chicken butchering...

[turkeyrun]

Roosters are for dumplings, pot pie, and soup; skin them. Old hens (after they quit laying) get skinned, too.

Wife pressure cooks them to help tenderize and then cans the deboned meat.

Great for chicken / spinach quesadillas, too.

 

[subprep]

Ok so my very first foray into chicken butchering is complete and it was pretty great.
My friend decided to just cut the heads off with an axe, I held the feet and just kind of let them hang low and flop around a little, it wasn't to terrible (I wore old jeans LOL)
we did decide to pluck them so we did the hot water bath etc and I'll tell ya those feathers just came right off like butter! it was easy peasy. Then my friend tells me he doesn't have a torch?! I'm like what the heck I have two you should've told me! So we ended up skinning them after we plucked them... Its ok it was a good lesson.
Cleaning the guts out was kind of hard but we didn't bust any thing open so that felt like a win. He ended up letting me have both roosters to take home and cook! I will reward him with pie.

 

[Mike_60]

Many a year ago, during a butchering session for some fryers I'd raised. I sort of missed with my axe hitting one of the bird's just behind his eyes severing the skull above the neck. I didn't think too much about, after all, his head was gone. So, I just tossed the bird on the pile to let him go ahead and flop around and bleed out. But the strangest thing happened. After hitting the ground, the bird stood up, ruffled its feathers, tucked its wings in, and with its neck erect started turning like it was looking around, and then took off walking away. To say I was a little dumbfounded would be an understatement. This thing walked around in my backyard for about 30 minutes, doing what chickens do, acting like nothing was missing. Finally, my guilty conscience got the better of me and I finished it off with another chop of the axe.

 

[subprep]

Many a year ago, during a butchering session for some fryers I'd raised. I sort of missed with my axe hitting one of the bird's just behind his eyes severing the skull above the neck. I didn't think too much about, after all, his head was gone. So, I just tossed the bird on the pile to let him go ahead and flop around and bleed out. But the strangest thing happened. After hitting the ground, the bird stood up, ruffled its feathers, tucked its wings in, and with its neck erect started turning like it was looking around, and then took off walking away. To say I was a little dumbfounded would be an understatement. This thing walked around in my backyard for about 30 minutes, doing what chickens do, acting like nothing was missing. Finally, my guilty conscience got the better of me and I finished it off with another chop of the axe.

Check out Mike the headless chicken!

 

[Jestik]

Many a year ago, during a butchering session for some fryers I'd raised. I sort of missed with my axe hitting one of the bird's just behind his eyes severing the skull above the neck. I didn't think too much about, after all, his head was gone. So, I just tossed the bird on the pile to let him go ahead and flop around and bleed out. But the strangest thing happened. After hitting the ground, the bird stood up, ruffled its feathers, tucked its wings in, and with its neck erect started turning like it was looking around, and then took off walking away. To say I was a little dumbfounded would be an understatement. This thing walked around in my backyard for about 30 minutes, doing what chickens do, acting like nothing was missing. Finally, my guilty conscience got the better of me and I finished it off with another chop of the axe.

Thank you for the nightmares. I'll send you the psychiatric evaluation bill!

 

[BadgeBunny]

Check out Mike the headless chicken!

I have a sister who, to this day, will not eat chicken, because of a similar incident. A couple of my other brothers and sisters were fighting while Dad was chopping. He turned his head to scream at them they were next if they didn't knock it off and he kinda did the glancing blow thing. My sister cried for days ... because we had to chase the chicken until somebody caught it. I caught it and just yanked it's head of real quick because I don't mind killing so much as I mind an animal suffering. My sister never looked at me the same after that!

BTW, good job on your first kill!

Thank you for the nightmares. I'll send you the psychiatric evaluation bill!

Sissy ... Are you a city boy?? (I'm not making fun too much. It's a serious question. GC is and he has no idea what to do with my rather pragmatic view of life and death sometimes. I will bawl my eyes out ... but I'll still shoot you dead so fast you won't know it happened until you see St. Peter if you are suffering and I know it's time, or you are supposed to be dinner ... )

 

[Jestik]

To answer your question BB I've never killed anything except for some mice that were in my house. So yes, very much a city boy in that regards.

 

[BadgeBunny]

To answer your question BB I've never killed anything except for some mice that were in my house. So yes, very much a city boy in that regards.

Hmmmmm ... we might need to work on that ...

 

[Jestik]

Hmmmmm ... we might need to work on that ...

I feel like I should go find a live chicken and kill it to prove my masculinity all of a sudden!

 

[GlockCop]

I feel like I should go find a live chicken and kill it to prove my masculinity all of a sudden!

Just stay away from my girls!