Oakham Chicken

pandas66

How good are they from M & S?

I did 1 in my slowcooker a month or so ago and had heaps of meat, enough for 3 meals and so much stock to use for soups.
I bought a Tesco one yesterday and have slow cooked it again in a similar way, veg and water, salt pepper and mustard, but no way is there as much meat!
I've got 1 good meal tbh and plenty of stock again but I'm already realising it won't be as good a quality as before....
I've now lifted the bird out, stripped it of the skin and replaced it in the pot to make double stock/soup base as advised

I'm an unconfident chicken slow cooker user so will have a freezer full of stock and little idea of what else to do with it :rotfl: apart from my soup base.

Any ideas?

whu

Don't know about the cooking but agree that the oakham chicken is really good

piglet6

I definitely agree with you on the quality. We are so convinced that they are better than other supermarket chickens that they are the only ones we buy now...

It means we buy a chicken a little less often, but I think they work out as better value for the money, as we use every last scrap of them (can easily make 3-4 meals for the 2 of us), and I think the stock they make is better too - the soups and risottos made from the m&s chicken stock always seem to taste better.

Piglet

Larumbelle

I used to buy chickens from the butcher, but unfortunately my lovely butcher retired and goodness only knows what this new guy is doing... the last chook we bought, looked a little anaemic, tasted of not much, and the stock had a fishy aftertaste, so I suspect it was fed on fishmeal. Not good enough for an £8 chook, so I haven't been back since... I'm looking for a new butcher!

I now have a freezer full of these Oakham chickens from when they were in the all in for a tenner deal. They're good, but no better than from a decent butcher in terms of either price or taste IMHO. I would rather support a good local business, but in the meantime I'm happy with these. I can't speak for other supermarket birds though, I do try to steer clear. I totally agree with piglet that I'd rather have less meat but better quality anyday!

Skint_Catt

My mum only gets Oakham chickens from M&S, they're the best we've tasted. I bought a Tesco's one (trying to save money) but it wasn't as tasty. Shame we haven't got an M&S in our town so can only stock up if I go to Mum's or further afield!

Jessie-B_2

Have you actually looked into what Oakham chickens are?

"At M&S, all our fresh chicken is Oakham chicken. This slower growing breed, exclusive to us, comes from dedicated UK farms that we know and trust. So we can guarantee that every bird is reared in a way that meets our own standards for animal welfare."

Firstly, Oakham is not a breed of Chicken, but a brand name. The chickens themselves come from nowhere near Oakham, and some even come from outside the UK (check the small print on the label).

"We insist that the birds are slower grown and have a maximum stocking density of 30kg per square metre. The birds are housed on straw or wood shavings and have constant access to food and water."

So......if the average chicken weighs in at 1.3 kg, that's 23 chickens per square metre. Horiffic!

If you are buying Oakham chicken, you mayaswell be buying battery chicken, as the conditions they are kept in are pretty similar!

Shame on you M&S for tricking people into thinking they are doing good by buying your mysterious breed of indoor reared chicken!

All quotes taken directly from M&S website, Monday 7th Feb, 15.57

Yinster

Jessie-B wrote: »

Firstly, Oakham is not a breed of Chicken, but a brand name. The chickens themselves come from nowhere near Oakham, and some even come from outside the UK (check the small print on the label).

As well as the quote above, I was watching a programme recently (think it was Food or Jimmy's food factory) and they were talking to one of the chicken suppliers who supplied chickens to not one or two but four of the major supermarkets including lidl and M&S. Same chickens but different label and more importantly different prices. So don't always rely on the name.

bigmuffins

Saw TV prog the other day - can't recall the name: What is on your plate or something along those lines. Anyway, they said that Oakham chicken (M&S), Willow Farm (Tesco) and Sainsburys were all exactly the same and came from the same supplier. Not one of them comes from Oakham or Willow Farm or whatever the Sainsburys one is called. Is all to try to make customers think these are better! These places don't exist - are dreamt up by the marketing depts.

I don't believe anything in the adverts these days (well didn't before either!). The only way to make sure that is free range chicken is to go to farm yourself! And not many of us can do that.

I think all these 'free range' etc labels are an excuse for the supermarkets to get more money out of us for the same products. :mad:


sorry Yinster - posted at same time!

mummyjane

Jessie-B wrote: »

"We insist that the birds are slower grown and have a maximum stocking density of 30kg per square metre. The birds are housed on straw or wood shavings and have constant access to food and water."

So......if the average chicken weighs in at 1.3 kg, that's 23 chickens per square metre. Horiffic!

I agree, that is very misleading - shame on you indeed M&S

LondonDreamer

Jessie-B wrote: »

"We insist that the birds are slower grown and have a maximum stocking density of 30kg per square metre. The birds are housed on straw or wood shavings and have constant access to food and water."

So......if the average chicken weighs in at 1.3 kg, that's 23 chickens per square metre. Horiffic!

To be fair, the average chicken is more like 2-2.5kg (remembering that 1.3kg is the weight of a small, butchered bird) so I would expect around 12-15 birds per metre at that level. Not great, but not quite as bad as you're suggesting. DEFRA allows up to 33kg per metre before it is considered a high stock level, which only means that additional requirements need to be met to do so.

According to HFW's campaign Chicken Out, M&S do meet the requirements for higher welfare barn birds and the requirements on free range is only a touch lower at 27.5kg per square metre. So in some respects, that's not that much better!

Agree with the previous poster who says that the only way to guarantee your chickens are truly higher welfare and/or free range is to know the farm you're purchasing them from.

kitschy

I get my chicken from our local farm shop, and I thought the chooks were raised there. But this thread made me nosy, so I looked on the farm website, and they don't raise poultry, and get their birds from
this farm. It looks quite nice, but it's a bit too far for me to check out.

Might try and find a farm nearer that raises their own birds.