Silkie Smooth:

All the Deets on Black-Boned Chickens

Esther Tseng　/　photos by Jimmy Lin　/　tr. by Phil Newell

October 2024

中文日本語

Joy Wu, one of the third-generation operators of Hsinyuan Foods, visits the chicken barns at least three times a day and spreads out the closely packed silkies to ensure they all gain access to food and water.

There is a Chinese idiom “a crane among chickens,” which refers to something that stands out from the crowd. But if you place a black-boned Asian “silkie” chicken among a flock of ordinary chickens, it may be hard to pick it out, for the great majority of silkie chickens have white feathers, while their chicks have yellow feathers, and some silkies lay blue eggs. Nonetheless the silkie is called wuguji or “black-boned chicken” in Chinese for a good reason: It is black through and through, with the skin, bones, and meat all dark.

Tien Ching Silkies lay eggs with blue shells. (courtesy of Tsai Ming-yang)

A perfect ten: The Tien Ching Silkie

The Taiwan Livestock Research Institute (TLRI), an agency of the Ministry of Agriculture that specializes in breeding native Taiwanese chicken breeds and silkie chickens, announced in early 2024 that after more than ten years of effort they had produced a new breed called the Tien Ching Silkie (meaning “blue sky” silkie). Not only can these be raised for both meat and eggs, but egg production is twice that of other silkie breeds. Moreover, the nutritional content of the blue-shelled eggs they produce is two to three times that of ordinary brown eggs. They are truly amazing.

Tsai Ming-yang, a researcher at the TLRI, points out that in 1995 the TLRI began a breeding program using silkie genetic resources brought in from China, to produce black-boned chickens to be raised in Taiwan. Traditional silkie chickens have ten externally observable defining characteristics. But because commercial chicken breeders and farmers crossbred their black-boned chickens with ordinary broilers (chickens raised for meat) to supply the chicken meat market, the silkies lost some of these distinguishing characteristics.

In order to produce “purebred” silkies that lay eggs with blue shells, researcher Liu Hsiao-lung began selective breeding in 2012. It took Liu, who has since retired, eight generations of breeding to produce the Tien Ching Silkie. This is the only purebred silkie chicken in Taiwan that meets all ten defining characteristics, and it consistently lays blue-shelled eggs.

Tsai Ming-yang states that the Tien Ching Silkie can be raised both for meat and for eggs, and is a prolific egg layer. Moreover, its eggs are very nutritious, with significantly more calcium, zinc, iron, lecithin, DHA, and omega-3 fatty acids than brown-shelled eggs. This makes them suited to becoming a specialty agricultural product.

As chicks, silkies have yellow feathers.

Which came first, the therapy or the egg?

We visit Hsinyuan Foods in Yunlin County, which specializes in raising silkie chickens. Hsinyuan mainly supplies banquet companies and traditional markets around Taiwan, and produces up to 1 million birds per year. This means that one in four of Taiwan’s black-boned chickens is raised here.

Third-generation boss Huang Xuzhang and his wife, Joy Wu, manage the whole production process together, from breeding to raising to slaughtering. “One can tell whether a chicken farmer is diligent or not by whether their chickens are fat or thin,” says Huang. Some chickens will just stand in front of an electric fan or a water trough without moving, and because they have the tendency to flock together, even if the barn is one-third empty they still prefer to stay near each other. Therefore it is necessary to visit the chicken barns at least three times a day to spread the birds out. This enables chickens on the outside of the group to access water and food.

There is a longstanding belief in Taiwan that black-colored foods are especially “tonic” (nutritious). Because the meat of black-boned chickens can be simmered for a long time without disintegrating, it has become a popular option for making medicinal chicken soup. “We currently raise our chickens from the point of view of ‘food therapy,’ adding probiotics and lactoferrin to their feed to enhance their immunity to disease, or adding oregano oil to improve the functioning of their digestive tracts.”

The Taiwan Livestock Research Institute (TLRI) has bred the Black Velvet Silkie, a chicken that is genuinely black from inside to outside. (courtesy of Tsai Ming-yang)

The TLRI has also bred the Tien Ching (“blue sky”) Silkie. Researcher Liu Hsiao-lung, now retired, gave the breed this name because he was inspired by the lovely skies of Taimali in Taitung County. (courtesy of Tsai Ming-yang)

From shock to amazement

In 2016 Huang’s father was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and following surgery he had difficulty eating, so his family members bought him essence of chicken as a tonic food. Huang recalls that in view of the large number of chickens being raised right there at home, he directly commissioned a drip essence producer to filter out the fat from chicken soup and process it into drip essence of chicken. His father found it to be very refreshing, and from there Huang got the idea of developing a line of silkie products.

Product manager Li Wanzhen says that when they promote their goods at international food and culinary exhibitions, many foreigners will take one look at the chicken meat and ask, “What is this gray meatball? Why is the chicken meat black?” However, after trying it, in most cases their surprise turns to amazement and they declare it to be delicious. Joy Wu says that Japanese people in particular regard silkie chicken as a valuable food ingredient, so they are now planning to get into the Japanese market.

In Taiwan, silkie chicken soup, which in terms of traditional Chinese medicine can “boost the qi and replenish deficiency while nourishing the blood and regulating the spleen,” has taken on a major role in medicinal cuisine for women during their month-long postpartum recuperation, at banquets and drinking parties, and in winter tonic foods. So don’t judge by appearances—why not give this nutritional food a try?

Because black-boned chicken meat can be cooked for a long time without disintegrating, it has become a popular ingredient in medicinal chicken soup.

Drip essence from silkie chickens has become a new option for mothers during their postpartum recuperation, and for athletes who want to replenish their protein levels.