If I asked this already, please forgive me....

[moenmitz]

My brain isnt working well, and I think I have may have already asked, but if so, I forgot the answer and cant find the post!

I will be butchering about 15 dual purpose roosters (barred rock, buff orp. white giant, speckled sussex, & silver wyandotte)-I think someone said 12-16 weeks is ideal. I want some for fryers, some for roasters-is it size I should go by for this, wiht fryers being smaller? Or is it age? I know I bought some wonderful roasting birds form a mennonite family, but when I fried them they tasted...blah... Just want to make sure I do this right. Thanks!

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Did you let the meat age before cooking?

-Kim

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Fryers should be younger and the roasters will be older. I do not know the exact ages though, I'm sure someone else will chime in with them.

My own personal preference is to let them get older and then process because I like having the roasters for more meat.

 

[moenmitz]

They came already frozen-but they thawed in my fridge for 2-3 days. Roasted, theya re always FABULOUS, seriously the best chicken ever-but fried, they were very mediocre. That si why I was wondering about age affecting it...

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Yeah, I've not had much luck frying older chickens (if I do, its generally just the white meat, legs & thighs are tough). I haven't tried letting the meat sit in buttermilk prior to frying. I might experiment with that.

 

[moenmitz]

I did the buttermilk soak- it LOOKED fantastic....it just was rather dry and tasteless. Can anyone give me a recommended age for fryers? Please?

 

[pdpatch]

Usually fryers are butchered at 12 to 16 weeks, some shoot for 12 weeks. Some just check the breast and when the muscle is filled in next to the breast bone they butcher. But either way it can depend on how the meat is prepared for cooking, on the breed of the bird, how the birds was fed. But some breeds of birds just do not make very good fryers no matter what you do.

A Cornish -x is some what different because they grow so fast, usually butchered at 6 weeks but can go to 10 weeks. At 10 weeks it can by around 8 to 10 pounds dressed.

Some times injecting salt brine or marinade into the meat then soaking in the salt brine/marinade may help. Using salt brine will dry the meat out some.

Also after the you do the processing let them soak in ice water for 48 hours. This sometimes adds water to the birds meat. Then freeze them for a week or so, the ice that forms in the meat breaks it down, something like using a meat tenderizer on steak.

Soaking in ice water does adds the risk of bacteria getting into the meat so make sure the chicken is cleaned very good before doing this.

Marinade your chicken first and add a meat tenderizer to the marinade. In the spice department of some store you can find meat tenderizer.

Longer cooking times dry meat out. but you still need to cook the meat so it kills any bacteria that may have gotten into the meat.

For older birds need a much longer cooking time and frying won't do that.

You can try slow cooking older bird for 3 to 4 hours, simular to what you would do with a whole turkey. This last weekend we cooked a year old rooster in one of those big self contained roaster for 4 hours, it was as tender and tasting as a young fryer.

Tom

 

[moenmitz]

Thank you so much!

 

[fullhouse]

Quote:
Lots of salt. I use real buttermilk, make my own. I don't know if the cultured store kind works as well.