First meat birds ever in the freezer

[lhousesoccer]

So, my first attempt ever to raise meat birds came to an end yesterday morning. I bought 12 Cornish Rock X day-old chicks on May 5 and butchered them yesterday. I grew them 79 days, or 11 weeks. I lost 2 early on when they got through the fence and died from cold. Then at 5 weeks, I lost 2 more from coccidiosis. Thankfully, I discovered the Fermented Feed thread here and fed them for the last 6 weeks on FF. I can't say enough about FF and the benefits to the chicken's health.

I spent a total of $124.00 (purchase of chicks, feed, and processing). So, for 8 birds coming in at 52.5-lbs processed weight, that's $2.36/lb. It's a little higher than I expected, but would have been lower had I not lost 4 birds.

Processed Weights:

6.75
6.60
6.75
7.20
6.50
6.40
6.40
5.90
Total 52.5 lbs

In any case, I just wanted to show everyone what my finished processed weights were and see if they were in the ballpark. I haven't eaten one yet, but can't wait to roast the first one! Any suggestions on a good basic recipe that will really showcase the flavor?

 

[Sundown_Farmer]

With birds that large you should be looking for recipies, not recipe.
You could brine and smoke one.
You could roast one stuffed and basted with a peach sauce.
You could just use a little salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary and onion to bake the bird.
I could keep going.

You could follow the multi-meal week-long plan my sis put on my blog.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I started a thread a week or two back asking that same question and received several great ideas. Here's the link:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/687299/help-need-ultimate-recipe-to-convince-hubby

So far we've only cooked one of the 7 birds we harvested last week. She was very little so we tossed her in the smoker with two Cornish Game Hens I found while rearranging the freezer, but I did make a to-die-for chicken liver pate following this recipe:

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/chicken-liver-pate-march-2007

 

[lhousesoccer]

Thanks everyone! I did the plain roasting last night with the smallest (5.8-lbs) of our 8 birds last night. Rubbed with butter and salt and pepper, 1 hour and 45 minutes in the oven at 325-F until the internal meat thermometer I inserted hit 165-F. Cranked it up to 425-F for another 10 minutes to crisp up the skin. It was the juiciest chicken ever, and was soooooo good. I served it with fresh summer squash and cherry tomatos from the garden. I sliced the squash about 1/2-inch thick, salted and peppered them, and put them in the skillet in sunflower oil on medium heat. Browned them on one side, flipped them over, added crushed fresh garden, thinly sliced red onion, and diagonallyl sliced cherry tomatos. Added about 6 big fresh basil leaves from the garden, sprinkled with a little freshly grated parmesan cheese. It was pretty amazing!