The word “jidori” in Japanese means free-range chicken produced locally in each area of Japan.
It’s an old-fashioned name and it sounds like the local chicken is really a traditional strain kept in a restricted area for a long time.
therefore Japanese restaurant owners and farmers want to call it jidori for much more profit.
However, you know that not all jidori brands advertised in Japan are truly traditional strains with a delicious taste.
Actually, part of the strain was recently generated from the offspring of several local chickens from various regions of Japan, moreover,
it is sometimes bred with Korean or Chinese strains.
Here I will write about Aizu Jidori, which is one of the most famous and traditional jidori in northern Japan.
The Aizu area is most famous as the place where the Heike family and their followers occupied the western half of Japan for 200 years and lost it in the country-wide Samurai conflict in the 12th century.
Aizu jidori are traditional oral chickens brought by the Heike family from the capital city Kyoto to Aizu in that period and are said to be passed down until now.
But in literature, the first description of Aizu jidori is found in a reference written in the 1570s.
It is written in the reference that Aizu jidori feathers are a very important decoration of the garments worn in the spring festival “Aizu Higan-jishi festival” in the Aizu area.
Yes, you can enjoy that traditional festival in March, and you can confirm that many beautiful Aizu jidori feathers are used in the traditional costumes of the dancers.
This is the reason why we believe that Aizu jidori is really a traditional local chicken, with at least 400 years of history, and it can inherit 800 years old flavor.
To be honest, when the value of this Aizu jidori was recognized and researched in 1987, there were only a few birds on a few small farms.
So researchers at Fukushima Prefectural chicken breeding centers were intensively concerned with the expansion of the number of Aizu jidori for 10 years,
and thanks to them, we can now enjoy the taste of Aizu jidori in many restaurants.
You suspect that those chickens kept in some farms were actually direct descendants of Aizu jidori, right?
Don’t worry about that.
There is another famous jidori in the southern side of Japan, Satsuma jidori, and the genomic DNA of both strains was sequenced and compared with each other, and they were shown to be quite different ancestral chickens from what they were derived from.
Yes, we Japanese are somewhat paranoid about tradition or blood purity, probably because we prioritize family over individuals ;).
Now these Aizu jidori are kept in large breeding farms in the Aizu countryside, just as they were in the hills and fields in ancient times, plenty of natural exercise, proper sunbathing, natural food, and may not have stress.
Thanks to the efforts of farmers to keep Aizu jidori in an organic style, we can enjoy the taste of Aizu jidori in almost the same or better conditions as 400 years ago.
In the most famous production center of Aizu jidori, the city of Mishima, jidori farmers ship chicks at 120 days a few days late.
One hundred and twenty days is twice as long as the feeding time for broilers that are normally held until shipping.
There is a reason why, because the balance of glutamic acid and inosinic acid in chicken meat is best at 110-130 days of age.
Glutamic acid and inosinic acid are known to better affect the flavor of meat synergistically if those amino acids are included rich in meat in a good balance, and the Fukushima Chicken Breeding Center clarified that the development time of the best equilibrium ratio is 110 to 130 days. .
Unlike broilers kept in small cages for 60 days without exercise, Aizu jidori are raised in a large field with natural exercise and organic feed under the sun.
Such rearing style presents you with the best toughness and good smell of chicken meat when you put them in your mouth at Aizu jidori restaurants.
Good taste and good looks with beautiful feather color, Aizu jidori is one of the best chickens you can find in Japan. I am very grateful to the staff at the Fukushima Chicken Breeding Centers.
prefecture!