The study was conducted in three districts of Awi zone Amhara region. The objective of the study was to assess the production system and to characterize indigenous chicken phenotypically. A total of 9 peasant associations from three districts were purposively selected for the study. A total of 180 chicken owners were selected using simple random sampling technique for interview using semi structured questionnaire. Data on 9 qualitative and 12 quantitative traits from 486 indigenous chickens were collected for morphological parameters. The result of this study showed that 68.9% of the households were male-headed whereas the remaining 31.1% of the households were female-headed. The overall flock size of chick, pullet, hen, cock and cockerel were 6.86±0.108, 2.05±0.072, 2.60±0.057, 1.39±0.036 and1.58±0.055, respectively. Overall, 92.2% of the respondents provided feed supplementation for their indigenous chicken. About 43.2%, 16.6%, 11.2% and 6.5% of the respondents housing system for their chicken were perch in the main house, perch in the other animal house, perch in the kitchen and perch in the veranda, respectively. About 22.5% of the respondents keep their chicken in separate house. About 67.2% of the respondents provide water for their chicken free of access. The major challenges of chicken production in the study area were disease (55%), predator (27.2%) and feed shortage (17.8%).The major selection criteria for breeding hen were egg number, body weight, plumage color, hatchability and disease resistance with an overall index value of 0.27, 0.22, 0.16, 0.11, and 0.19, respectively. The major selection criteria of breeding cock were body weight, comb type, plumage color and disease resistance with an overall index value of 0.32, 0.26, 0.24 and 0.18, respectively. The overall age at first mating of male, age at first mating of female and age at first egg-laying of indigenous chicken were 5.76±0.056, 5.83±0.058 and 6.61±0.05 months, respectively. About 96.1% of indigenous chicken in the study area were feathered, while the rest 3.9% were naked neck. The predominant plumage colors of indigenous chicken were red (37.7%), white (19.8%), black (10.1%), Gebsema (17.3%), Teterma (8.8%) and multi-color (6.4%). The overall mean body weight obtained for adult male and female indigenous chicken were 1.67±0.31