The kanji 鶏 generally represents a "chicken" or "fowl." It refers to the domesticated bird known for its meat and eggs. It can also broadly refer to other related birds like roosters and hens.

・On-yomi (音読み): ケイ (kei) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): とり (tori) - referring to chicken

⚫︎鶏肉 (keiniku) Translation: Chicken meat ⚫︎鶏卵 (keiran) Translation: Chicken eggs ⚫︎焼き鶏 (yakidori) Translation: Grilled chicken

The kanji 鶏 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, keisei moji). The radical component is 鳥 (tori), meaning "bird," which provides the semantic (meaning) element. The phonetic component is 奚 (kei), which provides the sound element ケイ(kei). So, the character combines the idea of a "bird" with a sound hint to form the word for "chicken."