The French are seldom modest when it comes to promoting their products (often with good reason), but the website for the “Poulet de Bresse” does not hold back –
The Queen of Poultry, the Poultry of Kings ”
There are champagnes … and Dom-Pérignon !
There are cars … and Rolls Royces !
There is caviar … and Beluga caviar !
In the same way, there are chickens, and there are “Bresse
Chickens” …
Bresse Poultry is unique ..
In southern Burgundy, around the town of Bourg-en-Bresse (01 Ain, ARA they rear a specific pure breed of chicken with all white feathers and fine blue feet. Bresse chicken is young poultry that have not yet reached adult age. During the first part of its life, the young Bresse chicken is raised in the open on the farmlands of the Bresse region, where it is free to roam. Thanks to this daily exercising, its flesh becomes more firm.
In order to make the flesh more tender, Bresse poultry farmers confine the animals in a coop. The chicken is placed in semi-darkness, and is then fed exclusively flour mixed with cereals and dairy products. It always carries a “seal” of authenticity as it is an Appellation Controllee product, providing a guarantee of its origin and conformity to the agreed standard.
It is widely acknowledged to be chicken at its best – moist, tender, succulent and tasty – especially when cooked in a cream sauce with morel mushrooms, or roast.
We know of a good English-run bed and breakfast in the region (see Chez Scallan. which is an ideal base for visiting the vineyards of the Cote d’Or and Burgundy,the Cotes Challonais and Maconnais (predominantly Pinot Noir and Chardonnay) and a little further south to Beaujolais (Gamay). In the other direction the vineyards of the Jura are within reach and are worth exploring.