• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Love French Food logo
  • Home
  • About
  • Subscribe
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Home
  • About
  • Subscribe
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • Home
    • About
    • Subscribe
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • ×
    • A pink brick wall with a blue bubble with the word, bonjour, and an orange bubble with the words, parlez-vous Francais?
      French Food Words For Travel
    • A white dinner plate with two round slabs of beige slices of duck foie gras with red berries on top, star-shaped gingerbread, slices of figs, and a bowl of red fig jam.
      Duck Foie Gras With Truffles
    • A round white camembert cheese sprinkled with rosemary and slices of white, brown crusted baguette bread beside it.
      Greatest Baked Camembert
    • Different types of cheese piled in threes, white, brown, and biege.
      Types Of French Cheeses
    • french herbs index
      French Herbs Capture The Flavor
    • Young woman holding a chalkboard sign with the words French and English written on it with two arrows between them pointing in different directions.
      Learn To Speak French
    • A group of cooking students with a chef staning around a table with food on it.
      French Cooking Schools
    • The words French cooking terms in red inside two off-set boxes.
      French Cooking Terms
    • Oven temperature conversion chart.
      Oven Temperature Conversion Chart
    • seasoning
      How To Season Food Artfully
    • how-to-cook-chestnuts
      How To Cook Chestnuts With 3 Easy Methods
    • Multiple green spears of asparagus standing up in a white metal colander, over a sink with 2 glasses in the background.
      How To Cook Asparagus
    Home > Chicken

    The Elite Bresse Chicken

    Nov 6, 2023 by Judith Coates · This post may contain affiliate links · Leave a Comment

    Poulet de Bresse or Volaille de Bresse is a breed of special chicken in France. They are treated like fine wine, they have an appellation, get to eat real food, and walk around the countryside, all regulated by law. The king of chickens is truly a part of French culture!

    by Terry Marsh

    A flock of bright white chickens with blue feet foraging in a field.

    These unique birds are enjoying their privileges foraging for insects in a field.

    Award Winning Article

    The following article won the Award for the Best Internet Writing about France from the Association of British Travel Operators in France (ABTOF), 2007.

    Papa was up to his old tricks. He saw me as a culinary challenge, not that he was planning on cooking me, but, as "un Anglais" I knew nothing about food, and, if I was to marry his daughter, he was determined to invest in my education.

    At the time we were in Lyon, he wanted to teach me about chicken. But not just any old chicken, it had to be the "noble bird", the chicken of Bresse, probably widely available in Lyon, but we had to visit Bourg-en-Bresse, fifty miles away, by bike! And today was market day. ‘Allons-y!’.

    The story of the poulet de Bresse, with its steel blue feet and bright white plumage, begins in 1591 when the bird was first mentioned in the town registers of Bourg-en-Bresse. Henry IV, having stopped off at Bresse following an accident with his carriage, tasted the bird’s meat and demanded its inclusion on his courtly menu.

    Described by the French as "the fourth gastronomic wonder of the world," the poulet de Bresse comes out on top because of its dense, flavorsome flesh. This is due to the strict government controls imposed in the region of Bourg-en-Bresse, where the chickens are given plenty of space to run around, producing a bird which is high in protein and low in fat.

    My hoped-for beer evaporated as we hit town. Papa parked his bike against a lamp-post (the French, a cycling nation, don’t steal bikes, wives, "Oui," but bikes, "Non"), and stomped off towards the market. Buttocks a-quiver, I cajoled my weary legs into following him.

    "Tu dois comprendre", he told me, "the poulet de Bresse is the only chicken with an Ah-Oh-See." I didn’t see, not immediately, but then realized he meant that these pampered birds had their very own AOC, a guarantee of quality. But there was more.

    After an initial period of at least 35 days, the birds are raised on a grassy pasture of some 5,000 square meters (minimum), which provides their primary food, supplemented by local cereals (maize and wheat) and skimmed milk for a period of 9 weeks in the case of young chickens, 11 weeks for hens, and 23 weeks for capons.

