish cuisine, the latter using the feet in chicken soup. The head, internal organs such as the lungs and intestines, and feathers are typically discarded or ground into a protein meal for inclusion in other animal feeds, although Chinese cuisines may retain the whole bird on the dish (with the head), depending on the dish. Internal organs are also popularly used for yakitori.
Capons (castrated cocks) produce more and fattier meat than normal cocks. For this reason, they are considered a delicacy and were particularly popular in the Middle Ages. Caponizing a cock, unlike castrating a steer or pig, requires delicate surgery and is an art almost lost today. The cock's testicles lie within its body cavity. To remove them requires special equipment and skill. The person caponizing the rooster must make precise and specialized cuts within the abdomen of the rooster. Infection and potential damage to the bird are possible should an unskilled individual perform the surgery. In the past, the surgery was carried out with a string looped around the cock's testicles, which was then pulled on from both ends to remove the testicles.
Chicken wings refers to a serving of the wing sections of a chicken. Deep fried wings coated in sauce are also known as Buffalo wings.
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