Preferences of different people/cultures are different. So it is hard to give an all inclusive statement on what is the best! Furthermore the slaughtering process can have a pronounced impact on tenderness, pH colour and shelf life.

Thus I think there is no simple answer to this question. It all depends on a lot of different factors which are probably not all known and can not always be controlled.

Always choose the genetically diverse heritage breeds. People are shifting to organic and sustainably raised (on pasture) meats. Local heritage breeds are genetically more viable and have less environmental impact. I do a checklist: can the bird breed naturally, can it resist disease, has it been bred to forage and live on pasture, does it reach market weight slowly - this is key, the birds must mature at a NORMAL rate.  These are important features. Choose breeds that have been raised in that area for centuries. They are genetically geared to thrive in certain conditions.

I suggest you can make a comparison breeding  local chicken breed and exotic chicken breed of the same age in the same farming system which should be the one of the local chicken and comparing the meat qualities after slaughter at the same ages.

roger rouvier the mature age for exotic breeds is significantly different from the local breeds therefore its some kind of impossible to compare meat quality at the same age..what is your take on that?

The impossible job, to do thing will be preferred from all people, for this reason, the breeding company has many products each one suitable for a certain region which has different culture and habits .

In most cases, the local breed may be selected by local people for desirable traits in its lived region but did not have economically competitive to exotic breed for large scale production.

This case may be not true for all regions.

Good Luck

I get your point sir thnks 

Keep in mind that "best quality" is a subjective term that will mean different things to different people. Modern, fast-growing strains will have more tender meat partly because the birds are younger at processing age. Their overall environmental impact is much lower than that of the traditional birds because of their much lower feed conversion ratios. In terms of meat quality, the faster growth of these birds can affect muscle at the fiber level. Muscle fibers will tend to be thicker. There could be genetic differences in fiber composition, particularly in the breast muscle. Post-mortem changes during the conversion of muscle to meat can also differ. The pH in modern birds will tend to drop more quickly and you need to cool it quickly or you can negatively impact water holding capacity (and therefore tenderness and potentially shelf-life).

To deal with the age difference between modern and traditional genetic strains, we have compared birds at both the same age and at the same weight. When comparing at the same age, the traditional strain is tiny and therefore not a good representation of processing quality. When compared at the same weight, the traditional bird is more than double the age of the modern bird and it is difficult to argue that birds have been raised under identical conditions. Overall, comparisons of modern to traditional breeds is difficult to do in a meaningful way.

this is an informative answer Mr Robert thank you!

I believe that the meat quality depends mainly on feeding practice so when they fed on cereals grain my give us meat with good flavour. And from my personal experience with chicken meat quality I found that the additives in poultry diets such vitamin and drugs could be the big  issue of meat quality.  On the other hand,  genotype of birds may have another item that effect on quality as mentioned Dr, Robert. 

Best regards. 

Native chickens preferred over the commercial breeds because they are hardy, produce tastier meat and egg, are self-reliant hence require minimal care, do have numerous socio-cultural value, their wide array of phenotypic diversity enables them to possess interesting show traits, they are multi-purpose birds etc.

Might be the local one. Quality of the meat associates with the type of feed consumed and local chickens scavenge on wide array of natural feed resources which give the meat better quality and shelflife. Moreover, by their genetic constitution local chickens that are not deliberately selected for meat production produce good quality meat although the quantity is less compared to production breeds.

Local chicken take long time to grow while exotic ones have quick growth rate but they are expensive. In Kenya, we have improved local chicken which has the disadvantages and advantages of the two types of breeds.

Several factors influence of meat quality, one of them is the chicken breed. Other important factors may be management at the hatching and rearing period, nutrition, age at slaughter, rearing system, processing, dressing, etc. However, for meat production in semi extensive and/or free range production systems, local breeds or cross-bred ones are recommended.