    The chickens are intentionally given insufficient feed so that they have to supplement their diet by scratching for insects, worms or snails.

    Each chicken must have a minimum of 10 square meters of space and a single flock cannot exceed 500 birds.

    The final phase of the growing process is done in wooden coops in a dim, calm, and well-ventilated structure. The chickens are cooped up for 8 to 15 days, and capons and poulards for 4 weeks.

    It was, for a while at least, a life of luxury.

    Laden with recently deceased specimens we returned to our bikes, just in time to see Christine arrive in the car. She had followed us, knowing her father and his cycling mania. She also knew I couldn’t cycle over a hundred miles in a day.

    By the time Papa got back home, three of the birds were already well on the way to being ready.

    Dinner was the final appreciation!

    Tasty Chicken Recipes

    • Mediterranean Grilled Chicken Recipe
    • tarragon chicken
      Tarragon Chicken Recipe
    • A chicken breast covered in red sauce with a sprig of parsley on top on a white plate with a red gingham table cloth.
      Classic Chicken Chasseur Recipe
    • Chicken pieces, mushrooms in cream sauce in a blue bowl.
      Chicken Fricassée Recipe

    Potato Sides For A Chicken Dinner

    These are my favorite dishes to serve with poultry:

    • Oven proof dish filled with sliced potatoes and onions topped with green parsley leaves.
      Ultimate Potatoes Lyonnaise
    • A copper pot full of stretchy mashed potatoes with cheese surrounded by cheese, bread and potatoes.
      Pommes Aligot Mashed Potatoes With Cheese Recipe
    • Pommes Boulangére
      Simply Yummy Pommes Boulangére
    • Truffade is a similar dish to scalloped potatoes
      Truffade Recipe, Tasty & Easy

    Recommended Recipes To Select

    • A large roasted turkey on a plate with vegetables around it and a man holding a knife and fork ready to carve the bird.
      How To Carve A Turkey
    • White bowl filled with a curry of flavorful chicken, onions, almonds, spices, and yogurt garnished with green leaves and spiced naan on the side.
      Easy Chicken Curry Recipe
    • Chicken salad with basil garnish and white bun on white plate.
      Coronation Chicken Recipe
    • Chunks of chicken and mushrooms in a white sauce sprinkled with pale yellow cheese and a green and red salad on the side on a white plate with a steel fork and spoon.
      Creamy Chicken And Mushroom Pasta

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    No Comments

    If you tried this recipe please let us know. Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Primary Sidebar

    judith-coates-author

    Enchanté, Judith here, owner, home chef, food writer, & creator of this website offering appetizing French cuisine dishes. My goal is to remove all your misconceptions about French food being too finicky or too saucy, it's simply wonderful everyday eating! So, let us get cooking because that is what we are here for!

    More Introduction →

    Popular

    • mesclun salad
      Mesclun Salad
    • crepes with chocolate cream
      Amazing Chocolate Cream Filled Crepes
    • White casserole dish with chicken, grapes, parsley in sauce.
      Heavenly Chicken With Grapes
    • Truffade is a similar dish to scalloped potatoes
      Truffade Recipe, Tasty & Easy

    Footer

    About

    • Terms
    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclaimer
    • About

    Newsletter

    • Sign Up for my tasty recipes & more!

    Contact

    • Contact

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2023 Love French Food

    All Rights Reserved Regardless of Links or Attributions.

    Here at Love French Food we love the diversity of individual people, religions, and cultures of the world. We celebrate the kindness of so many, something that is easy to miss. We try to step softly on our earth as it supports such an amazing array of creatures and landscapes that we want future peoples to enjoy. We financially support WCK (World Central Kitchen), Toronto Humane Society, Birds Canada, Nature Canada, The Heart and Stroke Foundation Of Canada, and our local London, Ontario Hospitals.

    Let us live and love together!

    Judith Coates