Everyone loves chicken. All across the world, it’s the most common variety of poultry. At our Seattle Korean restaurant, you can enjoy this classic bird in the form of our barbecue chicken dishes or our oriental chicken salad. But where did the common chicken come from, and how did it win such a foothold in so many culinary traditions?
The chicken we know today is a domesticated offshoot of the red junglefowl, a bird from Southeast Asia. This bird was first raised in India around 3,000 BC. Ancient Chinese writings tell us that it was first brought to China in about 1,400 BC, and its popularity spread into the Korean peninsula from there. Popular for its easy availability and neutral taste, the bird was one of the most important proteins throughout the Middle Ages for much of the continent, and has remained a culinary phenomenon to this day.