Butchering without gutting.

[B-Goock]

Our excess of roos had been in freezer camp which is just an oversized shed with an open side that is fenced (it was a temporary solution that is now doing freezer camp 2).

We did the normal process everyone does to get to a clean plucked carcass.
I love my bday present!

Once chilled my wife said she wanted boneless chicken breasts and considering I'm the only one that will eat organs I just split the leg quarters off, wings off, and used a fillet knife to cut the breast meat off. Once done with that I trimmed some meat off and skin off the carcass along with wing tips for chicken stock. The only real waste was the liver, heart, & gizzard.

10 birds filled 5 gallon size bags. The process was not bloody at all which was another reason since my lovely helper is a bit squeamish over the messy part of butchering.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I regularly will buy two whole chickens (my first round of my own Cornish X are due for slaughter in 5 weeks), and will remove the breasts and legs, and then use the carcass, organs, and wing tips for broth. Two small carcasses usually yields 10-12 cups of broth. I skim off the fat and render it, and usually have about 1/2 and use that to cook all meals except eggs. I use bacon grease for the eggs!

 

[B-Goock]

Freezer camp 2. My helper is learning and not nearly as squeamish so we did a variety of cuts yesterday morning. A couple that I fileted the breast off, some I split in half, and some I took the entire breast bone & both breasts leaving the backbone & neck for broth.

She was even ok with frying up the hearts & livers for the dogs. I mentioned making some for me..... I'm afraid I may not get a kiss later so dog treats they are.

 

[B-Goock]

I've vacuum sealed all the meat and turned my attention to carcasses & wing tips. Since I have to work tonight I'll make use of my time. Some Moscato while I make broth & cooked up some of the breast meat to try. Only seasoned salt, skillet fried skin down, then finished in the oven. The two young picky eaters here both gave thumbs up on the black pendesenca chicken. One I had to give a cup of the broth to dip my wife's homemade sourdough bread in. I had to try too. Yep. Bite of chicken. Yummy bread soaked in broth. Dang. Lets not solve covid. We can stay home and do this.

 

[TheMother]

I regularly will buy two whole chickens (my first round of my own Cornish X are due for slaughter in 5 weeks), and will remove the breasts and legs, and then use the carcass, organs, and wing tips for broth. Two small carcasses usually yields 10-12 cups of broth. I skim off the fat and render it, and usually have about 1/2 and use that to cook all meals except eggs. I use bacon grease for the eggs!

My mother would be proud. In the Ukraine They hardly ever used butter to fry, it was all leftover fats from frying whichever part of the pig for the days meal. Bacon grease keeps those arteries nice and slick, won't catch a clog in em!

 

[humblehillsfarm]

We were hoping the “free range” CX will taste better, but at the same time I’ve been trying not to get my hopes up. They do go outside but, true to the CX, they just lay there.

Very cool that someone brought this thread up again. While I still can't compare a "laying" rooster to a CX, the homegrown CX were far superior to store bought. We processed 20 birds. I let them rest in the fridge for four days, and it took me three days to cut 15 of them down into their respective parts: breasts, tenderloins, whole legs, wings, drumsticks and boneless thighs. I kept all of the carcasses. We fried some of the livers and froze some of the rest. Only thing we decided we couldn't eat were the hearts and gizzards. We gave the gizzards to some old timey neighbors, and used the hearts in the broth and fed them to the dog afterwards. I also kept the feed. 6 feet and three carcasses yielded 10 quarts of delicious stock. ALL of the meat was frozen except for some livers, and two breasts. I made a stir-fry from the breasts and it was the most tender and moist chicken I'd ever had. Unfortunately the frozen meat I've used since then isn't quite as moist, but still holds up better to stir frying than store bought meat. The smallest bird weighed 4 lbs 15 oz, the largest was 7 lbs and 7 ounces, and the median (12 birds) averaged around 6.5 lbs fully dressed. We processed at nine weeks.

 

[B-Goock]

My mother would be proud. In the Ukraine They hardly ever used butter to fry, it was all leftover fats from frying whichever part of the pig for the days meal. Bacon grease keeps those arteries nice and slick, won't catch a clog in em!

Sounds like when I was a kid. Butcher day was always a great day. Rendering pork fat in a large pot on a wood fire. Making pork rinds. Sausage. Yum. Everybody had a bowl of lard & bacon grease to cook with.

Chickens? I didn't know what store bought was. Always 50 running around the barnyard. Whatever feed the other animals spilled the chickens cleaned up. Barnyard vultures.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I've vacuum sealed all the meat and turned my attention to carcasses & wing tips. Since I have to work tonight I'll make use of my time. Some Moscato while I make broth & cooked up some of the breast meat to try. Only seasoned salt, skillet fried skin down, then finished in the oven. The two young picky eaters here both gave thumbs up on the black pendesenca chicken. One I had to give a cup of the broth to dip my wife's homemade sourdough bread in. I had to try too. Yep. Bite of chicken. Yummy bread soaked in broth. Dang. Lets not solve covid. We can stay home and do this.

View attachment 2452937

I’d love to make this lifestyle a full time job.

Well, it is a full time job. I just need another full time job to support the first time job!

 

[Molpet]

I regularly will buy two whole chickens (my first round of my own Cornish X are due for slaughter in 5 weeks), and will remove the breasts and legs, and then use the carcass, organs, and wing tips for broth. Two small carcasses usually yields 10-12 cups of broth. I skim off the fat and render it, and usually have about 1/2 and use that to cook all meals except eggs. I use bacon grease for the eggs!

Broth from homegrown CX is more flavorful. Since usually they move more...
Broth from Heritage will knock your socks off. ... since it's older and moves a lot

 

[cassie]

Just a comment. It really has no relevance here but I thought many of you might find it interesting. When you bought chickens and other poultry in the early 50's and before, they came defeathered, period. They had their heads, feet, and innards. You drew (gutted) them when you got them home. I think the feet and heads were left so the customer could tell whether they were getting a fryer or a tough old rooster. There is a Saturday Evening Post cover done by Norman Rockwell with a chicken on the butcher's scale and an old woman has her finger pushing up on the scale and the butcher has his thumb pushing down on it. I am sure most of you have seen it. If you look you will find the chicken is as I described.