Buttermilk or brine for a rooster

[caliclucker]

Im culling a particularly nasty psycho roo this weekend and want to know how best to prepare the meat. Brine or buttermilk or can/should I do both (not at the same time of course). The rooster is young, about 20 weeks, but I think still old enough to be tough. Will he be too old to fry?

He is a buff Orpington if that makes a difference

 

[LilyD]

Im culling a particularly nasty psycho roo this weekend and want to know how best to prepare the meat. Brine or buttermilk or can/should I do both (not at the same time of course). The rooster is young, about 20 weeks, but I think still old enough to be tough. Will he be too old to fry?
He is a buff Orpington if that makes a difference

The main thing is to let the meat sit until it's no longer stiff from rigor mortis. I have cooked roosters up to 10 months old and had them be as tender as can be as long as I give them enough resting time. If you put them in a roasting pan with a little bit of buttermilk for basting sauce in the bottom they do come out pretty tasty though.

If you want to brine I would do it for 6 to 8 hours and about 1 cup of kosher salt to one gallon of water. You can even add seasonings to the water as well and it will soak into the bird really well making them even more tasty.

 

[caliclucker]

Thanks for the reply. So do you think he'll be ok for frying too? It's my favorite way to eat chicken

 

[LilyD]

Thanks for the reply. So do you think he'll be ok for frying too? It's my favorite way to eat chicken

If you brine him first and then fry him he should be absolutely wonderful. I fried up one of my 10 months olds after he had brined for a few days (basically until I could move his limbs without it feeling stiff) and he was very tender. I shallow fried him after I dipped him in egg and in bread crumbs with seasoning for about 7 minutes per side over medium heat and he was super tender. I have also used a pan after flour dredging the chicken and braised it until it was brown and golden then putting it in a roasting pan on a rack with buttermilk underneath it and a cover over the top and roast it for a bit longer, around 30 to 45 minutes on low heat like 225 to 300, take the cover off the top for the last 10 minutes or so so that you can crisp up the skin and it is really good too.

I am processing 6 roosters tomorrow so we will be having some fresh chicken this week too. Good luck with your cooking.

 

[caliclucker]

Thank you so much for replying. I appreciate the advice. Your roasting method sounds delicious, I'm going to copy that for a future bird. Yum!

 

[partsRheavy]

I like the results from putting the chicken in a pot in the fridge overnight with buttermilk. I also like to add the juice from a couple of oranges.

I found buttermilk to be better than vinegar or wine.

Generally I bake the chicken and add a bit of seasoning i.e. rosemary and a touch of butter.

This has worked for young adult roosters.