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What does chicken taste like? It’s hard to say, since most chicken sold in the United States is bathed in water and pumped with preservatives.
The Canadians are all about chicken chilled in cool air rather than dunked in water, because the process preserves the flavor and the integrity of the meat’s texture. But until recently, there weren’t many options here.
On a recent trip to my local grocer, I came across Mary’s Free-Range Organic Chicken. These chickens are raised on a vegetarian diet, without antibiotics or preservatives, and they’re air-chilled, which made me excited about roasting chicken again. I rubbed it down with nothing more than a paste of salt, pepper, garlic, and crushed fennel seeds, and was rewarded with an aromatic bird that was the best I’ve had in years. It tasted just like chicken.
Available at Whole Foods and other markets; prices vary.
I was going to log in and say the same thing about SmartChicken, but Ruth beat me to it. SmartChicken is Certified Organic and Certified Humane, which is nice, plus, it's right from the heartland (that is to say, Nebraska). Grocers near you: http://www.smartchicken.com/gny.php (or you can buy it from their online store and ship it direct to your door).
I first ran across air-chilled chicken in the form of the SmartChicken brand, and I was an instant convert. They taste better and they have a better texture. As a bonus, they are safer, since the chicken carcasses aren't all thrown into a water bath where one chicken can contaminate the whole batch.