Story Title: Where does your meat come from?
Episode: Food and Garden Special
Date: 4 April 2010
Presenter: Julia Jenkins

Julia finds out where your meat comes from and the importance of buying local for your next Sunday roast.

Mt Barker Free Range Chicken Tips and Facts

• Ask your local butcher, it's very likely he or she will know where your meat comes from and you can be assured that the farmer has cared for and looked after that animal.
• All of Mt Barker chickens come from family-run mixed use farms in the Mt Barker area, 350km south of Perth.
• Mt Barker chickens not only taste different they look different. You will notice that the breast and thighs are plump and the skin has a creamy translucent colour. When you take a Mt Barker chicken out of its packaging you will notice there is very little water loss and drip.
• Taste – The meat has a firm texture and sweet flavour. You will notice that after you have cooked Mt Barker chicken, the meat is full and shrinks very little. Mt Barker chickens are always sold as fresh, never frozen.
• Always ask questions - Don't be afraid of your butcher or supermarket manager - they are very happy to answer any questions you may have. If the labelling on your meat does not say where or how it is grown, you should ask why not.
• Try turkey - Mt Barker free range turkey is also available all year round and is a great alternative to other meats. The turkey thigh fillet is economically priced and tastes like a red meat.

Cooking Chicken

• When roasting a whole Mt Barker chook, try cooking it breast-side down. This helps keep all the lovely juices in the lean breast meat.
• For a fat free gravy, strain the roasting juices and set in jar in the fridge. After 10 minutes the fat will rise to the top and can be scraped off. Warm the fat-free 'jelly' and add a little corn flour and seasoning to taste - deluxe!
• All chickens are descended from the wild, red jungle fowl.
• Try a Chicken recipe today.

Julia's Roast Chicken Recipe

Ingredients

• Large plump chicken
• Some herbs from the veggie garden
• 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• Fresh sage and rosemary chopped
• About 20 leaves of the curry tree whole
• Salt and pepper
• A couple of roma tomatoes
• Half a cup of white wine

Method

• Grind the herbs in a pestle before mixing them into a paste with some olive oil.
• Gently lift the skin of the bird away from the thighs and rub the paste into the gap – you have to get your hands dirty for this one.
• Rub olive oil over the body and salt and pepper for flavour, place the bird in a roasting pan with the tomatoes stuffed inside the body and a splash of white wine inside before wrap the bird in foil – we are cooking this on the BBQ and it can burn if you're not careful.
• Cook at about 180C for 1.5 hrs and then take the alfoil off and let the heat and salt in the skin turn it crispy, make sure you have some home grown spuds and pumpkin that has cooked with the chicken – add some gravy and I promise that you'll experience the ultimate chicken dinner

Contact

Mt Barker Free Range Chicken
Locked Bag 19 Welshpool DC
Western Australia 6986
P: 08 9351 0762
F: 08 9356 5460
E: sales@mtbarkerchicken.com.au
www.mtbarkerchicken.com.au