Meat Bird Info

[ivyboo]

I’ve raised chickens for pets and eggs for a few years now. I’m really thinking about raising more for meat. Please give me some good info on the best kind and way to do this! I want tender flavorful chicken. Is it worth it?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

In the current environment, it may be worth it. In the old days, (last year and earlier) it would not have been worth it. Because even 50 years ago, one couldn't raise meat birds for the price you can buy them for. The economies of scale work against us. It costs me more to raise meat birds than the price I can buy organic pastured Amish raised chickens for from Whole Foods Market.
The most efficient chicken to raise for meat is the Cornish/Rock cross hybrid. It gives you the most meat per feed input of any breed of chicken. Freedom rangers are the next most efficient in feed conversion. Then some hatchery's red rangers are ok.
Many heritage breeds will work also.
But you asked about flavorful. Cornish/Rocks are not the most flavorful. That is because they are butchered at about 6 weeks of age before they have had a chance to acquire true chicken flavor. They are extremely tender (read that as mush) and the breed that makes up 100% of fast food chicken and 98% of grocery chicken. They can taste however you want based on spices. Heritage birds develop a chicken flavor that only requires salt and pepper (or possibly rosemary) because they have lived long enough to develop flavor.
The downside of them is that you can't cook them like grocery store chicken. They must be cooked on lower heat and much slower to tenderize the meat. The meat must also be rested much longer to eliminate rigor mortis.

 

[FortCluck]

Cornish/Rock like stated above are the fastest growers for meat, but with how the chicken market is now... You might not find any chicks or it'll be months before you can get any from a hatchery. Many places have a long waiting list.

I prefer Dual Purpose (DP) breeds. You can get breeds like Delaware, Barred Rock, or pretty much any standard size chicken breed. DP breeds can lay eggs or be used for meat, which is why I like them because I keep the females for eggs and use the males for meat. You won't be able to process a DP breed early like you can with cornish, but waiting till 12-20 weeks is well worth the wait. When you process them you will want to let them rest in the fridge up to 5 days (I prefer 5 days) so that they have time to get tender. Then you can bag them then freeze or you can cook them. I prefer to cook my DP birds in the instant pot then I put them in the oven on broil to crisp them up a bit.

If you are looking for flavorful, it would be DP birds or heritage breeds. Cornish are the same a grocery store chicken and are quite mushy and flavorless.

I like to use rubs on my DP birds before I vacuum seal them to freeze. It really makes them shine when you cook them. Sometimes just some salt and pepper will do. We like making our own rubs.

 

[3KillerBs]

Worth it depends on what matters to you.

We're planning on raising Cornish X next year because my DH is allergic to something in the "flavoring and tenderizing solution" that contaminates so much inexpensive, grocery-store chicken* and I find that, as a cook, chicken that has been treated this way is impossible to flavor with herbs and seasonings -- it's as if all the flavor-binding sites have bound to the salt in the "solution".

We don't expect to save any money even though we aren't doing organic or anything special. We will probably end up spending more than we might have at the store. But our chicken will not be contaminated and adulterated by a process that enables producers to sell salt water for the price of meat.

That is worth it to us.

*Weirdly, unadulterated chicken is mainly available at the highest-end and lowest-end grocery stores but not in the moderate middle.

 

[ivyboo]

Thank you all! Lots to think about! With the ones for meat, you don’t let them free range as I would my others correct? My chickens now get let out during the day for several hours to free range in the back yard and then back to the coop. They have a good size run connected to the coop also.

 

[Ridgerunner]

With the ones for meat, you don’t let them free range as I would my others correct?

I let my dual purpose I use for meat range with my laying/breeding flock. Rangers are designed to be a meat bird you can raise on pasture. Some people raise the Cornish Cross meat birds on pasture as well but they have some techniques to help with that. Cornish Cross were bred to be raised in pens and not bred to pasture.