Chicken is one of the most popular types of meats that is eaten around the world. The average American consumes about 1.25 pounds of chicken a week, and chicken can be found on the menu of restaurants around the world. Just what makes chicken so popular and why is it is such high demand? The answers to this question may be as numerous and versatile as the chicken itself.
The Most Common Bird
For starters chicken is the most common of all the types of poultry, which makes it readily available to purchase. In addition, many people who raise their meat find chickens fairly easy and inexpensive to raise and each bird may yield a lot of food between the eggs they lay the chicken themselves. That alone makes them extremely popular.
An Inexpensive type of Meat
In addition to being readily available in most if not all countries around the world, Chicken is relatively inexpensive when compared to other types of meat including beef, pork, and even fish and other seafood. In addition, the average family can if they are frugal get several meals from one small chicken making this bird an economical source of protein. When you stop to consider that compared to many other meats chicken (especially with the skin removed) is low in saturated fat and high in protein it seems like one of natures more perfect foods for those who are concerned about their health.
Few if Any Taboos about Chicken
Various groups and religions actually have taboos against eating certain types of meat such as beef and even pork. However, few groups have any real taboos about consuming chicken, making it the logical choice for those people who want a little meat with their potatoes, rice, and even beans.
Chicken is Extremely Versatile
Chicken is also perhaps the most versatile meat around. It can be prepared in a number of different ways including:
- Fried and Deep fried
- Baked
- Broiled
- Boiled
- Stewed
Chicken can easily be used in chili in place of beef, be used to make sausage in place of pork, can be made into meatloaf and curries, and used in salads, casseroles, sandwiches, soups, and stews. In fact, chicken in some form can be used in place of any of any other meat in just about any recipe that you come across. You can use it in oriental cooking, Mexican cooking, Italian cooking, and many other ethic recipes. Chicken can be use just as well in tacos as in stirfry and makes an incredible meatloaf as well.
There are even whole cooking books devoted to the lowly chicken and some of these cookbooks have over 1000 different recipes using this bird. Best of all, chicken can be used in sweet recipes (Honey chicken), spicy recipes, and savory recipes. A little investigation revealed that most people eat chicken at least twice a week and some as often as 5 or 6 times a week. It seems with the low cost of purchasing the chicken and numerous ways to serve this bird that Chicken is likely to remain popular for many years to come.
