The Philippine Native Chicken

The Philippine Native Chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is a breed of chicken wildly thriving in the Philippines. However, today they are raised in yard farms as utility bird for their tasty meat and eggs.

Darag is a common type of Philippine Native Chicken (Photo courtesy of DOST)

There are 4 common breeds of Philippine Native Chicken

• Banaba
• Joloanon
• Parawakan
• Darag

These breeds are usually raised for cock fighting but there are several activists who condemn this practice. In rural villages and farmlands, native chicken are mainly raised as food source. They are easy to raise since even if they are not fed regularly, they will look for their own food such as scraps in the ground.

Recently, there are breeders who have tried to cross the native chicken with foreign breeds such as the Cantonese chicken and the sunshine chicken. These fowls are similar to the American breeds particularly the Rhode Island breed. The primary goal of the cross breeding is to boost the mass of the native chicken for more food source.

Native Chicken are also noted for their laying abilities. Even though they can somehow be obstinate at times, they can give up to 250 eggs every year. A healthy layer can give more. This is noted if the native chicken are provided with premium quality feeds.

Try this tasty native chicken tinola

Ingredients

1 kilo native chicken

1 cups of young papaya

½ cup dahon ng sili

2 liters water

¼ cup ginger, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 large onion, julienned

¼ cup cooking oil

¼ cup fish sauce or patis

Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure

Heat oil in a large pot and stir fry garlic, onion and ginger

Add the native chicken and water

Simmer over medium heat, allow to boil for about 20 minutes or until the chicken is tender

Add patis, salt and pepper to enhance the flavor

Put in the young papaya, and simmer for about 15 minutes

Put some dahon ng sili when ready to serve

Serve with rice