Our First Cornish X at 6 weeks had flavor but was tough

[Rochelle1031]

After watching many videos on YouTube, we selected the skinning and gutting method we felt was best. We killed using a killing cone and slitting throat, skinned, and gutted the chicken. I immediately baked in a Dutch oven uncovered for one hour. While flavorful, it was tough. I was disappointed. I have 24 Cornish X left to process.

Based on everything I have read, I am going to let the chickens rest in a salt brine for 24 hours before freezing. When I grew up on a farm we ate small chickens immediately after cleaning. But I am convinced after tonight that is not the way to eat Cornish X. So on Saturday we will process 8 chickens and let them rest in a salt brine before put in a shrink wrap bag and freezing.

The chicken we processed tonight was 4.3 pounds after skinning and without a neck. It was 6 1/2 weeks old.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

when you take the skin you take the fat and there goes the tender. i also heard that freezing breaks the meat to make it more tender.i brown mine first on a high heat to seal in flavor then cover with foil until done and now i am hungry

 

[Buster52]

We don't brine and our birds are tender, but we always let them rest in the fridge for 48 hours. I dont think skin affects toughness but skinless can make them dry if you arent careful when you cook.

 

[Rochelle1031]

I think that is a great suggestion.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

well, call us when dinners done and we will let you know if it was good or not !

 

[off-grid hen]

The above suggestion about resting for 48 hours in the fridge is what you need to do with the remaining birds. I don't brine, because I don't want any added salt. If you have someone in your household watching their sodium content, I'm not sure how much ends up in the end result. With such a young chicken you shouldn't have to brine for tender meat. You can do it if you want, though.

 

[off-grid hen]

Also. If you skin your birds and want a nice juicy roaster that doesn't get dried out during cooking, do the following: it works with turkeys too. cut a cheesecloth (not the stretchy nylon type- use the cotton kind) big enough to fold in half and drape the top and over the tops of the legs. Soak it in some sort of fat. I use safflower oil, but you can get creative and mix melted butter with oil. If you want, splash in a few glugs of dry white wine or lemon juice with the oil. Drape the soaked cheesecloth over the bird during roasting and baste it like you would normally baste a turkey. That will help you end up with a juicier bird.

 

[Rochelle1031]

I've got 6 resting in a cooler filled with ice water and a little salt (I read that salt kills bacteria) as we speak. In 48 hours I will rinse them, dry them, and shrink wrap them for the freezer.

I love your idea about using the cheesecloth and I will give it a try. We are also planning to pluck a few of our chickens, we bought the plucker on Amazon that attaches to a drill.

So I will have an assortment of sizes as we process over a period of 3 weeks and some with and some without skin. THANKS!

 

[LindaB220]

Rochelle,have you tried the drill plucker yet? I'm dying to find out if it works like they said it would. Not expensive and totally on my budget!!

 

[Rochelle1031]

Linda, we tried the plucker and it worked great! There are a few tears in the skin but the plucker really helped us streamline the plucking process and is totally worth it! We have the drill tightly secured to an outdoor table. It is helpful to stand directly in front of the rotating fingers and then spread the bird out as you defeather. Good luck! We still have 10 birds left to process and it snowed for the first time this season yesterday. So we need to get the last bunch processed this week or our fingers will be frostbit!