How To Prevent Tough Cooked Birds

[bigredfeather]

Quote:
Do you think it was because it was cheap, or is the process not as bad as I think it is? Or, did these people just not care or know any better?

 

[slappy flock and swap]

slow cook

 

[ParadiseFoundFarm]

OK
I slow cook our first bird. 4 hours covered at 275. Tough as nails and the breast was dry and the dark was bloody. YUCK!
I found out later that I should have let it rest as I killed it and had it in the oven within an hour. WRONG!
So now I have this other 8 lb roo sitting in Camp Freezer in Italian Salad Dressing. When I found out what we did wrong we removed it from the freezer and put it in the fridge for 3 days and then returned it to the freezer. It's still there. We like baked greek style chicken.
How do you suggest we proceed?

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

delete

 

[RoosterGeek]

Quote:
Chicken and turkey houses are hundreds of feet long and full of birds from one end to the other. I would be suprised if the birds really move around that much - there are feeders and water every few feet. Pretty much all they do is eat and sleep.

One thing I have noticed in chicken plants that is different from home processing is the birds pass thru a warm brine tank then they go into a cold brine chill tank. The way it was explained to me was the the warm brine opens the pores in the skin and gets into the meat then the cold closes them and keeps the brine in the bird.

We don't brine our birds but age them in the fridge for a few days depending on the size of the bird. After that it's the cooking method as to how the bird turns out. We raise dual purpose birds so they are much older than a cross but you can cook the breasts on the grill and they are just fine if you cook them hot and fast. Don't overcook. If you do that with a leg 1/4 forget it. If you debone the thighs you can cook them on the grill as well. If cooking the whole bird low and slow is the key to tenderness.

I agree with Bigredfeather 100%, once you learn how to cook homegrown store bought doesn't hold a candle to it. When we go to cookouts etc and people are cooking store bought we don't eat much. I haven't quite figured out a way yet to show up with our own meat, "yours has no taste so I brought my own" wouldn't fly. LOL

Steve

I bring my slow roasted chickens to family get togethers and folks rave about how good the meat tastes. The last one got picked down to the bones. It was amazing. Steve, you are right about that. It would be a bit awkward to bring your own meat to a party and tell them that their chicken isn't tasty.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

delete

 

[RoosterGeek]

Quote:
How much liquid did you have in the pan? When we do chicken in the oven I use a cast iron dutch oven with a couple inches of liquid in it. The lid fits pretty tight so I guess you are actually steaming the parts uncovered as much as baking them. I put the oven on about 300 and it falls off the bone in a couple hours.

Steve

X2. I do the same thing, except I do not add any additional liquid. I use a Lodge 7 qt cast iron dutch oven with a self basting lid. It does a fantastic job. I do have the trivet (I think that it's called that) which raises the carcass off of the bottom and keeps it from burning.

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
Assuming you were allowed to bring a bird home with you from this processing plant, would you eat said bird after seeing the process?

I worked for Mountaire in Selbyville in the processing plant.. and for Townsends in Millsboro in the hatchery
Mountaire had a "general store" where we could buy processed chicken really cheap.. plus they served chicken every night in the cafeteria (I worked graveyard shift). I loved chicken my whole life.. used to help my mom process them starting when i was about three years old.. so the blood and guts never bothered me.. even seeing the process from them dumping the birds out of the crates through evisceration and all never bothered me..
What did bother me was the overwhelming stench of death that clung to everything in that plant.. my clothes smelled like it.. my skin and hair smelled like it.. and every chicken I smelled even if it was cooked reeked of the death smell.. so no.. I did buy chicken for my relatives.. I couldnt eat any myself though cause to me they all smelled like corpses. It took about 6 months after I left there before I could eat chicken again and not smell death on it
Never had that problem when I worked at the hatchery.. though I did think most eggs had a rotten smell to them!

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
Do you think it was because it was cheap, or is the process not as bad as I think it is? Or, did these people just not care or know any better?

It was because it was so cheap, way below store prices. I didn't work for Purdue but I did HVAC control work there so I got to see the whole operation. The area that the birds came off the truck and were placed on the shackles to start their trip though the plant was bad and nasty as could be. I don't know how people could work there or the killing floor of any plant for that matter but people do. You get numb to it I guess after awhile?

Steve

Leg quarters were about 15 to 20 cents a pound at the "general store".. so yeah.. super cheap chicken

I never liked the way they were unloaded at the plant I worked at.. they dumped the crates much like a garbage truck dumping garbage.. saw a lot of chickens get broken wings and legs that way.. but they didnt care how it was done.. get them off the truck and into production ASAP..

Perdue was one of the "nicest and cleanest" plants that I saw.. Mountaire got into a ton of trouble for sanitation issues.. i THINK they finally got shut down.. not sure.. it's been a few years since I lived in Delaware

 

[Saltysteele]

you didn't mention how old your relatives birds were when they were processed. an older bird will be tougher, a 3.5-4 pound dressed bird will be tender. that is the reason behind seeing fryers, broilers and roasters at the store (you may already know this, it is not my intent to insult anyone's intelligence).

however, as said, the birds you buy in the store have tenderizers, preservatives and flavor enhancers pumped into them. IMO, the cornish cross won't be as flavorful as a longer-growing bird, anyway, but they still will taste better than that stuff we buy in the store.


if they did not let the bird rest long enough (24-36 hours) it would have been tough, and they would have thought they were being creative and successful in later attempts, when in fact, the bird's muscles just loosened up

we put a 5.5 pound bird on the rotissierie, and it was fine, not tough at all (well, not as mushy as the store bought birds, but it was great)

roast larger birds like a turkey, slow cooker and techniques like that - slow, low and moist heat.

i guess feed would also play a part. we've only ever fed corn, so don't know how it would affect them to feed other stuff


i wouldn't worry about it too much. just process CX's at 8-9 weeks (or, just before they die naturally

- that was a joke), let them rest before freezing or eating, and you'll be fine.