The Poulette – a potato that tastes like chicken

Poulette is a new potato from Row 7 Seed Company, and the "tastes like roast chicken" claim is the whole pitch. It's a cross, made by traditional breeding rather than flavoring, between a rare French heirloom, Institut de Beauvais, and a Cornell University breeding line. The breeding started in 2014, and the potato reached about 60 Whole Foods stores in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey in late October 2026. The name is French for "young hen."

The chicken comparison comes from the chefs and cooks who tasted it, including Dan Barber's team. Row 7 describes it as savory, nutty and roasty, and says it's best baked or roasted. Those tasters are an informal panel, not a controlled study, so the claim is a description of flavor, not a measured result. Reviews are mixed too: one tester on Row 7's own product page said they couldn't detect the roasted-chicken flavor at all, though they liked the potato, its skin and its texture.

If you want to judge it yourself, bake one plain, with nothing added, and compare it with a standard russet or Yukon Gold cooked the same way. Row 7's product page at Poulette Potatoes has the official description, and Foodbeast's write-up covers the launch.