FEATHER PLUCK vs SKINNING?

[Amina]

As I understand it, the dots that you popped are feather pigments. They show up a lot more for dark colored birds, but the white birds like cornish cross have them too. You just don't notice it. They're not harmful if you leave then in, they're just unappetizing looking.

 

[romea]

okay... so how do i process a chicken i want to skin?
obviously the first step is to kill the bird and bleed it out but what about rigor mortis? do i wait and skin the chicken afterwards (and then clean it etc.) - or does the bird have to be skinned (and cleaned) right away?
i read that rigor sets in quickly (even more so in cold weather and we already have temperatures around freezing...).

p.s.: we have no intentions of roasting the bird in question - a beautiful buckeye rooster :'{ - since he will probably be quite tough.

 

[Elke Beck]

okay... so how do i process a chicken i want to skin?
obviously the first step is to kill the bird and bleed it out but what about rigor mortis? do i wait and skin the chicken afterwards (and then clean it etc.) - or does the bird have to be skinned (and cleaned) right away?
i read that rigor sets in quickly (even more so in cold weather and we already have temperatures around freezing...).

p.s.: we have no intentions of roasting the bird in question - a beautiful buckeye rooster :'{ - since he will probably be quite tough.

Kill the bird by whatever means you choose. Cut off the head, feet and wings at the second joint so just the drumette is attached. Lay the bird on his back, separate the feathers over the keel and take a pinch of skin with your non-cutting hand. You can use a knife to poke a slit in the pinched skin, or easier is to snip the fold with sharp scissors. Use your fingers to tear open the slit, peeling the skin away from the breast. You will need to either tear or cut the tougher membranes at certain points. I usually rip the skin up to the neck, then work my finger around the wing and pull the skin off the wing - it will turn inside out as you pull. Once both wings are free, carefully work around the neck. You will need to cut the trachea and esophagus to remove the skin from the neck. Then I turn the bird over and work the skin off the back. The skin likes to stick to the back, so it takes a bit of work. Once the skin is removed to the tail and mostly off the thighs, I turn the bird over again, and work on the legs. work your finger into the knee joint and loosen the skin as much as you can, then pull the skin off the drumstick, similar to what happened with the wings. Now you have a naked chicken with the skin attached to the tail and vent. I lay the skin so that it is nearest me, and the skinned bird is above it. then I carefully open the body cavity, pull everything out, take the heart, liver and gizzard off, then lay the rest on the skin. Carefully cut by the pelvic bones to loosen the vent. Once you have the vent loose on both sides and pulled out, cut off the tail and everything will come free. Discard the skin and entrails, wash the carcass well, bag it, rest it, cook it, eat it.

This sounds complex, but once you start doing it, you will see what needs to be done and just do it. It is much easier to skin when the bird is still flexible because you need to be able to move the joints to get the skin off, so definitely do not let rigor set in. I skin when I am only doing one because it is not worth heating a couple gallons of water for just one bird. It is definitely faster and easier than plucking.

 

[romea]

wow! thank you for taking the time to provide this thorough walk-through. very much appreciated!

we might decide to kill the bird in the evening (at dark). would it be possible to let him hang through the night at temperatures similar to those in a fridge? (3-4 C which translates to +/- 38 fahrenheit.)

 

[naillikwj82]

Skinning and eviscerate the bird directly after bleeding out. Don't put it off for the next day.

 

[romea]

i hear you... thanks for the advice!

 

[frillydishes]

My husband and I both work and I have a 80 minute commute and we both treasure our weekend time in the garden or on the hunt trail so we've gotten into a routine. A couple nights a week he will skin and filet some of the layers, usually 2 at a time once or twice a week. If we plan a roast in the upcoming weekend he will save a carcass for stock. Then we will take 2 for roasting on the weekend and spend the time on the feathers. We have a bit of an assembly line including my 4 yr old daughter who mostly plucks whatever I'm holding and helps wash up. It takes us about 90 minutes from the time we turn on the water till they're bagged and the mess is cleaned.
I'm all for using every ounce of what you kill and we do for the wild game we harvest but when it comes to the chickens, we tend to lean toward convenience. We know what we are going to eat and the small amount of time we have to process it so that works for us. We tried doing them all in a weekend a couple times cause that seemed to be what we were supposed to do but it was pretty taxing and left us both with a bad taste in our mouth for plucking. But who knows, I'm eyeballing some rubber fingers on eBay so I may be building a plucker with my xmas money and by this time next year, I may have changed my tune! It took us almost 3 yrs to get into a routine that fit us with an enormous amount of trial and error. Just try what makes sense to you and see how you like it.

 

[triplepurpose]

I've just never been convinced that skinning is that much easier than plucking. Chickens are easy to pluck--if you don't think so, try doing a goose. I can pluck about as quickly as I can skin, and the food value I save by not wasting wingtips, feet (for stock), and nutritious, flavorful skin, more than justifies the extra minute or two that it takes to pluck. If you only have a few chickens to do, it seems like you'd want to save as much useful parts as possible, and if you have a ton of chickens to do, then economy of scale makes heating scalding water and buying some basic equipment very practical anyway. I feel the same way about organs--you're going to the trouble to raise and process this thing already, why not take 60 extra seconds or so to save something so nutritious and useful, rather than tossing it? After all the hours of feeding and other work it took to raise it, am I really in such a hurry I can't be bothered to save and exploit that bit of extra value?

Every time I've tried skinning, I just felt kind of guilty, like it was just carelessly wasteful and not that much easier to justify it. I don't judge other people for finding different solutions that make sense in their own circumstances. But for me, after trying various methods and trying to understand the rationale, it just never made much sense--morally or pragmatically.

 

[romea]

these are very interesting different opinions.
in my case, i have never killed for food let alone skinned and plucked a chicken. i have been a vegetarian for most of my life and a vegan for some - so this is a big step for me. i am, however, not overly squeamish. on 1 hand, i have dissected animals yet also worked in animal welfare for many years. making life & death decisions have been a sad yet inevitable part of it.
my focus has always been on the quality of life an animal is able to lead - so organic is pretty much all i ever purchase. and yes, i am aware of the abundance of greenwashing going on. to me, supporting organic farming is more of a political decision than one made for health reasons.

in any event, we will most likely take the plunge and 'dispatch' at least 1 of our 2 roosters - maybe both.
with all that being said, i wonder how tasty a 6 month old buckeye respectively easter egger is going to be. i read various comments on these older roosters and for some they are 'only' fit for dog food - which i don't mind as our dogs would certainly enjoy such a christmas dinner.
to cut a long story short: the quality of meat will also influence me plucking vs. skinning... can anybody tell me more on said quality?

 

[Amina]

Hi Romea,
I too used to be vegan, and have transitioned to eating eggs and meat from my own flock (no factory farmed stuff though!). It's definitely a hard decision to cull the extra roosters, but it's better for the flock, plus the cockerels get a good quality life first. Good luck with processing your extra roosters!

I think the age of the bird just determines what cooking method you should use. The older the bird, the more it is necessary to use low and slow heat to get good results.