aging chicken and storage

[cashdl]

I just processed 11 of my roos. I am a first timer and I thank you all. I have been skulking and reading for weeks.

My question is durring each stage and while waiting for the next stage of processing, each bird was left in an ice water bath till I needed it for the next step. Once I was done with each one completely I put it into ice water till all were done and while I cleaned everything up.

Now I want to age them for a couple of days except the 3 we are going to eat tomorrow ( those are sitting in ice and salt water for over night.) hope thats right. The rest of them I have an old fridge with wire racks. I lined the racks with several layers of paper towels and put the chicken on the rack in a roasting position and put several layers of paper towels over them. Can I leave them this way for several days to age. ( We use the fridge for nothing else so it won't be opened till I want to freeze the chickens.) Or do I need to wrap them up and age them in the fridge.

Please let me know. I would hate to ruin all my good work.


Lanae

 

[sonew123]

It all sounds great and congrats--IMO I would bag them-age them -then freeze them...

 

[crj]

I processed 5 roo's and did pretty much the same thing.
Salted ice water in the cooler between each step.
I then aged them in the same way in the cooler for 2 days and then dried them to room temp on the 3rd before bagging and freezing. The one we did eat was tender and tasty.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

sounds fine. each person does it a little differently, the way you are doing it is well with the acccepted norm and certainly isn't going to ruin them. congrats!!!!

 

[noahsark]

w put our 16 in a big bag, for three days, then rinsed, patted dry, then sealed..Ive found that they are better if you let sit like 3 days after killing before eating, otherwise its chewy..
Good luck

 

[cashdl]

So I went ahead and put each bird in individual bag and sealed. Left in fridge. I will take them out on Wednesday or Thursday. I roasted 3 today in pan with some water and onions, covered for 2 hrs, then uncovered for 1 hr. Peeled all meat from bones and we had chicken tacos with friends. Then I put the bones, more onions and 6 chicken feet in a large canning pot with water and simmered for 4 hrs.

Just put 3 gallons of chicken stock in freezer. That part probably made me the happiest. I go through a lot of chicken stock in cooking and it is outrageously expensive.

I was pleased the chicken tasted like chicken and wasn't tough or chewy.


Lanae

 

[greathorse]

I have seen no research that indicates that chicken benefits from aging after 48 hours. I am not sure what you mean by a few days, but I would freeze after 48 hours for a good fresh chicken that has aged enough to let the muscles relax and soften a bit.

Just my opinion and my career has been in the meat trade. Take it for what it is worth

 

[cashdl]

Good to know. The chickens legs are still stiff this morning and kinda hard to press down into roasting position. Is that normal. I am happy to use the fridge for something else if they don't need to age more. Some people have said 3 to 5 days so I figured I would split the difference and go 4, but if not needed I wont.

Lanae