Processed my first bird today.

[wherethebuffaloroam]

I just had my first culling experience 2 days ago. We had the same "too randy" excess rooster. After way too much thought, I got the entire process done without a problem. After seeing the size of their cojones in relation to the size of the animal....I can see why a rooster has only one thing on its mind!!

I can definitely see the need to have a well set up system for doing many birds at once. I cant wait to get a batch of meat birds!!

 

[alicefelldown]

3 of 9 potpies fully cooked for eating, the rest are wrapped up in the freezer.

Notice how terrible I am at folding potpies lol! The one in the back? Yea, the boyfriend did that one.

 

[jaku]

Quote:
Wow, I'd like your recipe for those- my wife likes potpies, and since the nasty little frozen ones are literally about the most unhealthy thing one can put near their mouth, I'd love to make them homemade!

 

[alicefelldown]

Cobbled this together from a few different recipes online, made some notes. Really tasty, and each little dish is really filling!

Ingredients:
* 1 sheet frozen puff pastry (hah! we used two boxes of pastry, and had to roll them out to fit all the pans!) (to be fair though, this recipe only calls for pastry on top of a big casserole dish, and we made 9 normal sized potpies, with pastry on the bottoms)
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1 roasted chicken, shredded
* 1/4 cup chopped red (or any color really) sweet pepper
* 2 medium shallots (or onions), thinly sliced
* 1 1/2 cups fresh chopped button mushrooms
* 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon, crushed (we used 1/2 tsp fresh chopped rosemary and 1/2 dried marjoram)
* 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
* 2 cups milk
* 1 cup heavy cream
* 1/3 cup dry white wine
* 1 1/2 cups carrots, blanched
* 2 potatoes, peeled, diced, and boiled
* 1 egg plus 1 tablespoon milk, for egg wash (skipped this step, the girls hardly lay enough to fill outstanding orders!!)

Directions:
1. Thaw puff pastry according to package directions. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
3. Meanwhile, in a large skillet melt butter over medium-high heat. Add chicken, sweet pepper, onions and mushrooms, and cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Stir in flour, salt, (spices), and black pepper. Add milk and cream all at once. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in wine, carrots and potatoes; heat thoroughly.
** Here you can go for the whole giant (and this was giant!) casserole dish or pick up some small potpie foil pans and fill those. If you do go for the potpie pans, cook all of them for about 10 minutes or so, 'till they get a bit of color, and then remove all the ones to be frozen. Let them cool, then vacuum seal or use the lids that came with your pans. **
4. Transfer the hot chicken mixture to a 1 1/2-quart casserole. Place pastry over the hot chicken mixture in casserole dish. Brush puff pastry with egg wash then cut slits in the pastry to allow steam to escape. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 45 minutes.​