Preparing to store chickens.

[RickyParkerJr]

So after the birds are butchered, what do you all do for the most tender meat? Leave on ice for a few hours, over night, refrigerate. How long before freezing should they rest?

 

[iwltfum]

The idea is to not freeze them until after rigor mortis has faded. The part you will get alot of opinions about is how long that actually takes. I chill my birds at 33F for between 24 and 48 hours before they go into the freezer and have not found a significant difference from one that has sat in the refrigerator for five days after butchering.

The FDA says you only have a certain amount of hours at 33F before or after freezing. So if you let the bird sit for 5 or 6 days before freezing, then you would really only want to let that bird sit thawed in your refrigerator for a day or two. If you chill the bird for 24 hours, then you would theoretically be able to safely let that bird sit in your refrigerator for about 5 or 6 days after being thawed. I tend to like being able to let it sit in the refrigerator for a couple days after taking it out of the freezer since I usually don't know the exact day I'm going to eat it. I've also found that there is some wiggle room in the FDA's definition of safe food practices as long as you practice common sense.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This is another one those things where I don't believe in magic numbers. Rigor mortis passes in different times with different birds. That might have something to do with with the individual bird, it might have something to do with how you age it (wet or dry, what temperatures, with or without salt or other chemicals). Rigor has passed when the meat is back to the same consistency as when it was first butchered, before rigor started to set up. If you move a joint is it real flexible? Is the meat itself stiff or limp?

Some people age the meat in ice chests, some in the refrigerator. It is raw meat so be careful of cross contamination. Some age it in a liquid, some age it dry. If dry, some package it before aging. Like everything else to do with chickens, there is no one way that is right where every other way is wrong. There are just different ways to do it.

I do not age mine before I freeze it. I package it the same day I butcher and freeze it. Then I take it out of the freezer on Sunday to cook it on Thursday. It's just the system that works for me, the way I butcher and the way I cook it.

 

[Parront]

So after the birds are butchered, what do you all do for the most tender meat? Leave on ice for a few hours, over night, refrigerate. How long before freezing should they rest?

I think the best thing you can do to have tender meat is to use young birds. Young birds do not take as long aging, like ridgerunner said about individual birds being different. I like using an ice chest to cool them down fast because I have limited refrigerator & freezer space. If you fill the family frig with hot, fresh chickens, your other food will warm up. Once they are cooled then I put them in the frig or freezer. Aging is OK either before or after freezing for me, too. What I should have done was order the big, new chest freezer at the same time I ordered the chickens!