the vicinity of Thailand before 7500 BCE, and
arrived in the Mediterranean around 500 BCE.
In the West, they were largely unpampered
farmyard scavengers until the 19th-century
importation of large Chinese birds created a
veritable chicken-breeding craze in Europe
and North America. Mass production began in
the 20th century, when much of the genetic
diversity in meat chickens evaporated in favor
of a fast-growing cross between the broad-
breasted Cornish (developed in Britain from
Asian fighting stock) and the U.S. White
Plymouth Rock.
Chicken Styles The modern chicken is a
product of the drive to breed fast-growing
animals and raise them as rapidly and on as
little feed as possible. It’s an impressive feat
of agricultural engineering to produce a 4-
pound bird on 8 pounds of feed in six weeks!
Because such a bird grows very fast and lives
very little, its meat is fairly bland, and that of