I skinned a bird recently, because she was about to die. I didnt have any water heated up for scalding and that pot seems to tske forever on my grill. Besides, She picked a very inconvenient time, Friday evening at 8:30 at night, not to mention it was at least 110 degrees and we were about to grill steaks and watch a movie. Some date night, start irrigation and butcher a chicken, gotta live the romance! Anyway, I do believe it only saved me about ten minutes all said and done.
As far as not using the innards, skin or feet, I just feel it's such a waste of a life. I guess, I feel I need to honor my birds by using as much as possible. My dogs eat the parts we don't like ( livers, kidneys, lungs, hearts, testes), and I use all the rest in the stock pot. Let me tell you, those feet are well worth the trouble to clean, the stock is amazing! The dogs also get the meat strainings after I'm finished making the stock, even the feet, which seem to fall part into mush.
I believe it's worth the effort to pluck, even if you don't actually eat the skin. I either feed the dogs the skins, after I've cooked the chicken, or the skin goes into the stock. But, for most of my recipes, the skin really does protect the meat, making the meat moister and juicier. If you don't want to eat it, it's very easy to peel of after cooking, then save and toss to the dogs or in the freezer bag of stock pot parts.
Oh, my dogs are on a RAW diet, so they get a varied selection of food. They love their chicken parts and nothing ever seems to upset their tummies. I think the fact that everyday they get something different to eat really contributes to their health and well-being, not to mention their cast-iron tummies, lol.
As far as killing, it seems to me, mine have taken 4-5 minutes, although I've never timed it and it's probably less, just seems like a long time when I'm standing there. This last one, though, went very fast, since she was probably having a heart attack, dying right before my eyes. I don't have a cone, just two pieces of twine with slip nots to hang the birds upside down. I have to hold the wings when they flap at the end. I really loved the video recently posted, something about the humane way to kill a chicken. I loved how she held the chicken in her lap, calmed her, desensitized her and then cut the neck. I'm not sure I'd be able to hold my large birds in my lap all that well at this point, though.
Don't try to cut too deep, it's a very shallow vein. If i were going to start an IV on this chicken, id run the needle at a shallow angle, probably 70 degrees, if that gives you any idea of how shallowly youre trying to cut. You may be trying to cut way too deep, which will be too much force and get you down to trachea and maybe into the bone. If you miss, just try agin, it's a large vessel and right on the side of the neck, just below skin. You might even be able to feel a pulse, although I never do.
I have a cheap little knife, three inch blade. It's a pink knife that I purchased at a baking store for about 2.50. I sharpen it before every use and use it for the entire butchering process. I'm thinking about going to Bass Pro and getting a real knife, but so far, my little pink knife works pretty well.
