Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[Audio51]

Since chicken is such a mild flavored meat, it takes to seasonings quite well. It really depends on what flavors you like as to what you use. Lemon pepper, sage, tarragon, garlic, onion, salt &pepper, are all good. Not together of course. You could try a bit of experimentation to see what works for you.

I'm not a pepper person, but do love lemon...all the rest sound good too....

I like rosemary and lemon pepper on my chicken...

Seasoning salt is the easiest route to go. Everything already mixed together for your convenience. Or if you need low-sodium one of the Mrs. Dash mixes would work too.

I may have some poultry seasoning...(but it may be ancient). That would be the easiest I think..

Audio-- with a bit of effort the skin can be lifted and the herbs stufed under neath as they often burn while roasting and become bitter. Or stuff into the cavity. I am like you, the simpler the better but with how much chicken we eat now, I have been experiementing now and then.

Perhaps look into how to make your own flavored salts . . . .

I agree on the variety......I ate a lot of chicken even before growing my own. I will have to try the under the skin trick. I also have one of those "flavor injector" things for turkeys I might be albe to make use of.

My favorite way is roasting a whole chicken- lay bird back up in roasting pan, rub with olive oil lightly salt a sprinkle with about 1/4 tsp dried thyme (crush in hands before sprinkling). Turn bird over and do the same to breast side. Finally put small shavings of butter on top of breast meat (about 1/2 Tbs total) and roast in oven for about 2 1/2 hours or until legs move easily in their sockets.

Remove from oven a let rest 10 min before carving.

Delicious! I haven't done older birds this way, but red broilers and cornish Xs with consistent success!

That sounds very easy and very good! I will give this one a try!

Quote: I feel better about having trouble with that then. These were both CX. It has been years but I didn't remember it being that hard with our other birds, but they were just barnyard mixes..

 

[Sally Sunshine]

our roosters are brining in the fridge since Sat night and I am still not happy about it!

OMG DH botched the first old roo, I could have booted him! I ended up having to do it, what a scene!

He slit the throat, NOT, he only slit the skin a bit way down his neck! I was telling him he didnt do it right (BAD MOVE FOR ANY WOMAN RIGHT?) the roo was simply dripping blood, staring at me, very obviously not even close to dying and I refused to stand by for his ego and watch my two year old roo go through his ignorance! I ran into the house for my fillet knife, DH insisted in usuing is pocket knife! (SERIOUSLY I wonder how I keep any respect for this man at ALL!) I swear he had a brain fart! Days before this I went so far as to re-send those two videos on slicing the neck, he said he didnt want to watch them, he knew what he was doing. A pocket knife? OMG The neighbors must have been wondering what the heck was up, I never get loud and ugly but I was furious at him, he stood there telling me I dont know what I am talking about, when it was I who took the time to research and seek out help with this! furious, I dont think I was that mad since my divorce! NOT A GOOD DAY in the Mnts!

SO AGAIN AND AGAIN,
Make sure you have a good knife and KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING AND WHERE TO CUT and not just cut through the thick neck skin!

I forgot to zip tie the legs and bungie him up, so I had to hold legs, this didnt help matters! ughhhhh



I grabbed some info from the summary with the links and videos from this long thread, I am only part of the way through this thread pulling info, but I was glad I did it so I could pull all those articles and links fast! THIS STATEMENT AND LINK is always in OP.....

"A SUMMARY OF THIS THREADS​

LINKS VIDEOS HOW-To's WILL be ADDED to this ARTICLE https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/processing-day-support-group-summary-of-thread for EASY ACCESS, IF I missed adding something you feel should go in the summary PM me and I will add it!" ​

I found more info on actually cutting the neck....

"The next step is often the hardest one for beginners. Pull the bird’s head firmly through the bottom of the killing cone and hold it. Using your sharpest knife, cut just behind where the tendon attaches for the beak and tongue. You’ll feel a hard piece of cartilage behind the jaw attachment. You want to sever the jugular vein and carotid artery. Make a deep, firm slice on both sides of the neck. Pull the head down firmly and allow the blood to drain. At this point, the bird will kick and jerk. Remain calm. This a normal part of the process, although it can be stressful. The bird is unconscious and not aware of anything at this point. When the blood has completely drained and the bird is still, you can move on to the next step." http://smallfarm.about.com/od/farmanimals/ss/processchickens_2.htm


This site has a video CLOSE UP of Slicing the two arteries.....
http://www.hsa.org.uk/POULTRY WEBSITE/Poultry Slaughter Project/PSPSite/Neck Cutting.htm

also the site has a suggestion & video for.....
"Checking Unconsciousness:
It is important to check unconsciousness by the absence of a blink reflex when the cornea (the surface of the eyeball) is touched. Presence of a blink reflex must be acted upon immediately: it may not indicate full consciousness but the return of this reflex after stunning is a sign of some brain function returning and it indicates the possibility that consciousness may also be returning. Do not hesitate to repeat the stun or use a back up method."

it also states "The use of a firearm to slaughter poultry is not safe or practical and is not recommended."

