Sutton Hoo Chicken, which rears high welfare birds in Suffolk under the banner ‘properly free range’, has won a Great Taste Award for its free-range whole bird.
Organised by the Guild of Fine Food, the Great Taste Awards are known as a benchmark of fine food and drink.
According to Sutton Hoo Chicken, over 500 judges blind tasted its free-range whole bird before deciding it was worthy of a Great Taste award. “We credit this to how we rear our birds,” said the firm’s owners. “It isn’t a secret that we have a passion for welfare and tradition when it comes to chickens, and we believe the vast 40 acres of meadows and fields that our birds have as theirs to roam in is a main contributor to what produces that great tasting, high quality meat. We also believe that by using a slower growing breed of chicken, their longer life and rearing period (70% longer than standard indoor chickens and 25% longer than standard free-range chickens) means that they develop a fuller and more succulent flavour.”