Well, I don't think I can deny any longer that a react to poultry - chicken and turkey, specifically. After eating either I get the same reaction as wine - burning in my face followed by a blotchy and bumpy complexion. Would you consider this an allergic reaction? Would just an intolerance cause this? Since cutting off chicken figuring things out got so much easier. I didn't want to believe chicken was a problem - am brainwashed that my body needs it because it is a lean protein.

was there a new seasoning on it?
a new breading or method of cooking?
was it washed before cooking?
Was a side dish something new or fixed different?

Wait three days try a new piece of chicken by itself, wait a few hours see if it happens again  Then you will know.

Is it both chicken and turkey or just chicken?

Was your poultry organic?  Did you carefully wash/soak your poultry before cooking?

It's possibly the issue is the feed the chicken or turkey ate, although not ruling out a food allergy to the poultry itself.

Try just turkey and see if you can get organic....carefully soak raw meat in a bath of sea salt and water for 20 minutes before rinsing and cooking. Cook without seasonings, except for sea salt and see
if you still react.  If you're okay after turkey, re-visit organic chicken and treat it the same.

I rarely do well on chicken...any source.  I honestly think these birds have been so pumped up with
unnatural feed and hormones to fatten them up and antibiotics to protect them from bacteria,that nothing about chicken is very natural.

Of course if you raised your own free range chicken or turkeys and feed them only compliant feed (for you) and didn't react, then you'd may be able to rule out what the problem is.

When it comes to commercially grown and processed foods, we just don't know what we're eating half the time.

Quoted from Chloe

Was your poultry organic?  Did you carefully wash/soak your poultry before cooking?

It's possibly the issue is the feed the chicken or turkey ate, although not ruling out a food allergy to the poultry itself.

Try just turkey and see if you can get organic....carefully soak raw meat in a bath of sea salt and water for 20 minutes before rinsing and cooking. Cook without seasonings, except for sea salt and see
if you still react.  If you're okay after turkey, re-visit organic chicken and treat it the same.

I rarely do well on chicken...any source.  I honestly think these birds have been so pumped up with
unnatural feed and hormones to fatten them up and antibiotics to protect them from bacteria,that nothing about chicken is very natural.

Of course if you raised your own free range chicken or turkeys and feed them only compliant feed (for you) and didn't react, then you'd may be able to rule out what the problem is.

When it comes to commercially grown and processed foods, we just don't know what we're eating half the time.

Chloe.. what does soaking the poultry do?  I buy all natural unpumped with hormones and antibiotics poultry and haven't purchased the 'cheap' stuff in quite awhile.  Just curious about the salt water soak.

First of all, Good Housekeeping says it's not necessary to wash poultry because there could be cross contamination from one surface to another by moving it out of a package and maybe into a sink...  Maybe this is just my gut feeling that poultry which is wrapped in plastic wrap could benefit from at least removing the outer layer of bacteria if there is any....I just don't really trust that the chicken was packaged under perfectly clean conditions... I continue to put salt water in a metal mixing bowl, throw in the chicken or turkey and then place it on the pan and put the soaking vessel right into the
dishwasher..  I always wash my hands prior to lifting the chicken out of the water....always
wash them again after I touch the chicken......and most poultry contamination is from a person touching raw chicken and then touching something else or using a cutting surface raw chicken
was sitting on for another food....  Meat/poultry packing plants have workers wearing
gloves...so things should be fairly safe after chicken is cooked...but it's just something that I feel is an additional safety step whether it's truth or myth...My grandmother always washed poultry, my mother always washed poultry and maybe it's not really preventing bacteria from being on that chicken...The only way to really kill bacteria in poultry is to cook it at a high enough temperature for a long enough time... so the internal temperature insures that bacteria is killed.

But although I don't have any scientific reason for doing this....I do know that a salt brine makes the
chicken taste better.....

Almost every cook I know soaks their poultry....but of course, most of these people are my age and
perhaps for all of us, it's a habit we learned from our mothers and grandmothers.

