Have you ever wondered what are the various types of chicken while chewing on that juicy KFC chicken leg? Well, if you haven’t, here’s a brief overview of the various different types of chicken that are domesticated and reared for various purposes.
What would chronic non-vegetarians like us do without KFC’s finger lickin’ good chicken recipes and edibly tempting chicken portions? It’s harder than hard to imagine! Before proceeding on to the various types of chicken, let us get a little intimate with what chicken is and why these birds are reared. Chickens are domesticated birds that belong to the family of fowls. Fowls belong to two major categories, such classification being based upon two different biological orders – land fowl and water fowl. The domesticated chicken, as we know them, belong to the order of land fowl and are a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. Chickens constitute the largest population of all terrestrial birds owing to their wide rearing by humans, chiefly for food purposes – as we all know, eggs and meat of these poultry birds serve as nutritious and delicious foods for us! Let’s take a brief look at what are the major different types of chicken and chicken breeds.
Chicken Breed Types
Chicken are primarily classified on the basis of two major parameters – place of origin and human utility. On the basis of human utility, there are four major categories under which chicken breeds are classified – egg laying, meat providing, both purposes (eggs as well as meat) and fighting/exhibition. Let’s take a look at what all chicken types are included under each category.
Egg Laying Chicken Breeds
Poultry owners have been raising chickens for eggs since ages. The following breeds of chicken are used solely for the purpose of their eggs:
- Ameraucana
- Leghorn
- Ancona
- Marans
- Araucana
- Orloff
- Austrian Painted
- Penedesenca
- Barnevelder
- Sicilian Buttercup
- Campine
- Catalana
- White Faced Black Spanish Fowl
- Easter Egger
- Welsummer
- Egyptian Fayoumi
- Lakenvelder
- Norwegian Jaerhone
- Twentse
These chickens are mostly light weight breeds and mostly do not hatch broods.
Chicken Breeds Reared For Meat
The following different types of chicken, often collectively known as broilers, are highly prized for their delicious flesh and raising chickens for meat is as much a science as cooking a tender dish of it!
- Cornish Rock
- Bresse
- Jersey Giant
- Cornish Game
- Ixworth
Meat and Eggs Both
The following breeds of chicken are raised for their eggs as well as delicious meat:-
- Brahma
- Norfolk Grey
- Australorp
- Naked Neck
- New Hampshire
- Brakel
- Orpington
- Buckeye
- California Gray
- Plymouth Rock
- Poltava
- Chantecler
- Rhode Island Red
- Cubalaya
- Red Shaver
- Rhode Island White
- Derbyshire Redcap
- Scots Dumpy
- Dorking
- Dominiques
- Faverolles
- Scots Grey
- Holland
- Sussex
- Iowa Blue
- Winnebago
- Java
- Wyandotte
- Marsh Daisy
- Jersey Giant
Duels/Poultry Shows
The following fowls are reared in line with the hobby poultry breeders who prepare their chicken for exhibitions, poultry shows and duels. For such people, raising chickens is all about fancy, exhibition and owner’s pride!
- Nankin
- Asil
- American Game
- Old English Game
- Pekin
- Polish
- Phoenix
- Appenzeller
- Blue hen of Delaware
- Rosecomb
- Frizzle
- Ducth Bantam
- Shamo
- Sultan
- Croad Langshan
- Yokohama
- Sumatra
- Japanese Bantam
- Malay
- Serama
- Silkie
- Hamburg
- Cochin
- Barbu de Watermael
- Le Fleche
- Modern Game
- Booted Bantam
These are the major exhibition poultry breeds among many others that are extensively bred for non-consumption purposes. That was a classification of chicken based upon their purpose of rearing and domestication. The following chicken types are classified based upon their places of origin round the globe. Some such area-specific classified breeds along with their region of rearing are:
United States Native Fowls
- Iowa Blue
- Java
- Brahma
- Ameraucana
- Delaware
- Wyandotte
- Holland
- Jersey Giant
- Plymouth Rock
- Buckeye
- New Hampshire
- California Gray and California White
- Dominique
- Lamona
- Winnebago,
- Rhode Island Red and Rhode Island White
- American Game
United Kingdom Crowers
- Dorking
- Cornish Game
- Marsh Daisy
- Scots Dumping
- Ixworth
- Rosecomb
- Sussex
- Muffled Old English Game
- Ixworth
- Orpington
- Old English Game
- Modern Game
- Norfolk Grey
Japanese Poultry Fowls
- Ko-Shamo
- Phoenix
- Chabo
- Yokohama (but of course!!)
- Tomaru
Choicest Chinese Fowls
- Cochin
- Nankin
- Silkie
- Pekin (no points for guessing this one!)
- Croad Landshan
Netherlands’ Noted Breeds
- Booted Bantam
- Welsummer
- Polish
- Dutch Bantam (well, well, what else would you expect?)
- North Holland Blue
- Barnevelder
- Hamburg
Those were some of the main chicken types that are reared all around the globe for various purposes, as enumerated under breeds as per human utility. Next time you sink your teeth into that juicy, deep-fried chicken breast or the deliciously smoky roasted chicken leg, you’ll surely wonder which of the chicken breeds has been served in the platter before you that is gratifying your gustatory and olfactory senses with mouth-watering aroma and would-sell-your-soul-to-the-devil-for taste and tenderness! Besides, there are the health perks as well, chicken being a major source of lean dietary protein, fiber and Vitamin D! Chicken is the reason why I cannot turn vegetarian no matter how hard I try – you see, it’s almost an insult not to taste the wholesome flesh cooked with culinary dexterity! Besides, as KFC puts it, it’s finger lickin’ good!
