plucking /V/skinning

[ga_goat]

opinions needed on plucking versus skinning and if skinning where to start ,,,ie , back ,, brest ,,neck ??
I have 2 that needs to go to the pot and we don't fry around here just grill / bake is there an advantage of one over the other ??

 

[Smoky73]

well, skinning is a WHOLE LOT faster. When I skinned animals in the past, start with the legs. Guess it does not really matter though. The last time we did meat birds, hubby killed and I skinned and cut up, we do not normally ever cook a whole chicken, so when we saved the meat we kept only the breast legs and thighs of the bird, saved us on cleaning the carcass as well. After the partsd were removed, we skinned as needed.
If you baking or grilling, sometimes skinning can dry out the meat, so I would marinade the meat , also depends on the age of bird your cooking, meat birds at 6 weeks are not too dry anyway, older roosters is another story.

 

[Buster52]

Skinning is much faster and easier than plucking, but you lose the wing tips and the skin (of course). Plucking you get the skin, which means it will taste better baked.

We skin older birds that are going to the crock pot or chicken soup. We pluck younger birds (we now have a table plucker) and those we plan to sell or give away.

I hate skinning turkeys. Others like it, but it was actually harder for us than plucking.

Here is my favorite vid on skinning...

 

[Chickiemama1010]

from my experience, unless you have really fatty birds or broilers, the skin tends to be real tough and thick, chewy etc. Its good to keep meat from drying out in oven or grill, but if youre going to make stew/soup or crock pot the bird, the skin isnt necessary. So if youre going to process yourself, skinning is MUCH easier and faster, and less messy. Hand plucking requires scalding and it smells bad and is tedious and messy. I know theres some that are pros at it and can get it done in no time, but it takes me well over 15 mins to pluck one bird. I did it twice. I will never do it again. If we do ever do our own again, I would likely skin em.

I just had 5 roos sent to slaughter, and we got them plucked, but we dont process our own, theres an Amish man about 1/4 mi away that does it for a buck a bird andthats well worth it to me. 4 of them were just under 4 months old-australorps. we ate one tonight, and it had such thick skin you couldnt eat it if you wanted to. but it had nearly zero fat on it so I am glad we had the skin as we grilled him and he wouldve been dry without it. It was delicious. One of the roos was just over a year, and his skin is seemingly much thinner. He was a red sex link rooster. I have intentions of crock potting his tough old carcass so the skin will be coming off either way.

If you are willing to fork out a couple extra $$ you can wax them. Just like eyebrows. I have never done it, and Im not sure it would be worth the extra expense if youre just doing 2, but heres a thread with pics and instructions on how to do it. If anything, its interesting

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=781276

 

[Montana-Hens]

I am thinking if you are doing just one or two skinning is the way to go.

 

[Beekissed]

If you are doing the CX, they are extremely easy to pluck after scalding....you can just about wipe the dang feathers off them!

Skinning is easier if you just have a few birds but its a shame to waste the juicy factor if these are meat birds.

I lay the bird in front of me, slit the skin lying over the breast bone to the severed neck/head, then downwards almost to the anus. I then turn the bird on one side and proceed to shuck the skin down over the shoulders, releasing the wing at the elbow by cutting that joint.

I then just take off the skin like one would remove a jacket or undress a baby doll...first one arm, across the back, slit down the thigh to the severed leg joint, pull out the leg. Keep rolling the bird in the direction of the skin removal until you remove it from the final shoulder and thigh. This should give you a skin attached merely at the picky opening, at which time you can slice open the lower abdomen, cut through the attachments on either side of the anus/rectum and excise around the rectum~carefully~ and pull the entrails out with one move. This should leave you with guts and skin all of a piece.

If you don't want to do it that way, just cut the skin away from the rectal area when you get that far and proceed with your evisceration as per normal.

 

[justbugged]

We skin our meaties. It is a lot faster as everyone has said. I am still thinking about plucking a few next year, because iIhave a recipe that butterflies the bird, and you need the skin on it, in order to stuff the herbs between the skin and meat.

All the meat we did this year, we skinned and I de-boned it before I put into the freezer. I didn't do this the year before and regretted it. We use most of the meat diced up, in a variety of dishes. I packed the wings together for BBQ'ed wings and I left the legs on the bone. I watched Jack Pepin on You Tube, for instruction on how to de-bone the bird. It is a very wick process, so it is so much easier to use.

 

[Raiquee]

I can't tell you from experiance, but wouldn't it be your preference? What do you usually eat? Boneless Skinless chicken breasts? Or do you usually bake a whole chicken? Or do you like to have fried chicken?

Depending what you like, is how you should do it. If you like chicken with the skin on, and use it in a variety of dishes, then you should pluck them. If you usually use boneless skinless, well then you should skin and bone them!

I know for breasts I use a lot of boneless skinless. So after the birds have set, we are going to pluck them, and then I will just remove the skin from the breasts and bone them. However we like using the wings for hot wings, so I want the skin on the majority. The skin I take off the breast I'll throw in with the carcass for stock!

I will use a few chickens whole, for brick chicken, beer can chicken and roasted chicken

I'm getting hungry!!

 

[rungirl]

If they are meaties, they are SO easy to pluck... no big deal at all. They practically wipe off.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I do both. If I am doing one bird, I usually skin, two is a toss-up, and three or more I usually pluck. The main factor for me is heating the water. The water needs to be about 160 degrees to scald the bird. If it is properly scalded, plucking is easy, faster for me that skinning. But it takes time to heat the water. Heating the water to pluck one bird is not worth it to me. But if I am doing a few, I can scald a bird, have it processed and be ready to scald the next bird by the time the water heats back up. I use a propane camp stove to heat the water. Not the most efficient way but it works.

If you pluck a dark bird, you will see the pin feathers. The carcass will not look as attractive. A white or buff bird will still have the pin feathers but you will not be able to see them. Depends on whether that is important to you.