Kosmas Flores - Adventures in Chicken: 150 Amazing Recipes from the Creator of AdventuresInCooking.com

When I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it... and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied... and it is all one.

M.F.K. Fisher

As I write this, I am watching my eight small chicks skittering about their brooder. They tilt their heads one way and another, pecking along the ground through their pine shaving bedding, scratching aggressively at the bottom of the box, as if theyll unearth a worm underfoot if they just dig deep enough. This instinct follows through to the wild adult chicken, whose diet of a wide variety of bugs and seeds requires consumption of sand and grit in the form of tiny pebbles eaten off the ground, which then reside in its stomach and help it break down all the nutty and tasty shelled bits it forages for. At six days old, my chicks weigh less than a small muffin, but in a few months time, theyll be nearly full-grown. Their breasts will become plump and their leg quarters will fill out with dark-flushed tendons. Theyll be rid of their downy fluff and grow long, conspicuous feathers. And in about six months theyll begin laying their eggs. Yes, I have adopted these hens to give me a constant supply of eggs rather than a brief supply of meat, but in this short time, they have already impressed me with their vigor, adaptability, and gumption.

Chickens are one of a few varieties of flightless birds. Unable to flap their wings to gain flight for more than a few seconds at a time, their limited mobility and diminutive size unintentionally categorized them as the perfect domesticated bird, staying put in even the most rudimentary coops. Inexpensive to raise, they will forage on whatever bugs, nuts, seeds, fruit, and/or vegetables come across their habitat. With the current backyard chicken phenomenon, there are complex concoctions of pre-mixed nuts and seeds you can feed your bird to ensure complete nutritional consumption, but in most parts of the world where raising large and demanding livestock is not an option, chickens are the primary source of meat. These adaptable creatures do not require acres of pasture, nor do they require mounds of specialized grasses. They can live in a variety of climates and locations and can forage for much of their diet if given access to the proper landscape (i.e., one with bugs, seeds, and/or vegetables around). This ability to adapt, survive, and even thrive in such a wide variety of landscapes is what has brought the chicken to the forefront of every cultures cuisine.

From the coq au vin of France, to the chicken fricassee of Cuba, to the pad thai of Thailand, every corner of the earth has adapted several cherished preparations of this flightless bird, each one more different and intriguing than the next. On its own, roasted without seasoning, chicken has a very mild, savory, and lightly buttery flavor that intensifies when you go from the light meat to the dark. But once you incorporate spices, sauces, fruits, vegetables, or herbs, choose from roasting, braising, grilling, simmering, or frying, and then get down to the specific part of the chicken, whether the juicy drumsticks, the crispy wings, or perhaps the whole bird spatchcocked and flattened, you end up with a staggering and never-ending array of equally sumptuous dishes.

In Thailand, ground chicken and sweet Thai basil leaves are stir-fried together in a hot wok with a variety of regional sauces. In Tennessee, Hot Chicken is a popular present-day preparation that entails deep-frying various chicken parts and serving them atop slices of plain fluffy white bread adorned with homemade pickles. In Peru, the most common dish is