Here's information saying not to wash poultry....But I'm not someone who honors the food and drug
administration.  And I'm careful not to splash poultry fluid all over my kitchen walls.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FACTSheets/Does_Washing_Food_Promote_Food_Safety/index.asp

I did. Just like when I used to use organic chicken broth - I always got a reaction and I just thought there was a hidden ingredient. Maybe it's because they are fed soy? I react pretty badly to soy. sigh, chicken is so easy and versatile but I never did "love" it. It just seems odd to react to a protein.

Quoted from gardengirl

I did. Just like when I used to use organic chicken broth - I always got a reaction and I just thought there was a hidden ingredient. Maybe it's because they are fed soy? I react pretty badly to soy. sigh, chicken is so easy and versatile but I never did "love" it. It just seems odd to react to a protein.

How is chicken and turkey rated for you?  How many portions per week?   If it's not a high
priority food for you, you might just be fine focusing on your other beneficial proteins. It's strange but although I don't do well on most commercial eggs, (itching, strange bumps in
my scalp and in my nose) there is one brand of eggs I'm fine with...and it says on the box it's an heirloom variety of eggs.

http://www.heirloom-eggs.com/
http://www.heirloom-eggs.com/HeirloomBreeds

Obviously what these particular chickens are fed that lay these particular eggs isn't allergenic for me.

the more I read about heritage and heirloom chickens, the more I realize that we're all eating frankenfood
chickens for the most part.....unless raising our own.

Quoted from gardengirl

It just seems odd to react to a protein.

You can react to anything with enough heightened sensitivity!!!  High avoid food content can do that...  I know it did for me.  Once I stopped eating avoids, many of my sensitivities reduced and are no longer problems...

Quoted from Chloe

I do know that a salt brine makes the chicken taste better...

This is an opinion, only.  My family doesn't like any salt added to the poultry.  Spices, onion, garlic - great, but No salt.

Quoted from Chloe

Almost every cook I know soaks their poultry....but of course, most of these people are my age and perhaps for all of us, it's a habit we learned from our mothers and grandmothers.

May be...  I've never heard of it before.  We allowed the birds to "soak" in cold water when we "freezered" them so they cooled out well, but no soaking once they were out of the freezer to be used.  Just thaw them, cut if necessary, and cook.

My mother soaked her chicken in buttermilk before cooking it. It was always delicious too. I didn't keep buttermilk in the house, so I used to soak mine in plain yogurt. It is a neutral for me now, but I only eat it occasionally because it makes me feel wiped out if I indulge too often.

I try to soak chicken in salt per Dr. D's advice on the Poultry section. I've since heard some cultures also have done this for years so perhaps it is one of those things people used to do to draw out the impurities and in our modern age we loose sight of those old ways that work.

Quoted from gardengirl

I did. Just like when I used to use organic chicken broth - I always got a reaction and I just thought there was a hidden ingredient. Maybe it's because they are fed soy? I react pretty badly to soy. sigh, chicken is so easy and versatile but I never did "love" it. It just seems odd to react to a protein.

Unless you are buying soy-free chicken, most poultry IS fed soy.  

Even 'pasture-raised' birds are given supplemental feed.  Even if the feed is organic they use non-GMO soy but soy nonetheless.  

I have found online sources for soy-free chicken in the US.  Perhaps there are some in  Canada as well.

Quoted from BHealthy

Unless you are buying soy-free chicken, most poultry IS fed soy.  

Even 'pasture-raised' birds are given supplemental feed and even if that feed is organic it will contain soy.  Non-GMO soy but soy nonetheless.  

I have found online sources for soy-free chicken in the US.  Perhaps there are some in  Canada as well.

Here is a source for soy-free eggs and chicken in the US.  I have ordered both:

http://www.grassfedtraditions.com/organic_soy_free_eggs.htm

http://www.grassfedtraditions.com/pastured_poultry.htm

They indicate that they do ship internationally but I suspect that applies only to their grocery items, not the fresh ones.