Can I pluck a chicken long after butchering? After freezing/thawing?

[HamsterJenn]

Plucking takes forever. But we prefer to cook chicken with the skin on, so I would prefer not to skin the carcasses. I need to process a BUNCH of birds so I won't have time to pluck them all at the same time.

Is there any reason I can't kill/eviscerate/chill/rest the birds and leave the feathers on? And then remove the feathers as I have time? Say, remove feathers after the 'rest' period before freezing, or even freeze them with feathers on and pluck when I thaw them before cooking?

If it is possible to pluck days after butcher with no ill effects, do I still need to scald or will muscles have loosened by then without scalding?

Thanks.

 

[Rose Quartz]

Plucking takes forever. But we prefer to cook chicken with the skin on, so I would prefer not to skin the carcasses. I need to process a BUNCH of birds so I won't have time to pluck them all at the same time.

Is there any reason I can't kill/eviscerate/chill/rest the birds and leave the feathers on? And then remove the feathers as I have time? Say, remove feathers after the 'rest' period before freezing, or even freeze them with feathers on and pluck when I thaw them before cooking?

If it is possible to pluck days after butcher with no ill effects, do I still need to scald or will muscles have loosened by then without scalding?

Thanks.

One day I was processing a bunch of chickens with my sister, we decided we would do in the last 3 at the same time. (one after the other) while we were scalding to remove the feathers on 2 of them the water cooled and it had to go back in the house to be re-heated. the last remaining bird to be plucked was the first one we had killed. before the water was back to temperature the skin had relaxed enough I was able to pull out a lot of the feathers without using the hot water.

personally I wouldn't want to put a feathered bird into my freezer. But I think the main reason for taking the feathers off as soon as you can (even before evisceration) is because cooling the meat ASAP is important. Feathers is going to hold in the body heat. they'll also absorb the blood and goo from the insides. All of my processed chickens go through multiple baths to both chill them and clean off any mess (thinking nicked bowel) that has to come off before they're frozen or your meat will be contaminated.

if you're willing to wait longer while processing you could probably do it with out hot water. it takes about 20 mins for me to eviscerate a bird (faster than I used to be) if you did that part first then tried to pluck dry, you might be able to get it all done at once.

 

[Mrs. K]

Feathers are dirty, going to contaminate your meat... I would not eat a bird frozen with the feathers on.

Get a drill head plucker, works slick. Not nearly as expensive as the drum pluckers.

Mrs K

 

[jpace]

Just me but I would not leave the feathers on during rest or freeze. As I am plucking and gutting; I am also cleaning the chicken...