FOOD NEWS
Can You Eat Rooster Meat (And What Does It Taste Like?)
By Elias Nash
Any chicken that you eat is all but guaranteed to be female, as farms typically only keep one rooster due to their aggressive nature. While hens are also far more economically valuable to farmers than roosters, many farmers make meals from them despite not raising roosters for commercial purposes, and in many cultures, their meat is even prized above that of hens.
Rooster meat tastes like chicken, but most people find the meat to be far more intense than hen meat — akin to dark meat turkey. However, its meat is a rich source of protein, B vitamins, and zinc, and because most of its fat lies directly below its skin, it’s easy to remove and gives you a very lean piece of meat.
Since there's little fat within the muscle, rooster meat can turn out very tough if you don't cook it just right. Since rooster meat is so lean, it needs to be cooked low and slow and is best suited to stews and slow cookers, where it can gently tenderize over hours — for example, coq au vin is a French, slow-cooked dish whose name means "rooster in wine."