Silkie

Silkie is a breed of chicken 

which got its name from its fluffy feathers which feel like silk. 

Most of the information on the silkie, including the pictures of the live chickens, came from Wikipedia. Other unusual features of the silkie are their five toes (most chickens have four) and dark blue flesh and bones, which is what interested me in trying their meat. 

They probably originated in Southern China and the first written account of a silkie was given by Marco Polo in the 13th century, who mentioned chickens with fur-like plumage. Their dark meat is usually considered unpalatable in the U.S. and Europe. This was made more-than-clear to me when Judy posted a picture of my uncooked bird on Facebook 

and she got about 20 unflattering responses, such as it looks like a pterodactyl. 

However, it is used regularly in Chinese, Japanese, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Korean cooking, 

but tellingly, mostly in soups. 

In China, chicken soup made with silkie is supposed to be curative. 

Ironically, despite all the puff of the live birds, their flesh is scrawny. You get more meat (and it tastes better) off a Cornish game hen. The carcass is very fun to look at and when you cut into the flesh, you see that the color is more than skin deep. 

I rubbed my silkie in sea salt and let it sit for an hour, then rubbed on some olive oil and cooked it on our outdoor grill over direct heat. 

It got a little charred 

and would have been better cooked on indirect heat. 

There was not a lot of meat on dem' bones, 

but what was there was different, 

one of the fun things about trying new foods. Note the thigh detached from the section right next to the wing.

Thigh meat shows darker than usual meat and much darker connective tissue.

Finally, a leg with more detailed view of the darker meat.