HANOI: Vietnam's Dong Tao chicken is not your average broiler chicken. With abnormally bulky, large, and scaly legs, they are also known as 'dragon feet' chicken and for generations have been a delicacy in Vietnam.
Weighing up to 6kg when fully grown, the birds are believed to bring good fortune and wealth to their owners, and are a popular gift during Lunar New Year, or Tet, as it is called in Vietnam.
At the rural Dong Tao village about 30 kilometres southeast of Hanoi, where the birds are exclusively bred, poultry farmer Nguyen Thi Hong Nhung is the third generation in her family to produce the special breed of chicken.
She said even though the 'dragon feet' chickens are easy to raise as they consume the same feed as regular chickens, their highly-prized legs and feet require extra attention.
The birds –- named after Dong Tao village where they originate –- have to be raised for more than a year before they're fit for sale, said Nhung. The older they get, the larger their legs grow.
"It's expensive mainly because of these legs," she said while holding up a chicken and showing off its palm-sized legs.
A Dong Tao hen will produce around 100 eggs a year, which farmers separate from the birds to prevent them from crushing the eggs under their weight. Roosters have their own pens to prevent them from fighting and injuring each other, causing wounds.
Today, demand for the special chickens –- formerly reserved for royalty –- has risen sharply among an increasing number of wealthy people in Vietnam, one of Asia's fastest-growing economies.
A few years ago, farmers said the going rate for some fully grown Dong Tao roosters were as high as US$2,000 each. But as the economy falters and the supply of the birds increased, a Dong Tao chicken now costs up to US$450 — that's an amount equivalent to a person's entire month's income in Vietnam, according to a government income report in 2023.
"Whatever part of the chicken, when you eat it, it is delicious and has a satisfying bite. The meat is juicy and sweet with its own aroma," said Nhung's father, Nguyen Nhu Ngoc.
Some 800,000 of the chickens are currently being farmed in Dong Tao and its surrounding villages in Khoai Chau district in the northern Hung Yen province, up from around 500,000 in 2016, according to officials.
With sales expected to peak during Tet, Nhung, who sells the chickens largely online and does most of her marketing through TikTok videos, is in especially high spirits this time of the year.
"We farmers only look forward to this one holiday (when people go shopping) to sell (Dong Tao) chickens that we have worked so hard to raise all these years," said Nhung.
"Our customers can have a luxurious and practical gift, which is a specialty from my village," she said. — Reuters
