Whether it’s live poultry or processed chicken, choosing this way is as tasty as a hundred delicious ones.

On ancestral altars, during New Year’s Eve or in the days of the Lunar New Year, a boiled chicken cannot be missed. Moreover, chicken is also a favored food that many people choose to add variety to their meals during the Tet festival, as it is usually filled with braised meat, preserved meat, banh chung, and banh tet. So how do you choose a delicious and beautiful chicken? Here are some things you should pay attention to.

Live Chicken

When buying live chicken, you need to pay attention to the following points:

– The chicken should look agile and healthy. It is best to observe from a distance before approaching to choose. By observing from a distance, you will be able to see if the chicken’s eyes are bright. A healthy chicken will have bright and alert eyes.

– The comb of the chicken should be bright red, upright, and its feathers should be smooth and shiny. The chicken’s beak should be sharp and not runny. Avoid choosing a chicken with a dark-colored comb or messy feathers.

– The chicken’s legs should be straight, without scratches, and its claws should be intact without breakages or red spots.

– The chicken’s skin should be thin, soft, and firm. You should be able to see the blood vessels and a few large yellow streaks below the breast and wing.

– The chicken’s pelvic girdle should not be too tight, and its chest should be firm.

– To ensure the chicken is not sick, you should check the chicken’s anus. It should be pink, firm, and well-squeezed. If there are yellowish, slimy, or fresh blood mixed with the feces, do not buy it as it indicates a diseased chicken.

Processed Chicken

If you don’t need it for worship, you can buy processed chicken to save time. However, even processed chicken needs to be carefully chosen to avoid buying diseased ones. When buying processed chicken, pay attention to the following details:

– The chicken’s body should be small, compact, firm to touch, and not flabby or deformed to avoid buying water-injected chickens. Lift up the chicken wings and check for any signs of water injection, such as red spots or blackened skin. If the chicken’s meat feels soft and produces a squishy sound when squeezed, it is not firm.

– The chicken’s skin should be golden and shiny, but not evenly colored. Beware of chickens with evenly-colored skin, as it may have been dyed.

After choosing a good chicken, you can prepare it according to your chosen recipe.