Found a cool link from Hinkjc 's thread! Shows EXACTLY with drawings and images how to skin along with butchering a chicken FAST!

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/grim79.html

The steps we used were......

Withhold feed from eve before, NOT WATER though
Cone with neck slices (see this video

watch how they do the necks two slices) make sure your cone bottom hole is big enough!

let bleed 2+ minutes into a bucket with water so the blood don't clot so you can throw it out with ease
we cut the head off with a hatchet, and wing tips just because!
We had one large trash can with black trash bag for waste of the bird, it fit partially under our table so we could swoosh all feathers and guts into it.
dipped washed swooshed in 5 gal bucket half full of water, one cup ACV, a squirt of dawn and Half cup of bleach (this took the chicken poo stench away immediately)
I had another bucket the same for washing hands and tools
then rinsed with hose and dipped in 150 degree EXACTLY soapy water with again nice size squirt of dawn
Kids counted to 45/60 and when the feathers at the middle leg joint came off easy we put them on the table for easy plucking
we rinsed them with the hose again
and followed that video

for gutting (we didn't quarter so we didn't even need a cutting board)
cleanup with hose and bleach!
I am brining them and cooking all of them right away, no freezing I have some in a 5 gal bucket of water with 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of salt

 

[fisherlady]

Sally, sorry it was a rough session

... I can only imagine the frustration! Thank you for sharing though, because if anyone reads of how upsetting and 'wrong' it can go it will help others avoid the same situation. I know it is so much harder to process your older flock animals also... so double

are in order!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Sally, sorry it was a rough session

... I can only imagine the frustration! Thank you for sharing though, because if anyone reads of how upsetting and 'wrong' it can go it will help others avoid the same situation. I know it is so much harder to process your older flock animals also... so double

are in order!

Thank you, Its done and over with. I thought lesson was learned from the very first roo, I guess I was wrong. He is feeling my wrath so praying it all goes better next time, perhaps I will end up just doing that part, he did the skinning and stuff so it worked out well in the end. I was going to save the skin with feathers to donate, but after that fiasco I just wanted to clean up and forget about it!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Sally, sorry it was a rough session

... I can only imagine the frustration! Thank you for sharing though, because if anyone reads of how upsetting and 'wrong' it can go it will help others avoid the same situation. I know it is so much harder to process your older flock animals also... so double

are in order!

Ditto.

 

[Audio51]

our roosters are brining in the fridge since Sat night and I am still not happy about it!

OMG DH botched the first old roo, I could have booted him! I ended up having to do it, what a scene!

He slit the throat, NOT, he only slit the skin a bit way down his neck! I was telling him he didnt do it right (BAD MOVE FOR ANY WOMAN RIGHT?) the roo was simply dripping blood, staring at me, very obviously not even close to dying and I refused to stand by for his ego and watch my two year old roo go through his ignorance! I ran into the house for my fillet knife, DH insisted in usuing is pocket knife! (SERIOUSLY I wonder how I keep any respect for this man at ALL!) I swear he had a brain fart! Days before this I went so far as to re-send those two videos on slicing the neck, he said he didnt want to watch them, he knew what he was doing. A pocket knife? OMG The neighbors must have been wondering what the heck was up, I never get loud and ugly but I was furious at him, he stood there telling me I dont know what I am talking about, when it was I who took the time to research and seek out help with this! furious, I dont think I was that mad since my divorce! NOT A GOOD DAY in the Mnts!

SO AGAIN AND AGAIN,
Make sure you have a good knife and KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING AND WHERE TO CUT and not just cut through the thick neck skin!

I forgot to zip tie the legs and bungie him up, so I had to hold legs, this didnt help matters! ughhhhh



I grabbed some info from the summary with the links and videos from this long thread, I am only part of the way through this thread pulling info, but I was glad I did it so I could pull all those articles and links fast! THIS STATEMENT AND LINK is always in OP.....

"A SUMMARY OF THIS THREADS​

LINKS VIDEOS HOW-To's WILL be ADDED to this ARTICLE https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/processing-day-support-group-summary-of-thread for EASY ACCESS, IF I missed adding something you feel should go in the summary PM me and I will add it!" ​

Quote:
That part of the process was the one I most feared messing up and, for that reason, I searched the internet for anything that would show me exactly where and how deep to go. I am so sorry you has to go thru that.....especially since you did everything you could to keep it from happening. Hope you never have to deal with anything like that again. Sounds like DH will not soon forget his mistake!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I pray he doesnt, and I am not sure I will trust him again. I am going to keep pulling info for that summary post, I really want to pull all the knife stuff we discussed when we did our first batch, I know everyone gave links and suggestions, just gotta have time to scroll through this long thread!

 

[chicken junky]

Thanks

 

[Happy Chooks]

All of my meaties are done!

We had to do 23 of them and the last ones are resting in the cooler on ice now. What a relief to have them finished!

 

[Crickett]

Hooray for your!!