Most of us are familiar with popular cuts of chicken like breasts, drumsticks, and wings, but one cut you may be less familiar with, or never even heard of, are chicken oysters. The name of this piece of meat may sound like an exotic breed of actual oysters, but chicken oysters are 100% poultry, and some call them the best part of the bird.

A whole chicken comes with two "oysters," small, circular lobs of dark meat hidden under the skin in the cavity between the thigh joint and spine. Protected by the chicken’s skin and submerged in its juices during roasting, the oysters are essentially braised for ultimate tenderness, creating tiny, precious bites packed with flavor.

The oysters wind up with more concentrated roasted flavor than every other part of the chicken, making them even better than the other dark meat. One 4-ounce serving of chicken oysters has 100 calories, 1 gram of fat, and about 105 milligrams of cholesterol, all of which may seem high, but it's worth it for this special and rare indulgence.

The easiest way to cook oysters is to simply roast a whole chicken, then extract the oysters, but you may also be able to buy the oysters on their own at poultry retailers like Bell & Evans. To cook the oysters, you can experiment with deep-frying, roasting, breading, grilling, sautéing, or pan-frying, all of which will produce delicious results.