Have you ever eaten black chicken? It’s very popular here in China. I remember the first time I saw the dramatically dark meat on the supermarket shelves; and then I first tried it in a typical Chinese soup with wolfberries, and I’ve loved it ever since. Black chicken (also known in the Western world as the silkie breed) is slowly finding a niche in the West due to recent nutrition studies. I consider it a much tastier, gamier dark-meat chicken. Chinese have used it as food and as medicine for over a thousand years. But is there scientific evidence?

In the nutrition aspect, black chicken does indeed have less calories than regular chicken, mostly due to less fat. For example, a 100 gram piece of regular chicken has around 8 grams fat, while black chicken has only 2 grams. You can access chicken’s nutrition information at the above link.

Recent evidence also shows a higher level of an antioxidant called carnosine. Antioxidants in general are a great thing, and black chicken has double the amount of carnosine than regular chicken.

The New York Times has a good food review of black chicken, as well as links to some recipes.