how do you process a chicken?

[BrahmaDani]

Hello, someone from the Facebook group recommend I come here to learn how to process chickens. I have a few I might butcher if they turn out to be roos, but I've never done it. Is there a chicken butchering 101 I could read, or would anyone be willing to type out the process for me. If anyone is near Maryville TN,and would be willing to actually teach me, I would appreciate it very much.

 

[QueenMisha]

Look up "chicken butchering" "chicken slaughtering" "chicken processing" etc. on youtube. Videos are the best way to learn. I also recommend one video in particular, titled something like "respectful chicken harvest". The video will start out with a lady talking about how she was brought this old laying hen and is known as the chicken lady, and soon she will sit down with the chicken on her lap, that's the right video. It's a useful video and the lady has an awesome attitude about the ordeal.

Some tips from my personal experience on certain parts of the butchering process:

A lot of people will tell you you need lung scrapers to get the lungs out or that they aren't very "easy" to get out. Personally I've found this untrue, my bird's lungs always come out pretty easily, you just have to get them right. What you need to do is get all the other organs out, then eyeball the inside of the carcass. The lungs will be two bright pink/red pockets, an inch or so big on an average-sized chicken, set deeply into the ribs, in the upper back. You need to stick your hand inside the carcass, and stick your pointer finger straight down on the top left edge of the lung. It should slip under the side of it, and go into the "canyon" between the ribs. Then curl your finger down and outwards and kinda scrape the lungs away from the "canyon". It should pretty much come up in one piece. Then you need to do this for the other 3-4 "canyons" of the rib, and once your have the whole lung away from the bone just give it a tug and you'll break the last connective tissues.

As for evisceration: People never really tell you HOW to eviscerate. They say "stick your hand in the bird, and pull the guts out!" But the thing is, the guts are all attached by hundreds of little strings of connective tissue. So what you need to do is open up the bird, and stick your whole hand in the opening. It'll go up, over all the guts and the liver. You'll feel the heart at the very top of the chest cavity, and there'll be a lot of little tight strings all around it. Just kinda grab at those and they should break somewhat easily. Keep moving your hand around inside the bird and try to break as many of these as you can; once you've got most of them, grab around the top of all the organs (heart should be right where your fingers meet you hand, and pull towards you. Once they're out on the table, you can take off what you want; heart, liver, gizzard, etc.

If you're going to be killing the bird with a killing cone method (or any method that doesn't involve taking off the head) it can sometimes be difficult to tell whether it's still alive or if it's just having "death throes". The best way to tell is by poking the eye. The eye of a dead bird won't react; it'll almost immediately begin to look glazed over. But the eye of a live bird will blink and move.

ALWAYS scald before plucking. I dry-plucked my first bird, it was god-awful. Scalded birds smell pretty gross, but it's SO much easier to pluck them.

 

[BrahmaDani]

Thank you so much for all the information. I will check out some videos.

 

[Magpie1]

There are at least two really good posts on BYC with photos. One is by Frugal and is called, "Killing, Plucking, Eviscerating & Cutting Up Your Chicken-Graphic!", and the other one is by Booker81 and called, "Processing a Chicken at Home". If you enter, "processing a chicken" in the BYC search engine at least one of these should come up.

 

[Nupe]

There are at least two really good posts on BYC with photos. One is by Frugal and is called, "Killing, Plucking, Eviscerating & Cutting Up Your Chicken-Graphic!", and the other one is by Booker81 and called, "Processing a Chicken at Home". If you enter, "processing a chicken" in the BYC search engine at least one of these should come up.

I learned by Frugal's post. It's very well written...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-eviscerating-cutting-up-your-chicken-graphic

 

[Chickenkeepr]

Don't forget to rest your meat! I only rested mine (from our first 2 birds) for about 8 hours. It was pretty tough and dry and know it should have been more tender. I skinned ours and harvested the breasts, thighs and drums. One question I can't seem to find an answer to- After the meat is cooled, is it ok to vacuum seal the meat, then let it rest in the fridge for a couple days?

 

[Nupe]

I've heard yes but I don't. I stick mine in storage bags while resting so they don't dry out. If I'm keeping them whole I'll put them in a freezer bag. When they're done resting, I like to pour out the excess blood and rinse them once more and if I'm going to cut them into parts, this is when I do it.

 

[luvmychixandducks]

Killing cones from the CO-OP are expensive stainless steel items that can be replaced just as easily by locating a road safety cone and nailing it upside down to a 2x6 and securing the board to a table or sawhorse at a convenient height.
I hooked mine to the top of a bunny cage and it worked fine for the three birds I hatched that crowed instead of laying eggs.
You don't even need to nail them - I used a C clamp on each side to hold the upside down cone for the duration.
I agree with the earlier poster about wet plucking. Much easier than dry.
When I hunted and only plucked single birds I didn't bother with scalding but for multiple home grown birds it works fine.
I bought a large aluminum pot at a yard sale and heated boiling water inside the house carrying small pots of added hot water as needed and did not need keep a fire under the large pot to maintain a feather releasing temp.
I didn't notice any really strong odors from the roos after their hot water bath.
A couple of days in the fridge before sending them to freezer camp works for relaxing the meat.

 

[aart]

This was my favorite tutorial...but I did look at a bunch of other ones and videos.
http://ramblingredneckmom.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-process-chickens-at-home.html