no gut method... ?

[Northie]

I'm not sure if anyone on here has seen the "no gut method" of cleaning wild game like deer or elk, but if you know what I'm talking about... has anyone ever tried it with chickens?
Could it be done if you didn't want to the bird whole for roasting? I was thinking it would be easy to remove the legs and wings without too much fuss, but taking the breast meat off could be a challenge.

 

[TedSheckler]

If you removed the wish bone and used a good boning knife you could get a nice breast cut but no matter how well you did it there would be so much wasted meat in crevices of the carcass you could cook out for pulled dishes or reduce to stock why not process fully?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Once you get the knack of it gutting is by far faster than plucking. It seems to me easier to do then trying to process the bird into pieces at harvest time. Then you've an entire carcass and no limits of how to cut up or use when ready to think of the meal.

The key to gutting is to cut around the esophagus. Then when you've cut the abdomen the entire internal system pulls out with ease. With sharp knives and practice it's a snap. The biggest problem is keeping sharp knives.

 

[CrazyTalk]

There have been a couple of studies done with respect to meat tenderness, and the general consensus seems to be that the meat is more tender if it rests for a couple of days on the bone - the muscle fibers basically get stretched back out. If you cut the meat away from the bone too early, this doesn't happen, there's no tension on the contracted muscles and they stay contracted, and you get denser, tougher meat.

You could probably cut away the legs and wings and such, but I think you're going to basically ruin the breasts cutting them away immediately.

 

[Northie]

Thanks for the replies!

We have pretty good set of knives and a sharpener from butchering wild game already so that's a start. I was thinking of this idea, mostly just out of curiousity, but also as something to do if you had a lot of birds to process. You could freeze some whole, and some broken down into various parts.
If I do ever try this I'll be sure to share on here

 

[osbmail]

Yes I have done no gut method on old hens that were being canned or ground up.I just pluck them ,cut leg thigh off ,than cut off wing with breast meat .It take just as much time as gutting but the advantage is you don't have to touch guts and your carcass is broken down in smaller parts.