Monday, December 01, 2008

Top U.S. chicken producer seeks bankruptcy protection

Pilgrim's Pride, the largest chicken producer in the United States, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, saying it plans to continue operating while it reorganizes.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Creamy chicken, asparagus and tarragon pies

Makes 4

Ingredients
400g chicken thigh fillets, trimmed, cut into 2cm cubes
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/3 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed, cut into 2cm lengths
1/2 cup thickened cream
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves
4 sheets filo pastry
olive oil cooking spray
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Place chicken and flour in a large bowl. Toss to coat.
Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until soft. Remove from pan and set aside. Increase heat to high. Cook chicken for 3 to 5 minutes or until cooked through.
Return onion mixture to pan. Add wine, stock, mustard and asparagus. Simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes. Stir in cream and tarragon. Reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes or until thickened slightly. Season with pepper. Spoon chicken mixture into four 1 1/4 cupcapacity ovenproof dishes.
Place 1 sheet of filo pastry on a flat surface. Spray with oil and top with another sheet of filo. Cut pastry in half crossways. Repeat with remaining filo and oil. Scrunch up each piece of filo and place on top of filling. Spray pies with oil and place on a baking tray.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until pastry is golden. Serve.


Recipe by Kim Coverdale

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Poultry Trucks and Harmful Bacteria

Poultry trucks apparently trail an airborne plume of potentially harmful bacteria, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers.

The results suggest that motorists and those who live along roads traveled by chicken trucks may be exposed to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The study urged further investigation and possibly the changing of transport methods in areas of intense poultry production.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Turkey prices push charities to chicken

The price of turkeys increased enough for Thanksgiving this year that some churches and charities that feed the needy for the holiday are busy adjusting their menus.

The American Farm Bureau reports that the price of an average turkey, about 16 pounds, is $19.09 this year, or about $1.19 per pound. That is a 9 cent per-pound increase, or a total of about $1.44 per turkey, from Thanksgiving in 2007.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Chicken registry ?????

Fayetteville Arkansas officials, are trying to peck out an ordinance to allow up to four hens per home while exploring what types of chicken registry is proper. Chicken Registry

Friday, November 14, 2008

Chicken Killer Free To Kill Again

A man in England who forced a chicken to drink whisky and blew cannabis smoke in its face before suffocating it, smashed another hen’s head repeatedly against a shed wall until its neck snapped was spared jail today.

The man was sentenced to an 18-month community order with supervision and ordered to pay £8 compensation to the hens’ owner.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Something out of a Hollywood horror flick

When residents of St. Marys, Ont., woke up Friday morning, their town looked like something out of a Hollywood horror flick.

The main street was literally covered in blood.

Chicken blood poured onto Queen Street around midnight when a tanker truck spilled its load from a Schneiders poultry plant.

Provincial police say the driver was charged with having an insecure load after a valve broke on the truck and sent blood gushing into the road.

The Ontario Environment Ministry and the town’s public works department were on the scene cleaning up the spill.

The odour was strong, but sand was spread on the blood to help the cleanup proceed smoothly.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Commercial Producers Play Chicken with Avian Flu

In the late 1980s thousands of chickens died from a cancer caused by a virus known as avian leukosis virus J because they were all descended from a few roosters susceptible to the disease.

This is just one example of how a lack of genetic diversity can imperil livestock and agriculture. Similar instances abound from the Irish potato famine of the 19th century to cattle raised for meat—one bull named Ivanhoe passed on his genetic susceptibility to an immune system disorder to roughly 15 percent of all the Holstein bulls in the U.S. today.
Read More

Friday, October 31, 2008

China melamine scandal prompts mass chicken cull

Chinese farmers, hurt by a spreading melamine scandal, slaughtered tens of thousands of chickens, state media said on Friday. The melamine scandal has spread to dairy products, sweets and chocolate, prompting recalls of Chinese-made food around the world.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Pet-chicken claim is for the birds, judge rules

What is a chicken? The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal weighed in yesterday.

Chief Justice Joseph Kennedy upheld Trevor Smedley's conviction on a charge of violating land-use bylaws by housing chickens at his semi-rural home and backed the trial judge's finding that such birds are fowl, and as such are livestock, not pets.

"I find no fault with the trial judge finding that chickens are indeed fowl," Judge Kennedy said.

Read More

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Raising Their Own Food

The recent spike in oil and food prices coupled with the downturn in the economy has more people thinking about raising their own food. Having a few chickens is one of the best ways to produce your own food.

Chickens are extremely cost effective as you can by a baby chick for under $2.oo from a hatchery in the spring. Raise them all summer on table scraps and whatever they can find on their own outside. Then you kill them in the fall and you have meat for the winter.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

You Know You Need Chicken When

Police in Bethlehem USA said a 76-year-old woman complained to employees at the Giant supermarket on Tuesday that the hot food bar was out of fried chicken.

Maria Dendrinos, waited as employees set out fresh fried chicken for her, then took the chicken to a nearby aisle and allegedly transferred it to a plastic bag in her purse and left the store.

Police said the chicken was worth $5.08. She was cited for retail theft.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Make room on the chicken bandwagon!

There are a few folks in Taylor, Texas, just outside of Austin, that have not yet caught the chicken train yet.Read More

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Chicken legs may control high blood pressure.

Scientists in Japan have identified four proteins in chicken legs which appear to be effective in controlling high blood pressure. A paper published in the Journal of Agricultural Chemistry and Food, said researchers had extracted collagen from chicken legs and then fed it to hypertensive rats. The rats which were fed collagen had distinctly lower blood pressure levels for up to eight hours afterwards.

Friday, October 03, 2008

Chinese pandas fed chicken soup

The Wuhan Zoo in central China has been feeding its two pandas home-cooked chicken soup twice in a month to reduce stress and give them a nutritional boost.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

DNA tests show chicken as major source of food poisoning

Farmed animals like cattle and chicken are the major sources of food poisoning caused by a type of bacterium called Campylobacter jejuni, according to results of new DNA tests which appear on September 26 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

C. jejuni is responsible for more cases of gastroenteritis in the developed countries than any other bacterial pathogen like E. coli, Salmonella, Clostridium, and Listeria combined, The University of Chicago Medical Center says in a press release.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Chicken Feet

According to World Poultry magazine, China imports 25,000 tons of chicken feet per month. Now I have to say that the thought of eating chicken feet is a little gross from my point of view. However one of my favorite dishes is squirrel pie so I guess I cant say much about chicken feet.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Michael Jackson thinks that peeling the skin off a chicken makes it organic

Former 'king of pop' Michael Jackson thinks that peeling the skin off a chicken makes it organic, if his close friend David Gest is to be believed. The television producer has revealed that the 'Thriller' star, a huge fan of fast food eatery KFC, thinks that fried chicken can be rid of all unnatural substances by removing its outer layer.

Monday, September 08, 2008

How do you tell when a chicken is happy

How can you tell when a chicken is happy? For that matter, what does happiness mean to a chicken? You can't interview a chicken or even read its facial expression to find out what it's thinking. Like Sherlock Holmes, you have to deduce facts from observation.

Read More AtProposition 2

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

The Chicken Project

The controversial Chicken Project will continue this fall as part of an ecology class for high school students at Canandaigua Academy in NY despite protests from animal-rights activists

The Chicken Project is a unit offered in the fall semester of Eric Cosman’s ecology class. Launched three years ago, it involves students raising chickens for 10 weeks, then killing and barbecuing them to learn about food production. 59 students are enrolled in the class.