Is it possible to free-range and have tender chicken?

[Shades of Blue]

Is it possible to free-range and have tender chicken?

Never have raised any birds designated specifically as 'meat birds', pretty much everything is what seems to be referred to as dual purpose.


I've never had one that was suitable to eat after being roasted. Sure the breast meat is usually tender, but the legs and thighs certainly aren't.....and I'm not talking about old birds, heck culled cockerels butchered right when they start to crow taste that way too.

Stringy and tough.



We butcher somewhere between 50-70 birds a year for our family and needless to say, we eat a lot of stewed or crockpot chicken.

I have purchased a breed called Belgian Malines and they are a meat bird. I processed my 2 cockerels at 18 weeks. I have roasted one of them and it was wonderful. I had free ranged the boys from age 5 weeks for the summer and due to colder wet weather I put them in for the last month in a 8x8 pen. The dark meat was brown/red in colour but it was not tough or stringy. I was very encouraged by this as I was concerned it would be tough due to their age and free ranging. I roasted a Malines and a 14 week old Cornish X in the same roasting pan ....stuffed/seasoned both the same and they were wonderful.
So maybe this is not a fair example like the other fellow that took his right out of the field and processed. My 2 did have almost a month indoors....my 2 cents.

 

[centrarchid]

As a kid we butchered our late season hatch games when they were about 10 to 12 weeks old. They were pan fried and certainly tougher than the intensively raised Cornish X product and also quite a bit smaller but we all have very fond memories of how those little games tasted. At that point I would not say they were too tough to eat, rather they simply did not melt in your mouth like the store bought birds did. They were slightly over 2 lbs at the time of harvest but had a flavor that was very distinctive from the confined birds raised exclusively on chicken feed. The fat content of the games was lower and liquid even at room temperature.

 

[SunnySkies]

I think to clarify, though, the OP is talking about birds NOT bred for meat at all. Just a chicken. A newly crowing rooster, so one about 3-4 months old. And OP wanted to know if confining roosters will make them more tender.

IME, in order to get them to a size worth the work of cleaning, to feed a family, they will be older than 10 weeks. This also allows owners to make breeder decisions and decide which ones to cull. Because of the breeds I raise, I often do not make this decision until they are 3-4 months old as well. So this means you miss the window of "palatable and toothsome" and end up going to the window of "tough and stringy."

Keeping them confined does not make a difference.

You can't feed them anything that will make them tender.

You could caponize them, and then they do stay tender about as long as you want to keep them alive.

But otherwise, spare rooster = low and slow and moist cooking methods. They have great flavor, but I learned as a kid that roosters are really not meant to be the star of the meal. They are best as part of a meal, like soup or chicken enchiladas or chicken lasagna. I did try roasting one of my roosters, wondering if maybe my mom just got it wrong...but, lol, Mom was still right.

If you want a really tender bird, you kinda have to go with a meat breed, whether that be CX, FR, Rosambros, or Belgian Malines (which look really cool, but are not in the US that I can find). And you can take some of those breeds longer and still get a nice, tender, juicy bird. But cooking up a RIR roo...you can't fry him.

I never did try a game. I imagine they would be a little tougher, but process them young and they probably do taste pretty good.

For me, raising the meat birds was easier in some ways than raising a bird I'd have around longer. They free ranged, they ate and pooped a LOT, but they were gentle and quiet and grew fast. I did get tired of moving the coop daily, but one processing day, and my freezer was full of gorgeous meat I can cook any way I want. It was completely worth it, and I'd do it again when the weather warms up.

ETA: Greenfire Farms says they will have Belgian Malines in 2014, possibly. But it might be that you order a minimum of 6 straight run breeding stock chicks for $19-50 each (go check out their website), wait until they can reproduce, hatch eggs, then you can raise BM's for meat. But very interesting thought. Depending on my finances in 2014, maybe I'll do it. They look lovely and sound very interesting.

 

[Hennyetta]

Has anyone tried canning the meat from older, tougher birds? I would think that would make it pretty tender. Maybe not as tender as meat from a younger bird, or a cornish x, but I would think it would be similar or maybe even better than one done in a crockpot.

 

[BCMaraniac]

Has anyone tried canning the meat from older, tougher birds? I would think that would make it pretty tender. Maybe not as tender as meat from a younger bird, or a cornish x, but I would think it would be similar or maybe even better than one done in a crockpot.

I have considered that. I was thinking that I would cube the chicken, pack it raw in the jars with salt(the cooking will create it's own juice), and then process in the pressure cooker. There is a specified time for processing meat, and I was thinking I would process longer since the meat was tougher in hopes of tenderizing it further. Even after canning, you will cook it further when you make soup, dumplings, etc.

 

[Hennyetta]

I have considered that. I was thinking that I would cube the chicken, pack it raw in the jars with salt(the cooking will create it's own juice), and then process in the pressure cooker. There is a specified time for processing meat, and I was thinking I would process longer since the meat was tougher in hopes of tenderizing it further. Even after canning, you will cook it further when you make soup, dumplings, etc.

That's what I plan to do with the meat from my extra Faverolles roosters, when I have some. Canned chicken is generally very moist and falling-apart tender (although I've only ever had canned chicken that was probably from Cornish X) and like you said, it will be cooked even more after canning.

 

[SunnySkies]

If I ever end up with a lot of stew chickens, I'd probably can them. Just the ease of busting open a can of chicken when you need a fast dinner and forgot to take anything out of the freezer makes it appeal to me.

 

[BCMaraniac]

If I ever end up with a lot of stew chickens, I'd probably can them. Just the ease of busting open a can of chicken when you need a fast dinner and forgot to take anything out of the freezer makes it appeal to me.

That's my thought.....the convenience factor. Take the rest of the carcass, cook in a pressure cooker and make stock. Combine the two, throw in a some veggies/ seasonings/a few noodles, and you're done.........shelf stable too.....

 

[SunnySkies]

Exactly...chicken ala king in 5 minutes!

 

[donrae]

Canned old hen is great. check out the recipe section, several folks there can older hens or roosters. And as you said, can't beat the convenience factor.

I think we forget, before there were "meat birds" like Cornish cross, folks just didn't roast birds as much. And when they did, they fully expected to chew the meat. We're used to mushy meat, now.