I’m always a bit afraid of what I’ll get when I go to the butchers so I usually stick to what’s on the supermarket shelves. We don’t eat much meat so we are totally unfamiliar with the various cuts especially in France. We usually just buy a chicken once a fortnight for our curries. Anyway we were at Grand Frais today and saw some nice looking chickens and pointed and asked for a poulet. The butcher insisted I was pointing to a poule not a poulet . I looked at the label and he was right so I played safe and got a poulet which didn’t look nearly so good. So I’ve now checked on the internet and understand that a poule is a female chicken and poulet a male chicken. What I haven’t been able to find out is if there is any significant difference in taste? The poulet was a lot cheaper than the poule
There is a slight difference in taste, most dishes you can not tell the difference thou. Hen meat is considered better since it usually more tender with a better taste. In a chicken not really noticable but in a big turkey it makes more of a difference.
Just to confuse you again, we have poularde at xmas.
Poule the other one… 
Good vocabulary info!
Nah! I’m too chicken.
What’s the name for the elderly chickens, possibly ex layers, which are best used for soups? I can remember eating a casserole at a friend’s house once and she apologised in advance for the quality of the meat saying it was a … The casserole was lovely.
My neighbour tells me that’s basically a ‘fat old bird’. It sounds like a cue for a Les Dawson joke to me.
I think I’ll cook my poulet half an hour longer and next time look out for a poularde
Isn’t a poularde a fattened young hen? I thought that was the term I saw in a cookbook
Poule = hen, adult female chicken.
Poularde = young fattened hen.
Poulet = chicken, m or f, 3 to 10 months old.
Chapon = capon so v fat like most eunuchs.
Poules are more expensive because they are older and move flavourful. You make poule au pot with them and delicious stock, or you can roast them etc of course but they won’t be as tender.
Poule, I met a Canadian friend at the market & she had just bought a poule for a lunch with friends, she said she’ll roast it on a spit. I told her to have plenty of gravy as sometimes they can be very dry. She rang me a couple of days after & thanked me for the gravy tip.
If you cooked a moor hen would that be a swimming poule?
Depends how you cook it - if you follow the official police recipe it would be a Maigret de Canard.
Brits and their humour is lost on an American. My wife got it atleast being a 2nd gen.
She did study at Oxford thou
I think that answers the question that I asked. Thank you.
Mine was the one I wrote about from a local producer that was kept in my fridge for several weeks before xmas wrapped in a teatowel and people thought it would go off on this forum, but it did not as all the giblets were still inside plus the head and feet still on. DIL paid €60 for it though which to me is too extravagant but she believes in buying the best for special ocassions.
I seem to remember hearing an English word many years ago ‘pullet’, is that some kind of chook too?
Then there’s the aristocratic version - Duc a l’Orange.
And the French air force serve Petrel de France. 
Another question, should coq au vin properly be made with a coq? I do not think I have ever seen a coq for sale except for live ones at markets.
Just call it poulet au vin, it will taste the same 