![]() In addition to being valued for their leg and foot meat, they’ve also been used as a ritual offering, though this practice has largely died out. They aren’t often exported out of Vietnam or raised elsewhere. The birds must receive a specific diet and live in a temperature-controlled environment. Keeping and breeding Dong Tao chickens is a very slow, careful process. The trait for the chickens’ enlarged legs likely first originated with a random genetic mutation, then carried on to future generations via careful, repeated selective breeding. ![]() The Dong Tao village is well-known for this particular chicken breed and still is the main area producing and raising the birds to this day.ĭong Tao, as a breed, has likely existed for many hundreds (potentially thousands!) of years. It’s unknown how long the birds have been around, but they were initially only made available to Vietnam’s wealthy royal family. The Dong Tao breed hails from the rural Dong Tao village in the Khoai Chau district, just outside Hanoi, Vietnam. Hatchlings and chicks are usually much less expensive but also much rarer to find, and raising them for food is a prolonged, tedious, costly process. They are still quite pricey and rare today, as even a single fully-grown bird often costs well over $1,000. Originally, Dong Tao birds were extremely expensive and only available to wealthy royals and mandarin bureaucrats. We do know it likely goes back hundreds of years and was named after the Dong Tao village in Hanoi, where it originated. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of details about the Dong Tao breed’s lengthy history. See more large chickens in our list with pictures at the link. The birds’ plumage colors vary significantly, though they are uniformly huge birds, often reaching weights of 10 to 12 pounds or more. The Dong Tao is largely considered healthy and reasonably hardy with no significant health issues, though it is somewhat sensitive to cold temperatures. These “Dragon chickens” have been selectively bred for their huge legs for many years, as they have long been viewed as a tasty, rare, pricey delicacy in Vietnam’s culture.ĭespite their painful and bizarre appearance, these famously enlarged, dinosaur-like legs don’t cause the birds any pain or significant discomfort. ![]() If you’ve never seen a Dong Tao chicken before, you’d be forgiven for thinking its massive legs were some type of painful deformity or perhaps even caused by a rare illness. It is mainly kept and bred for its unusually large, bulky, meaty legs, considered a delicacy in Vietnamese cuisine. The Dong Tao is a rare and expensive chicken breed originating in Vietnam. Why Are Dong Tao Chickens So Expensive?.
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