--- title: This Rare Chicken’s Body is Entirely Black—Even Its Organs, Meat and Bones description: Just one chicken costs around $2,500 canonical: https://time.com/3548355/chicken-black-organs-meat-bones/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-30T18:42:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:13.641Z article:section: Ideas og:title: This Rare Chicken’s Body is Entirely Black—Including Its Organs, Meat and Bones og:description: Just one chicken costs around $2,500 og:url: https://time.com/3548355/chicken-black-organs-meat-bones/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Rare Chicken’s Body is Entirely Black—Including Its Organs, Meat and Bones twitter:description: Just one chicken costs around $2,500 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Rare Chicken’s Body is Entirely Black—Including Its Organs, Meat and Bones by [Inigo del Castillo / Lost at E Minor](https://time.com/author/lost-at-e-minor-zolton-zavos/) ## Inigo del Castillo / Lost at E Minor Oct 30, 2014 6:42 PM UTC by [Inigo del Castillo / Lost at E Minor](https://time.com/author/lost-at-e-minor-zolton-zavos/) ## Inigo del Castillo / Lost at E Minor Oct 30, 2014 6:42 PM UTC  _This_ [_article_](http://www.lostateminor.com/2014/08/26/chickens-body-black-even-organs-meat-bones/) _originally appeared on_ [_Lost at E Minor_](http://www.lostateminor.com/)_._ Prepare to meet the so-called Lamborghini of Poultry. This is the Ayam Cemani Chicken of Indonesia. It’s a rare breed of chicken, and you can probably see why. Everything about it is black: plumage, beak, tongue, legs, toe nails, even its meat, bones and organs! The only thing that is not black is it’s blood – though it comes in a very dark shade. The word ‘Ayam’ means ‘chicken’ in Indonesian, and ‘Cemani’ translates as ‘completely black’ in Javanese. They get their black coloring from a genetic trait known as ‘fibromelanosis’. Don’t ever make the mistake of slaughtering it for a quick snack, because one chicken costs around $2,500! For comparison, 15 average chickens would cost you just $85, while other special breeds cost about $149, making the Ayam Cemani well-deserving of its nickname. (Via [Viral Forest](http://www.viralforest.com/cemani-chickens/))  Ayam Cemani chicken Courtesy of Greenfire Farms  Ayam Cemani chicken Courtesy of Greenfire Farms  Ayam Cemani chicken Courtesy of Greenfire Farms  Ayam Cemani chicken Courtesy of Greenfire Farms  Ayam Cemani chickens Courtesy of Greenfire Farms ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3548355/chicken-black-organs-meat-bones/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3548355/chicken-black-organs-meat-bones/"},"headline":"This Rare Chicken’s Body is Entirely Black—Including Its Organs, Meat and Bones","datePublished":"2014-10-30T18:42:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:07:13.641Z","description":"Just one chicken costs around $2,500","url":"https://time.com/3548355/chicken-black-organs-meat-bones/","keywords":["animals","indonesia","Chicken","photography"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Inigo del Castillo / Lost at E Minor"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3548355/chicken-black-organs-meat-bones/","name":"This Rare Chicken’s Body is Entirely Black—Including Its Organs, Meat and Bones"}}]}] ```