Do broilers taste as good as dual purpose birds?

[jcoker]

Do broilers taste as good as dual purpose birds? i have white rocks & barred rocks and do broilers have alot of health problems? what is the best tasting meat bird

 

[Paul Ewing]

Personally I like dual purpose cockerels processed at about 16-20 weeks. They have a good flavor and if cooked right are not too tough.

That said, I do not do dual purpose birds for customers any more. Despite what they may say about wanting heritage breeds and being told the advantages and disadvantages of them, they still rebel at the razor breast and overall small size of them.

 

[LilyD]

I have done both Cornish X broilers and Dual purpose. I had a hard time with the CX. We were free ranging them with our layers and they would gorge on any food they found even after their crop was full. They also are much dirtier in general than dual purpose. Taste wise my son summed it up. He said that the CX tasted like eating a sponge. It was soft and bland. The Dual purpose had a little more texture and flavor.

I agree with Paul when he says that it's all in cooking them right. I have let my dual purpose birds go as far as 6-8 months. They rested them for 3-4 days in the fridge to break up the muscle. I also will cook whole birds at 300 degrees rather than 375 and cook them longer as well with a cover on my pan and basting sauce in the bottom to keep the moisture on the bird. I then also raise the temp and crisp the skin for the last few minutes. Tastes amazing to me and not a bit tough.

For birds for the grill with dual purpose you want to process earlier like between 12 to 16 weeks 20 weeks at the latest. They will be smaller but the meat will be more tender because they won't be mature birds yet.

My advice would be to try both and see what you prefer

Hope this helps.
Lily

 

[SowdersHomestead]

Personally I like dual purpose cockerels processed at about 16-20 weeks. They have a good flavor and if cooked right are not too tough.

That said, I do not do dual purpose birds for customers any more. Despite what they may say about wanting heritage breeds and being told the advantages and disadvantages of them, they still rebel at the razor breast and overall small size of them.

We just processed our first DP roosters yesterday. I can't believe the difference in the size of the breast compared to the CX. It'll be interesting to see the difference in taste and texture.

 

[LilyD]

We noticed that too. I have found though that if you up the protein intake about 2 weeks before processing (I don't limit activity but I hear others do that as well for the last 2 weeks) they tend to get breastier rather than being as lean. I add turkey starter to my chicken starter that I feed to my broiler birds and between that and the hardboiled eggs and bugs they eat they seem to do okay when processing comes around. I noticed a marked improvement over the first ones I did.

 

[gg706]

WOW I was planning on butchering my Wyandotte and Orpington roos at 9 or 10 months of age. I didn't know I needed to be ready by 5 months old. I am raising chicks they are about 7 weeks old now....I am keeping the hens and butchering most, if not all the roos. Should I seperate the hens and roos and feed seperate diets to try and bulk up the roosters?

 

[LilyD]

WOW I was planning on butchering my Wyandotte and Orpington roos at 9 or 10 months of age. I didn't know I needed to be ready by 5 months old. I am raising chicks they are about 7 weeks old now....I am keeping the hens and butchering most, if not all the roos. Should I seperate the hens and roos and feed seperate diets to try and bulk up the roosters?

I have gone that long with a rooster before and it was fine. You just wouldn't be able to use them on the grill or fast cooking methods like that. Slow roasting in the oven is fine with a dutch oven that is covered. I would separate your hens from your roosters because the roosters will compete with th e hens for the food and the hens won't get to proper size for breeding. I feed my roosters separate in a bachelor coop area and they get chick starter or broiler food if I know they are for meat. They will also get turkey starter which is higher protein closer to processing time about 2 weeks before d day.

 

[NewBreeder]

I guess it depends on if you are breeding your dual purpose birds or just buying them and raising them

I can eat my roosters at any time because when selecting my roos I look for the meatier birds as my breeders
after about 6 years of selection although not as much meat of a broiler they are meaty

Just recently I fried up a bunch of rooster meat, my two boys with mouths full gave me the two thumbs up on how good the meat was for eating

 

[Judy]

duplicate

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...od-as-good-as-dual-purpose-birds#post_8884105