How do I make sure to get the Jugular only?

[booker81]

You can roast, but from personal experience, the older the bird, the tougher the skin, and I've not found a way to get it good like a young CX - I can cook to end up with nice meat, but the skin, well, it's much thicker, and even roasted carefully, it's thick and hard to chew. At 9 months, that's a bit past my ideal window for roasting to have tasty skin.

Now, stocking - that's where they would both shine in - after processing, chunk them up into parts (leaving the skin on, and you can also put in the neck, gizzards, and heart, though the liver isn't the best for stock), put it all in a big stock pot with some veggies like onions, carrots and celery. Throw some whole peppercorns in. Let them simmer, covered, on a low heat for a few hours. Take them out, shred the meat all off, and them put the bones and stuff back in, add more water and simmer for a couple more hours. Strain through a colander to get the big pieces, then through a cheesecloth for little bits, into pitchers or whatnot (I use a couple gallon pitchers). Stick in the fridge and let them sit for a few hours or the next day. Skim off the hardened fat from the top, put the fat in a tupperware dish in the fridge, and then portion the stock into freezeable containers or baggies for cooking potions (one cup or two). Use the meat for whatever you want.

I like to keep out a part of the fresh stock for chicken noodle soup or chicken and dumplings I use the fat for flavoring potatoes instead of using butter.

 

[Rivers]

I am not one for stock really. I dont eat any foods that use stock. But are you saying that thick, tough skin of older birds tastes ok when stewed?

 

[luvmychicknkids]

Are you SURE you don't have a use for good stock? It's uses are unlimited! I use mine to cook rice, potatoes, noodles. As a base for every soup I make from the obvious chicken noodle to gumbo to meatball and everything in between. I use it to thin down pasta salads that got too thick, to make gravies and sauces...goodness, I could go on and on.

 

[booker81]

I don't care for eating the skin either roasted or stewed - it's just nice for stock for the extra fat content for skimming. It's REALLY chewy and hard to chaw on.

Thinking....I wonder if you could make something like pork rinds from old chicken skin? I image it would be a similar texture....hmmmm....might have to try that.

Edited for clarity

 

[jamesk53]

I'm curious, why don't you want to cut the trachea?

Also, like what was shown in a previous picture kill cones aren't needed, just convenient. The first few times I butchered I zip tied their legs to a fence and hung them above a bucket. We had one person hold their wings while the other cut their neck.

 

[booker81]

Cutting the jugular and trachea at the same time can result in the bird breathing in their own blood, and effectively filling their lungs with blood - pretty much drowning. I personally think that death by bleeding out is more humane than death by drowning

Kill cones are more convenient, but not required. My processing setup is "dual purpose" - that's also the same place I hang and process deer. I like to have multi-use things, and using the same setup to process deer and to process chickens is a win-win for me

 

[jamesk53]

drowning? I don't buy it, my birds are dead in around 10-15 seconds and are calm until just before they die. If blood did get in their lungs it wouldn't FILL them with blood, and even then it would take much longer to die from suffocation than complete blood loss. Suffocation causes you to die because your blood becomes deoxygenated, but what does that matter if your body has lost almost all of its blood. Seems like a really petty point to worry about.

 

[booker81]

Well, in one that I did before where I cut too deep, the trachea and lungs had blood in them. The bird didn't go down easy either.

You may not buy it, but I call it like I see it.

 

[jamesk53]

I don't doubt that there might be some blood in the lungs, and some birds don't go down as easy as others, but something tells me no matter how you kill birds that will be true. I just don't think drowning is a real possibility when you do something that drains almost all of the blood from an animal in seconds. Scientifically the lungs wouldn't play a factor in the death.

 

[Beekissed]

Here is a link to a wonderful tutorial that was written (with pics) by a member of this forum. The 3rd picture down will show you where to cut:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-process-a-chicken-at-home

I have read that if you cut the windpipe then the chicken will sometimes spend their last breathes breathing in the blood that is coming out the vein. That is why I try to avoid cutting the windpipe....even if it is only a matter of minutes...my goal is to make the last few minutes of their life as trauma-less as is possible, considering what is happening.

I've been cutting the trachea for years and have never seen any blood inside the trachea except right where the cut was made. The trachea is a long pipe and branches into the bronchial tree before it ever reaches the interior of the lungs. Gravity and the quickness of the death pretty much prevent any asperating of the blood into the lungs....just try it and then examine the area in question. You will see for yourself and won't have to take anyone's word for it.

Quote:
The lungs always appear to have blood in them...the truth of the matter is that you cannot open a lung like you can any body cavity, as it isn't just an empty space. It has a sponge-like matrix of tissue that is covered with and interlaced with capillary beds and other fine vessels. You can slice into it and expose this tissue but you won't find pools of blood inside this tissue.

IME, the bird will die quicker when the trachea is severed...I've seen the videos of the artery cuts and their birds struggle for much, much longer than mine ever have.