Chicken testicles-Warning. Pictures of raw meat.

[TimG]

Most of us have probably seen some Travel Channel or Food Network host dining on chicken testicles. I've personally only ever butchered one rooster and I did not think to look for testicles, though my son and I did attempt to identify the internal organs. When I took roosters to the processor, there were no testicles in the bag of innards that came with the birds (as I recall, gizzard, liver, heart and neck came in the bag).

Anyway, I'm wondering if I missed something obvious when I was butchering -- maybe we identified them as kidneys -- or if they're small and sneaky.

**edited title due to reports**

 

[Mrs.Puff]

They are extremely small and located up by the back/side inside the bird.

 

[jvls1942]

they are small only in young birds.
in older roosters they can be quite large..

they are located up next to the backbone. usually a creamy white kidney shape.

 

[TimG]

The rooster I butchered was about one year old. When you say "young" do you mean a matter of weeks? Or, would this guy still qualify?

 

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

They will look like a white kidney bean or something close to that. If you pull the guts fast and don't care to look for them then you would miss them. Now in turkeys you would have a hard time missing them as they are quite big, but chicken about size of a kidney bean or so.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

The processor probably wouldn't include them in your bag of edible innards unless you asked for them. I don't think they're a popular dish, it must be an acquired taste. It's more common to eat the gizzards, liver & heart, that's probably what you had returned to you. They probably didn't include the lungs, gall bladder, kidneys, intestines, or testicles.

I've only processed one Cornish X, the only bird I've processed at 8 weeks. I don't remember how big his testicles were. But the home-hatched mixed-breed roos I butcher at 20 weeks have testicles the size of strawberries. They're cream-colored, smooth & bean-shaped, found up along the backbone in front of the kidneys (smaller & browner).

I wouldn't eat them unless I were desperately hungry, but I toss them to the hens who circle the cutting table like a school of sharks, eager to snap up all the goodies I find in the roosters and toss to them.

 

[dancingbear]

Depends on the age of the bird, also breed and diet have a lot to do with how big the testes get. These are from a bunch of cockerels about 4-5 months old. I was amazed at the size, and took these pics to show a couple of my friends. The numbers on the ruler didn't come out clearly, but the big one in front is a tad over 2 1/2" long.

Since then, we've butchered quite a few, and this isn't unusual with our mixed breed dual-purps. Maybe that explains why we have really high fertility when we normally only keep one or two roos for about 30 or more hens. And why if we have more males than that, there's always trouble. Too much testosterone!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Sort of makes you want to treat those roos with a little more respect, doesn't it?

But those pix sure don't make me feel hungry...

 

[Wynette]

Gosh, of COURSE someone had pics of them! I'm all about the pics!

Thanks!

 

[TimG]

I read a blog in which someone claimed that the rooster testicles he was served were bigger than his. At 2 1/2 inches, I guess he wasn't exaggerating. As a percentage of body volume: WOW.