Killing, Plucking, Eviscerating, & Cutting Up Your Chicken - Graphic!

[dobby13]

A very useful post.

 

[mommissan]

Putting this on my bookmarks!

 

[Tiss]

I did in my first chicken yesterday. I could not have done it without your tutorial. Thank you so much!

 

[Mum]

Many thanks to the original poster - brilliant tutorial.

I did in my first chicken yesterday. I could not have done it without your tutorial. Thank you so much!

You did a good job!

 

[202roosterlane]

After going through these pictures. I actually feel like I could do this now. Thank you, very helpful and done tastefully.

 

[ChickChickChicky]

Have never done this before and have a couple of questions. How do you know how deep to cut the neck for it to bleed out? I would hate to cut too shallow so that it prolongs death. Can one cut too deep? And is there a reason to not just cut the chicken's head off to start with? Thanks for answering the questions of a total newbie, because I'm sure that at some point in time I'll have to do this.

 

[EweSheep]

ChickyChick, you can go as deep as you want. You will end up hitting the neck bones. When blood free flows or spurted out, you got the veins.

 

[ChickChickChicky]

Thanks for answering my question, EweSheep. I guess the secret is to not be sqeamish about it and to make a decisive cut. I guess my biggest fear is that I wouldn't cut deep enough and would only cause the chicken pain and fear.

 

[EweSheep]

If you ever watch a horror movie that someone sliced or hacked someone, the blood would just literally plusated out, that is the main artery that would literally bleed you out unless you apply pressure. In this case, let it go!

What my dad did, was to cut from ear to ear in a very deep cut, knife hitting spinal cord.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I consider it the final kindness I can bestow on the birds I raise with care for their meat, to help them Get To The Other Side Of The Road quickly, calmly, humanely. Make sure your knife is sharp, you have it placed right on the bare spot right behind their jaw, and that your fingers are out of the way. I press in deep & hard and push forward fast to get right to where the blood comes out in a gush. They cross over to the other side with that initial loss of so much blood, but I also cut the other side of the neck right after. Don't be alarmed by the delayed residual reflex of them moving and flapping, it's just nerve reflexes and not the bird trying to fly away. I stand there to hold the head and keep the blood from spattering all over but that's not necessary.

When you cut the neck but keep the head & spine intact the heart continues to reflexively beat and helps pump more of the blood out. This is also called a kosher kill and seems to make the most sense to me. But everyone eventually finds the methods that work the best for them.