Processed first chicken today

[630004]

Cukled one of our broody hens today. Hen was just over a year old and quite underweight (2.2 pounds dressed) black Austrolop.

I marinaded the chicken and then spatchcocked on the bbq. Flavor was delciose and very moist but noticeably tough.

I’m wondering how much of this was due to age, bring broody and stressed or Preperation.

Would love to hear any suggestions.

Thanks

 

[Isadora]

Since you dispatched and ate today (if I'm reading it correctly) you didn't let the body rest in the fridge for 24 hours?
After killing, the body will have rigor mortis and will be very tough to eat! Letting it rest in the fridge for a day before cooking it will yield a much better result.

 

[Molpet]

If you didn't rest until rigor mortis passed it like eating rubber bands.
Also age makes a difference for cooking method. BBQ would be a young bird . Older would be stewing hen in the crockpot or pressure cooker

 

[Ridgerunner]

The toughness was due to age and how you cooked her. Rigor mortis is not going to be a factor if you cooked her before it sets up. If you give rigor mortis time to set up it can contribute to toughness so I'm not sure how much rigor may have contributed. I've butchered a broody hen before and did not notice any difference in flavor or texture.

As they age chickens develop flavor and texture. The hormones of puberty greatly accelerate a cockerel developing that flavor and texture, pullets not so much. The girls will develop both as they age but it's a lot more gradual. Many people just butcher the boys and not the girls so a lot of the rules of thumb are only about boys.

The older they get the more you need to take into account how you prepare and cook them. Generally the older they are the slower (lower temperature) and the more moisture you need to cook them. The exception to this is a pressure cooker, these get hot and still cook the meat off of the bones. A one year old girl is probably going to be a lot like a 6 month old boy. I would not try to fry, grill, or broil them. You can bake them, use a crock pot, make soup or stew (don't bring to a full boil), or maybe smoke them or grind them into sausage.

I don't know what you marinaded her in or for how long. The acid in a marinade breaks down fiber and reduces toughness. Your marinade probably saved her from being a lot tougher.

 

[Brooks_]

Rigor mortis is not going to be a factor if you cooked her before it sets up

While the topic is fresh, what kind of time frame between dispatch and rigor?

 

[Ridgerunner]

While the topic is fresh, what kind of time frame between dispatch and rigor?

If you do an internet search on the topic you'll see it depends some on the temperature and maybe some other things, just like some take longer for rigor to pass than others. You are talking about a very few hours at most.

 

[Molpet]

While the topic is fresh, what kind of time frame between dispatch and rigor?

I read somewhere rigor starts half hour for chicken and an hour for turkey. I am slow but one day I got one done in half hour. Unfortunately I didn't have a pot ready so by the time it got up to cooking temp rigor was halfway and bird was tough. But not as bad as full rigor.

 

[K0k0shka]

Let's get some context here - the meat was tough, compared to what? To a younger backyard chicken? To a store-bought broiler? Was this your first time cooking/eating a backyard chicken? What are you comparing her to? You can't compare your own chickens to what you buy at the store. Mass-produced American chicken is a beast of its own - intentionally bred to put on meat extremely quickly, and be butchered extremely young, having lived an extremely immobile life. That makes for extra tender meat that's very hard to match. The extremely young age and the lack of movement during its short life is what makes the meat tender. So, unless you have the same breed of broiler, raise them in the same conditions, and cull them at the same age, it's not fair to compare your meat to the store's meat. Yours will always be tougher, no matter what you do. Homegrown meat just is. But it's SO much more flavorful! To me, it's totally worth it. Just gotta know how to cook it, especially if it's an older bird. She would've been better in the pressure cooker.