Gascony Chicken

Elegant in its black plumage speckled with slaty blue feathers, hardy, a good brooder and with a reputation for the quality and quantity of its meat, the Gascony chicken has always been a highly regarded bird in the farmyards of Southwestern France.
Yet since the 1950s, with the industrialization of poultry farms, the Gascony chicken has suffered the same fate as other rustic native breeds. As it does not adapt well to battery farming, it has been gradually abandoned in favor of more productive hybrids.
Threatened with extinction, this breed owes its survival to a handful of tenacious farmers who held on to a few birds. In 2003, the amateurs and professionals involved (both breeders and transformers) formed the association La Poule Gasconne. Supported by the Conservatory for Regional Biological Heritage of the Midi-Pyrénées region, they started work to save the Gascony chicken, aiming to find standard examples of the breed in its original, larger and stockier version (unlike the small birds presented at competitions).
The association plans to promote the breed with farmers and consumers.
Various high-quality birds are produced: chicken (raised for 150 days in the open air), pullet (hen slaughtered before it has mated), coq vièrge, or unmated rooster (castrated male, less fat than a capon and more meat than a hen). Of course there are also small, white, tasty eggs and prestigious Gascony capon, plucked dry to preserve the quality of the product, which is famous for its firm, slightly fatty meat and exceptional flavor.
Gascony birds can be served at the table in many different ways: au pot hen, gasconnade of unmated rooster, pullet in a salt crust or roast Gascony capon…
Sacrificed in the name of productivity, this bird is now returning to Gascony farms to the great delight of breed enthusiasts and discerning gastronomes.