Is this appropriate?

[lazy gardener]

I would not want to keep chicken in a cooler of ice for the chill period. IMO, all those carcasses sitting in a serum soup, even if chilled may invite cross contamination from one carcass to an other, and if the water is not changed out frequently, just... yuck. I like to get my birds out of the cooler ASAP, and into the fridge for the cool down.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I would not want to keep chicken in a cooler of ice for the chill period. IMO, all those carcasses sitting in a serum soup, even if chilled may invite cross contamination from one carcass to an other, and if the water is not changed out frequently, just... yuck. I like to get my birds out of the cooler ASAP, and into the fridge for the cool down.

Yes, we tried the ice chest once and it was quite disgusting and not nearly the same results as going into the fridge regarding how long they stayed fresh for afterwards.

 

[JiminyChristmas]

Put the birds ON TOP of the ice, not in it. Keep the drain plug open to release water as it melts. Keep in shade and even wrap with a blanket if you have one fit for such use.

Sealing meat up then refrigerating only holds warm temps and slows down the cooling process. Refrigerating open dries the bird unless you have an ancient fridge. After thawing and brining I pat a bird dry then place in fridge open to dry the skin out then on the counter to bring to room temp before cooking

It's not rocket science.

 

[Mosey2003]

Someone has posted here in the past an article about not chilling chickens straight away, that the rigor process can be slowed by keeping them warmer than chucking them into ice water. It interests me. I know the time before last when I butchered two, it took a lot longer than normal for a few reasons, and it seemed like rigor set in a bit, but then passed at a certain point, before going full-on after being refrigerated. If I were going to try to eat one same day, I would probably only rinse with cold water and not fully chill it before cooking.

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

I thought the whole point of having 'fresh' chickens is to kill it and eat it right after, what am I missing here? The times my mother went and bought live chickens to slaughter, we'd eat it right after..... tastes great to me!

 

[Morrigan]

I think I read if it is around 1/2 hour from kill to grill, there is no rigor. So, maybe that's what the old-timers, who were skilled at butchering, did.

It's hard to know what tastes best without doing a controlled, blind test. What we do is kill, gut and pluck a bird. Place in an unsealed plastic bag and put it in standing freezer, for rapid cool-down, and move on to the next bird. After 4 to 6 birds are done and no bird has been in the freezer long enough to actually start freezing, I move them to the refrigerator. It gets opened and closed enough, where I think there is reasonable air exchange. Let rest 2 to 3 days before shrink wrapping and freezing.

This only works for small batches, as the refrigerator gets pretty crowded with 6 birds loaded in and resting. I have no idea if this is the best way, but the birds are usually very tender and tasty.

It's weird, but I've never eaten one that hasn't been frozen and defrosted. By the time we're done processing a batch, we really don't want to eat chicken for a few days. In particular, my husband, who swings the hatchet, really likes to put a little mental distance between butchering and eating.

 

[Molpet]

Last year or so when we got educated and decided humane was important to us... we discovered air cooled chicken, which was really appealing to the brain after seeing the bloody, chlorine, poo river of the industry.

Since we process only a couple birds at a time, I have never used an ice chest to rest all the carcasses in for those days. So we instead do "air chill" the birds. We have experimented with leaving the bag open or closing it. Left open, it creates dry spots. We recently started using a vacuum sealer... any opinions on whether it should be sealed while resting or if it needs any gas exchange? Or if sealing inhibits the rest?

Thank you guys sooo much for the input! This really helpful.

Anybody brine DURING their rest period?

Those chickens that got froze before their rest was complete, as indicated by the chicken noodle soup that had no chicken cuz it was too tough last week... I will try grinding those. We use ground chicken for plenty of stuff, and seems like having it cut to those small crumbles *may* alleviate our fumble.

Great info sharing!

So just a double question. I wanna make sure I don’t ruin the meat. I can keep chicken in a cooler filled with ice for 3-4 days as long as chicken stays covered with ice? What’s the longest it can be kept in the cooler? Are there specifics I need to mind?

I have brined some in a cooler when I have the fridge full.... the cooler in cool basement, frozen jugs of water changed every 8 hrs, brine (1/4 to 1/2 cup of salt) changed daily... try for 1-3 days, but I have gone a week do to poor planning . frozen tomatoes and such needed to be processed for canning sauce to make room. USDA says 10 days for turkeys before use or freezing is ok. Not sure about chickens.

many years ago tried cooking a bird killed several hours earlier.. like eating rubber bands I have heard a pressure cooker will make a bird in rigor eatable .. sure worked on a rested 2 yr roo 1 hr at 11 lbs psi.. well in 2 tries, after 1/2hr I still couldn't cut the skin and the leg joint didn't move so I ran him for another 30 min