good chickens to eat?

[Chicken Girl]

Ok so we buthcherd some white leghorns and leghornxbuff cochins and they dont tast good at all!!!! And they are tuff!!!! So what is a good breed to raise for egg laying and eating? How do you breed meat birds if thats the best?



Thanks!!!




Chicken Girl

 

[Tad]

did you rest the meat for a day or so? how old were the birds? what kind of feed were they on?

 

[gkeesling]

We have dual purpose hens such as Plymouth Barr Rocks or Rhode Island Reds and butcher them after a couple years of laying. We only eat them in chicken and noodles though, or casseroles, and they taste just fine.

 

[Chicken Girl]

Quote:
We let them sit in the fridge for 3 days, they were on layer feed. The white leghorns were 1 1/2 years the other mixes were about 8 months they were roos.


Chicken Girl

 

[Thingrizzly]

What method of cooking?

 

[Chicken Girl]

ummm my mom did it lol. She put them in a pan and put them in the stove for about an hour. Thats how she cooks most of are chicken even from the store. But the tuff thing i get its they way they tasted that was weird. lol


Chicken Girl

 

[3KillerBs]

The taste difference is because of their age. Older chickens are stronger and more chicken-y than the store-bought birds that might be as young as 6 weeks. You'd get that same flavor from buying a "stew hen" (retired commercial layer or retired commercial breeder), at the store.

Older chickens also require different cooking methods -- they need to be cooked slowly with moist heat. Otherwise you get the same results as you would if you tried to oven-roast a tough cut of beef like a chuck roast instead of pot-roasting it.

Here's a couple recipes for your mom. They're some of the ones I use on stew hens:

http://www.recipezaar.com/Rosemary-Chicken-for-Crock-Pot-or-Dutch-Oven-207277
http://www.recipezaar.com/Pot-Roasted-Italian-Chicken-Beginners-Directions-217561
http://www.recipezaar.com/Pot-Roasted-Italian-Chicken-No-Tomatoes-Beginners-Directio-217565

 

[FarmerChick]

too old actually.

young is best. Anytime I process my layers at approx. 2 years old they are on the tough side.
age is everything with meats.

when I process older birds I cook them different, when I process younger birds I roast those for good eating.


roos will always be tougher. just the gender.

fresh chicken will taste different than store bought always.

 

[WalkingWolf]

Feed them scratch about a month before culling, this is done with most livestock, and some people even put out deer corn in their lots a month before deer season starts. The starch in the scratch or corn turns to fat in the tissue. No it is not good for them but it will change the flavor, but you are going to cull them anyway. This is also done at one of the chicken farms here that sell to a major chicken supplier. The first part of their growth is high protein, and on the end they are fed corn. Even if you do not eat the skin cook the chicken with the skin on, this will hold the moisture in and there is fat in the skin. A roo will never taste like a hen, there are hormones in the meat that change the flavor, this is why pigs and bulls are castrated before butchering. Make sure to cook the chicken slow instead of fast, roasting on moderate heat is better than frying, if you want to fry and like tender store bought meat stick to hens and butcher young.

 

[jaku]

Quote:
I would have to disagree with the ALWAYS part. I can't tell a difference in texture with my Cornish X's.