HOW TO COOK PASTURED CHICKEN
What Temperature Should I use for Pastured Chicken?
Pastured Chicken is best cooked low and slow: try roasting a whole bird at 300F for 60-90 minutes, until meat is tender and bones feel loose (white meat should be removed from the oven a bit earlier).
What is the Best Way to Enjoy Pastured Chicken?
We recommend seasoning your whole chicken with garlic, fresh or dried herbs, lemon zest and olive oil and then roasting it in a 300F oven or cooking it on the grill. Avoid heavily-flavored marinades so that the exquisite flavor of the pastured poultry can shine!
Should I Adjust my Chicken Recipe for Pastured Chicken?
You do not need to change your recipe for chicken breasts or breast filets.
For roasting a whole chicken or dark-meat chicken pieces on the bone (leg quarters, thighs, drumsticks, and wings), we recommend using a lower temperature (~300F) and allowing 60-90 minutes. The longer cooking time is not so much to ensure they are cooked but that they are tender and melting off the bone.
Recipes that include braising liquid are perfect for pastured chicken and do not need to be adjusted.
Do you Have Recipes for Pastured Chicken?
Absolutely! We encourage you to browse our extensive collection of Kosher Pastured Chicken recipes here.
WHY KOSHER PASTURED CHICKEN?
What is Pastured Chicken?
Raised in small batches by a network of dedicated Amish and Mennonite growers, our poultry are moved to fresh pasture daily where they roam and forage freely. They are fed exclusively GMO-free grain, never any hormones, antibiotics or animal by-products -- bringing you the most delicious pastured poultry you can find. The birds are raised outdoors in special pens that can be moved to a fresh patch of pasture every day. This allows the birds to enjoy their natural movements and behaviors, including dust bathing, scratching and pecking at the ground, and moving around freely. Pastured chicken bones are much stronger than conventional birds because the animals move around, are stronger and healthier than poultry raised in indoor sheds.
Does Pastured Chicken Taste Different?
Yes! You will be amazed by the complex and rich flavors of pastured poultry. Conventional poultry flavor pales by comparison. You do not need to add flavorful sauces or marinades to make this chicken taste good – this is chicken as it “used to taste.” When Naf's grandmother, Sara, had her first bite of our chicken, she said "This tastes like Spring Chicken! I haven't had this since I was a child in Poland." Her delight is the inspiration for our poultry brand, Sara’s Spring Chicken. Whether you remember the taste of chicken from your childhood or simply want to enjoy the rich, gentle taste of pasture-raised poultry, you've come to the right place. There's kosher poultry -- and then there's Grow & Behold.
What Are the Benefits of Pastured Chicken?
Pastured chicken tastes amazing! It’s also a very special agricultural product that replenishes the soil: as the birds forage and peck at the earth, their manure is worked into the land. The following season, fields that have been fertilized by the chicken manure are used to grow crops for feed. This allows the soil to recover from grazing, farmers to use fewer nutrient inputs, and reduces the carbon footprint of both the crop and the chicken itself.