This Is the Only Brand of Chicken I’ll Ever Buy—It’s That Good

I don’t remember exactly when I saw the chicken brand LaBelle Patrimoine pop up in my local Whole Foods Market. But I do remember tasting the company’s chickens for the first time. After dry-brining a whole chicken overnight and roasting it, I cut into the bird for a taste. The meat was tender and succulent, and the schmaltzy yellow fat was so deeply flavorful that I would have happily eaten the fat on its own—no meat, sauce, or sides required. You could chalk it up to my dry-brining or roasting technique, but I’ve dry-brined and roasted dozens of chickens, and none have ever come close to being as delicious as this one. 

I mentioned my experience to my Serious Eats coworkers, and our associate editorial director, Megan, immediately chimed in to say that she had recently discovered LaBelle Patrimoine and was as smitten as I was. We’re not the only fans: An Instagram user gushed that the brand’s chickens taste “so much better than any store-bought chicken you’ve ever had,” and New York Times columnist Eric Kim described it as the “chickeniest chicken” a few weeks ago.

Curious what might explain why their chickens are so good, I took a look at their website. They point to various factors that likely do make a difference: the breed of chicken, their farming practices, and how the chickens are processed after the slaughter. According to the site, the Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based company works with about 40 small Pennsylvania farms to raise a heritage breed from France that takes longer to mature and develop a deeper flavor than most of the fast-growing conventional chickens that prioritize speed and efficiency over flavor.

The LaBelle Patrimonie chickens are also Step 4 Animal Welfare Certified, which ensures the birds have access to outdoor shelter, shade, a dust-bathing area, and freedom to forage in open air. It’s a designation that carries significantly more weight than unregulated terms like “all natural.” The birds are pasture-raised, which means they spend most of their time outdoors; this designation is typically a step up from “free range,” which generally just means the hens have access to the outdoors. 

There’s a lot to be said about the ethics of conventional poultry farming practices; the demand for cheap chicken has pushed many chicken producers to raise chickens in inhumane conditions. As the Systemic Justice Journal touched on in 2021, many conventionally-raised broiler chickens are “genetically modified to grow so fast their legs cannot sustain their weight,” making it difficult, if not impossible, for them to move. Often, these chickens lack access to outdoor space and are confined to small cages. Not only are conventional poultry-farming practices cruel, but they tend to produce lacklustre chickens that, in my opinion, simply don’t taste as good. 

After slaughter, the LaBelle chickens are air-chilled, a process that many of us here at Serious Eats believe yields chicken with better flavor and texture compared to the more common practice of water-chilling in a chlorine solution. As former Serious Eats editor Kenji notes in his article on how to butcher a chicken, air-chilled chickens are better value (since they don’t retain water the way water-chilled birds would) and also have a more concentrated flavor. 

In addition to being Animal Welfare Certified, LaBelle Patrimione uses a regenerative approach to farming, showing that it’s possible to raise delicious chickens thoughtfully, humanely, and sustainably. In French, “La Belle Patrimoine” means “a beautiful heritage.” Their chickens are, indeed, a beautiful heritage—but if the company inspires other suppliers to raise delicious birds the way they do, then that, I’d argue, would be an even more beautiful legacy.