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Have you ever seen a black chicken? Black Chicken or Silkie chicken has black feather, flash itself and even the bone and eggs are black as well. The unique appearance of black chicken is not only the black colored but also they have 5 toes more than 4 toes. They are mostly found in Southeast Asia countries such as Chinese, India and Myanmar.
Since many century ago, Chinese eat Black chicken as the medical purpose even until now. Nowadays Black chicken are famous around the world especially in Asian countries.
Indian name Kadaknath is the only black meat chicken (bmc) bread of india. It’s a native bread of madhya pradesh, reared by the tribes of jabhuva district.
The bird is very popular among the adiwasis mainly due to its adaptability to environment, disease resistance, tasty black meat, texture and flavour. Its flesh, bones and nerves appears black; it’s considered not only for delicacy of distinctive taste, but also for good medicinal value.
The bird has been brought back form the edge of extinction by the efforts taken by the government.
Merits of Black Chicken or kadaknath chicken:
- High protein more than 25% (highest of all chicken breads)
- Low fat73-1.05% only (lowest of all chicken breads)
- Vitamins b1, b2, b6, b12, c and e, niacin, protein, fat, calcium, phosphorus, iron, nicotinic acid etc.
- High levels of 18 essential amino acids as well as hormones that are required by the human body.
- The amount of fat deposited in the body of a kadaknath chicken is itself very negligible.
- It has great importance in siddha & homeopathy medicines for treating nervous disorder.
Nutritive table showing comparison of kadaknath chicken with other chicken
| No. | Properties | Kadaknath | Ordinary Table bird |
| 1 | Protein content | 25% | 18 – 20% |
| 2 | Fat content | 0.73 – 1.03% | 13 – 25% |
| 3 | Linoleic acid | 24% | 21% |
| 4 | Cholestrol | 184.75MG/100G | 218.12MG/100G |
Merits of kadaknath chicken eggs:
- The eggs are an ideal nutritive food, especially for old people and high blood pressure victims, since the cholesterol content is lower.
- Kadaknath eggs helps to meet the day to day protein requirment of growing children.
Why is kadaknath egg costlier?
A white leghom hen is selectively bred to lay320 – 330 eggs out of 365 days in a year, where as kadaknath hen lays around 120 -130 eggs in a year taking the same amount of feed as that of a white leghom hen. So it’s obvious that the price has to be 3 times higher as that of a white egg.
Why is kadaknath chicken costlier?
A broiler chicken gains 2.5 kg of body weight in 40 -45 days. It almost inflates like a balloon day-by-day. Its gene has been selected so that its only work is to eat and get obese. Even if you don’t kill a broiler chicken at 45 days of age it will die very soon due to obesity (under intensive rearing farm condition. Kadaknath being a desi bird involves in lot of physical activity and its weight gain is “slow and steady”
A kadaknath cock attains body weight of 1.5KGS in 120 -130 days. It takes nearly thrice the time to attain half the body weight of a broiler chicken. If you don’t kill if will live upto the age of 12 years reaching maximum of around 2KGS body weight only. So our cost of production is nearly four times higher than that of a broiler chicken.
That’s the reason that many giant breeders did not turn to kadaknath even through it’s so useful to the mankind, all corporate in poultry field are concered about quick profit only.
Researchers said, Black chicken has full of antioxidant which helps to keep your health, prevent sickness and common colds. The antioxidant that is found in black chicken is called Carnosine. High concentrations of Carnosine is good for muscles and nervous system. Besides, it also offer higher levels of irons, minerals and vitamins and nutrients usually present in regular chicken.
According to the Chinese medicine, the black chicken can help to boost the immune system, increase female fertility, and nourish a pregnant women and also good food for old people.
There is either no taste difference too much but it is a little sweeter than regular chicken. It can be cooked the same ways as regular chicken. The best way to get all the nutrients contain in Black Chicken is making soup. You can make simple soup style which is boiled with garlic, Black chicken, ginger and pepper. Other popular soup recipe is making soup with herbs and herbal with black chicken.
