Meat from chickens is TOUGH

[mommissan]

Well, I wasn't patient enough to wait for them to rest, so I tossed them straight from the rinse bucket to the oven. Two 4 month old mutt roosters cooked side-by-side for 2 hours in my oven at 350° then simmered on the stove for another 3 hours. Tossed in some cooked rice and simmer another 2 hours. This is an old Asian favorite, congee. The meat was stringy, but it is delicious. Only seasoning was salt to taste. It's been the best recipe for tough birds.

 

[ScottnLydia]

(OOOOOH, Congee!!!)

 

[wsmoak]

One thing I've seen mentioned only in passing here: brining

An hour in a 8-9% salt solution (2 quarts (64 oz) of water, 5 3/4 oz salt) before cooking makes a big difference for home processed birds.

-Wendy

 

[ScottnLydia]

I age my meat ( ANYTHING I butcher) at LEAST overnight for 2 reasons;

1. For Tenderness, which usually requires several days to allow the enzymes in the meat to "do their thing".

2. To get rid of the fresh bloody taste I've found in things that I haven't aged. The first chickens I processed (back when dinosaurs were still a threat

) we just processed them, put them in bags and froze them. We thawed and fried them,expecting a treat, and found them rubber-bandy and bloody tasting,even though totally cooked! We were stumped, and off of home grown chicken for years after. ironically, we also raised turkeys which were always perfect. It took years before I was reading a book on processing poultry when I came across the fatefull sentence, "all poultry needs to be rested at least overnight to go through the rigor mortis cycle and relax again. Indeed, the tenderness improves if aged longer, even 3 or 4 days is not too long if refrigerated properly." Also, apparently, those same enzymes that break down the muscle and make it more tender also break down the hemoglobin that causes the 'bloody taste'.

It made so much sense since this is what I had been doing with red meat since I was an apprentis meatcutter (deleted) years ago! Also those turkeys sat in the fridge for 4 or 5 days before they were cooked because we had no room in the freezer. Since we started doing that ( aging chickens) we have never had a bloody tasting bird and the only tough ones are the old ones.

Anyway, that's what we do here, and why. Our results are good to us if you would like to give them a try.

~S

 

[FarmGirl01]

Great reply. We also age everything. From deer to pork, chicken and turkeys. Always 2 days or more. The meat rest in the fridge on racks to drain.