Taste
The cluck stops here

By Joan Namkoong
Advertiser Food Editor

Brent Hancock is vice president of operations for Pacific Poultry Inc., the state's largest chicken producer. In six weeks, the poultry in this house will be among the 25,000 Island-grown chickens that reach Hawai'i markets and restaurants every week. Kyle Sackowski • The Honolulu Advertiser

But in a matter of minutes, you don't notice it at all, even standing at one end of the 90-degree chicken house filled with thousands of white birds as far as the eye can see.

Brent Hancock gingerly picks up a six-week-old, clucking, fluffy white ball of a chicken. "See how warm he is underneath? He's just eaten," he says as he pats a little lump under the chicken's throat.

Hancock knows his chickens: He is vice president of operations for Pacific Poultry Inc., the state's largest commercial chicken producer (the only other is Medeiros Farms on Kaua'i). I was with him recently on his regular excursion to a chicken farm in Ma'ili along the Wai'anae Coast, one of three farms that supply most of the fresh Island-raised chickens for our tables.

Now, this is not a story meant to make you queasy about having chicken tonight for dinner. In fact, it's intended to pique your interest in chickens so you'll watch "The Natural History of Chicken" at 9 tonight on KHET Channel 10.

Critically acclaimed at this year's Sundance Film Festival, this documentary by Mark Lewis focuses on ordinary people telling stories about their extraordinary chickens.

And of course, you'll see the reality of chicken and egg farms that produce food for our tables.

So, back to the chicken farm. Island-raised chickens start out as eggs from Arkansas, flown in and hatched next door to Pacific Poultry's processing facility on Nimitz Highway — a business started by Hancock's stepfather, Ernest Morgado, in 1955.

The 21-day old hatchlings, feed, water, electricity and catching crew are supplied to farmers who provide facilities and expertise to raise the chickens.

In one chicken house, thousands of week-old, yellow down-covered chicks harmonize in a chorus of peeps as they strut about their new floor of sawdust in the rather spacious quarters. Each successive house we visit reveals larger birds, taking over a little more space in the large chicken-wire-fenced structures with corrugated metal roofs. At six weeks, they're a little crowded together, but they can still walk amongst their peers, which they do to get water and food.

Water troughs suspended from the ceiling are rigged throughout the house, a constant supply dripping for thirsty birds. A belt feeder encircles the house, turned on at four-hour intervals to feed always-hungry birds. "You should see them when the belt is turned on; they flock to it," Hancock said. "Chickens basically eat, sleep and poop."

The chickens feed on a mix of corn and other nutrients designed for their different stages of growth. "There's a starter, a grower and finishing feed," Hancock said, "each with a different level of protein for energy for growth. Chickens are vaccinated against diseases, but no growth hormones are used. They're illegal."

Each house contains about 9,000 birds. "We do a straight-run house: Males and females are together here," Hancock said. "Males grow faster than females, but the market wants different sizes. Females have a short pink comb and shorter legs; the males have a higher comb and longer legs."

In the six-week-old house, the chickens are clucking their hearts out, but their sound is drowned out by the cacophony of big fans that help circulate the occasional breezes and keep the temperatures down.

"Chickens are susceptible to the weather," Hancock says. "Like a human, a chicken won't eat much when it's hot and humid; it will just sit back and drink water. Summer heat can produce smaller birds."

Unbeknownst to the chickens, six weeks marks the time when they will be slaughtered. On O'ahu, 25,000 island-grown chickens reach our markets and restaurants weekly. Of course, plenty more come from the Mainland, all part of the 8 billion chickens Americans consume each year.

Chicken for dinner tonight? You bet: fried, poached, baked, roasted or panko-crusted, please, followed by "The Natural History of Chicken," to enlighten and entertain.

The following recipe is a favorite of Food Network "Cooking Live" star Sara Moulton. It's a recipe she adapted from Jean Anderson's 1982 book "Jean Anderson Cooks." It's simple to prepare and incredibly delicious; it is one of many chicken recipes that appear in "Best American Recipes 2000" (Houghton Mifflin).

Garlicky Baked Chicken

• 8 chicken thighs or 4 chicken breasts
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 cups fresh bread crumbs
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Season chicken with salt and pepper.

Melt butter with garlic and pour into a shallow bowl. Mix bread crumbs and cheese in a shallow bowl. Dip chicken pieces into garlic butter, coating well. Dip into bread crumb mixture, patting crumbs on so the coating is thick.

Place chicken in a shallow roasting pan (for even crisper chicken, bake on a rack in a roasting pan), skin side up, and pat on any remaining bread crumb mixture. Drizzle any remaining garlic butter over the chicken pieces. Bake chicken for one hour or until crisp and golden brown, basting several times with pan juices. Serve hot.

Poached Chicken Breast

Summertime or anytime salads easily become a full meal with the addition of chicken. Top a Caesar salad with sliced chicken, top it with ginger cilantro pesto or make a simple sandwich and top it with a flavored mayonnaise. There's so much you can do with a simple piece of cooked chicken.

Poaching a chicken breast is a fastest and easy way to cook chicken. Simply bring water or chicken broth to a boil, add boneless, skinless chicken breast, return to a boil, cover, turn off heat and let stand 20 to 30 minutes. The result: perfectly cooked, moist, tender chicken breast, ready to eat.

But here's a trick: add some lively flavor to that poaching liquid, depending on how you're going to use your chicken. For a Chinese-style chicken salad, add a few slices of smashed fresh ginger and a couple of whole green onions. Lemon grass adds its perfumy flavor to poaching liquid; fresh herbs, too. Spices like cinnamon and cloves can make a curried chicken salad even more flavorful. Even just salt and pepper will help add flavor to chicken breasts that are being poached.

Serve this zesty ginger cilantro pesto atop slices of poached chicken breast and a bed of crunchy greens for a terrific summer salad.

Ginger Cilantro Pesto

• 3 tablespoons minced ginger
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic, about 1 clove
• 1/4 cup minced green onions, about 2 whole stalks
• 1/4 cup Chinese parsley minced, about à cup packed whole leaves
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Blend all ingredients together in small food processor until thick paste forms.