Just like when you chose your layers, you need to make a list of traits that are important to you and then go from there to find breeds that will fit those traits. Any breed can be eaten, but depending on what exactly you are looking for in a meat bird there are definitely some breeds that will be disappointing to you as well as some that will make you happy. Some things to consider is what age you would like to process (a younger bird will have less meat on them but will be more tender and could be used with faster cooking methods such as grilling or frying while an older bird will be bigger but may need a slower cooking process to avoid tough or stringy meat texture), foraging ability (do you want a bird that can rustle up most of their own grub and still have a pretty decent growth rate, or are you looking at penning/pasture raising your birds so that they don't have to work too hard for their meals and can spend more energy on growth than on finding food), laying ability of the hens (do you care if pullets/hens don't lay well, or are you also considering having girls that can put eggs on the table to supplement what you are getting from your laying flock), and potential for showing or selling purebred hatching eggs. Once you know what you are looking for, then you can narrow it down to one or a few breeds that you think you'd like.
I can tell you that we are looking to starting a dual purpose flock for eggs and meat, although our focus is going to be more for meat as we could always choose to supplement egg production with layer breeds if we feel the breed we choose isn't producing enough eggs. We did consider brahmas, because they are large beautiful chickens, and chose to pass at this time because they tend to take a little longer to grow (many of the very large breeds are slower growers because they have to build the frame before they can pack on the pounds) and from my research are often not the best layers as far as number of eggs. We did narrow it down to Buckeyes, Sussex, Orpingtons, and Wyandottes because these breeds were historically bred to be good table fowl and decent producers of medium to large eggs. They won't grow as fast as some breeds, but they are going to have a better frame and more meat than a slimmer breed such as leghorns or ameraucanas and they will have a faster growth rate than some of the very large/giant breeds like brahmas or langshans.
I can tell you that we are looking to starting a dual purpose flock for eggs and meat, although our focus is going to be more for meat as we could always choose to supplement egg production with layer breeds if we feel the breed we choose isn't producing enough eggs. We did consider brahmas, because they are large beautiful chickens, and chose to pass at this time because they tend to take a little longer to grow (many of the very large breeds are slower growers because they have to build the frame before they can pack on the pounds) and from my research are often not the best layers as far as number of eggs. We did narrow it down to Buckeyes, Sussex, Orpingtons, and Wyandottes because these breeds were historically bred to be good table fowl and decent producers of medium to large eggs. They won't grow as fast as some breeds, but they are going to have a better frame and more meat than a slimmer breed such as leghorns or ameraucanas and they will have a faster growth rate than some of the very large/giant breeds like brahmas or langshans.
