Ground chicken breasts

[nmred]

A friend/neighbor has a large flock (to me anyhow, 250+ birds). They sell the eggs at our local health food store. Anyway, they want to cull some of their older birds but say they can't do it themselves so would like us to do it. I was wondering if we could grind the breasts and maybe the thighs and use the meat that way?

I know they won't be fit to eat otherwise. Was also wondering if canning them would tenderize them? Anyone with any experience in this area?

 

[silkiechicken]

Usually I just make soup bases with spent hens. Boil and simmer for a day and even the bones start to fall apart. Makes a strong flavored chicken base. As for eating the meat. I would think grinding would make it palatable. Might want to add some skin into the grind since I'd imagine just ground breast meat to be very dry.

 

[unionwirewoman]

My grandmother and aunt can theirs ( I should say mine) . I believe they boil them first , then can it . It makes for good casserole meat and fajitas . It also stores well.

 

[GwenFarms]

You can grind them and its just as good as ground turkey. One of the best sausages I've ever had was made from ground chicken. Give it a try.

 

[cluckychick]

Chicken Salad...mayo and relish, mmm...good

 

[farm_mom]

We ground up some of the meat from our old bitties and it works wonderfully.

 

[Omniskies]

I've been wanting to find a way to make chicken nuggets and chicken patties out of ground chicken made from older birds. So far I haven't been using the right key-word searches from Google to see if there's anything special that needs to be done beyond grinding up the meat, mashing it into little balls and covering them in breading.

Being able to find a few more uses for older birds besides "popcorn chicken," cashew chicken and stews would be great.

 

[greyfields]

The trick to grinding it is to have the meat semi-frozen. Take it out of the freezer two days before you plan to grind and place it in the fridge. It should have the perfect consitency then.

 

[Omniskies]

Huge thanks. Do you know how fine the meat needs to be ground to make good nuggets and/or patties? ie. Are we talking the size of standard ground hamburger? Larger? More of a paste?

We have a meat grinder in the basement that needs to be brought back out of retirement. It has multiple heads for different sizes.

If this is a success I will be in heaven.

 

[nmred]

Wow, thanks everybody. It's great to know that others have tried it and that it worked!

I am definately going to try both grinding and canning. It will be great to be able to use the meat for something besides dog food (though that it useful, too)

Omniskies, if your chicken nuggets work out, please post the recipe. It would be great to have it.

GwenFarms, do you have the sausage recipe? That would be great, too.