Has anyone eaten Bresse???

[OzarkChooks]

We are interested in raising maybe 50 Bresse chickens for meat. I am curious if anyone has eaten them. Would you consider them tastier than other breeds?

 

[PlentifulPrairie]

We are interested in raising maybe 50 Bresse chickens for meat. I am curious if anyone has eaten them. Would you consider them tastier than other breeds?

Also interested in hearing more on this topic.

 

[Hamburg]

I have not eaten Breese, but I know many contributes have. I hope they provide some information for you. I have researched the breed some and I did raise one rooster that was given to me. I liked him, but he ended up being killed by a skunk. Breese are not very big. I don't know what experience you have with meat chickens. Like most real chickens they won't stack up to the grocery store CXs. You can google images of breese and get a feel for the size. Many people around the world claim they are the best tasting chicken. I have seen many folks on this site also make the claim. Like others here I wonder if it is the breed or the way it is raised. The french government has very strict requirements on how they are raised for meat. Only those birds that are raised in this manner can be sold as breese for top dollar. From what I have read they must be pasture raised when they are young then placed in a crate and fed a specific formula of grains and dairy products to finish them off. I keep thinking about getting a small flock. The french originally developed the breed for egg laying and they are reported to retain their egg laying ability as well as having tasty meat. some folks think this makes them one of the best breeds for backyard flocks.

 

[CNJ]

The Bresse chicken can't beat the size and feed conversion rate of Cornish Cross and they taste like chicken. The only breed that surprised me was the Barbeziuex chicken, but they take too long to reach mature weight. I think they keep growing past a year. The cooked Barbeziuex chicken meat is like duck meat.

I raised Breese and Barbeziuex chickens before I raised a batch of Cornish Cross. Cornish cross is better in my opinion.
Roasted Breese..................

Smoked Barbeziuex....

Smoked Cornish Cross........

I like to eat my chicken with cold ginger chicken sauce. I take the meat off the bone before I serve, its easier to eat that way.

 

[Torinik]

Yes, I ordered a Poule De Bresse once in France, some 30 years ago. It was on the menu and wasn't too pricey, so I picked that. I didn't really know what I was ordering and thought it was just chicken prepared a certain way, like a regional chicken-dish or a dish recognizable by its name. Like chicken tikka masala for instance.

It was good, that I remember, but I can't really recall details. The meat itself was a bit greasier than the usual chicken you get in a restaurant, not as dry as what's usually served. It came off the bone really well and didn't have those soft, underdeveloped tendons a 6 or 8 week broiler has.

I also believe you can, or at least could, get different levels of Bresse. Not all of them spend their last weeks eating grass and bugs, and drinking milk. That has to make a difference too.

And then there is the skill of the chef.
About 5 years ago I had to do some training in France and was put in a cheap hotel with a cheap 'plat du jour' for dinner. Cheap by any standard, but it had a chef with a passion for cooking if I've ever seen one, who deserved stars just for that.
Every night he would put a gourmet meal on the table with the cheapest ingredients he could find on sale. There was simply no other way, groceries just cost a certain amount of money and I knew what the company payed for my stay. I've eaten a fair amount of duck breast filets, but never prepared this way. The meat was tender with the taste of the slice of orange that came with it in there somehow, the layer of fat and skin crispy and just right. Skill of the highest level as far as I'm concerned. Everything prepared from the base ingredients. Natural and simple. No pancakes out of a bottle.

Just trying to say, with a big detour, that I think you will have a fine chicken if you raise Bresse for meat, but you will still have to raise it right, feed it a proper and varied diet, and butcher it at the right time. After that, skill in the kitchen plays a role too.
You will, regardless of anything, have a far better chicken to eat than anything you could ever buy in a supermarket. Good luck and enjoy.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I think the fabled flavor comes from the specific diet those select birds eat. My pair would probably taste like my other breeds since I just feed them layer and oystershell and not corn and milk

 

[OzarkChooks]

Thank you all. I was just so curious if there was something unique about them that made them taste better than other breeds. I think you are all right in that what they are fed plays a large part. They are very interesting to me so we will probably give them a go.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Thank you all. I was just so curious if there was something unique about them that made them taste better than other breeds. I think you are all right in that what they are fed plays a large part. They are very interesting to me so we will probably give them a go.

My pair (Glenn amd Maggie) are very friendly birds. Smaller than orpingtons, but they're some of the few I can grab easily and they handle confinement far nicer than many of my bantams. Make a mess of the waterer though with the dirt

 

[Gizabelle]

Not sure about taste, but I love my one little hen. She's very self sufficient, and I'd trust her above all the others to take care of herself while free ranging. Egg laying capacity surprised me as well. In fact, she carried the team this summer when everyone else slowed down from the heat. (She even went broody once)
My eventual goal is to have a small mixed dual purpose flock (primarily free ranged), and bresse will certainly be included. Even if the flavor is only marginally better than other breeds, the other traits I've seen sell me on them.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I've raised Bresse on pasture. They were very nice, docile, fast-growing (compared to my dual-purpose) birds. Easy to pluck, too. For a sustainable (meaning you can breed them, yourself, unlike Cornish X) breed, I think they're excellent, flavorful meat birds.

I don't think you'll be disappointed with properly-fed, quality bloodline Bresse.