Pro's and Con's, Breed Choice

[Natalijaasbj]

Glad you are doing the recipe - hope you will like it ! (Don't forget to put skin and bones back in the crock pot and make a stock

 

[LindaB220]

I have been raising DP Heritage birds and have also done Cornish Cross and Freedom Rangers. My opinion is that out of all of them I like the Heritage DP breeds the best. I raise Silver Gray Dorking, Australorp, and Brahmas for my meat birds so the ones I get each year may be purebreds or they may be any combination of the above breeds. I keep my Brahmas in one coop with two Brahma roosters, and keep the Dorkings and Australorps in another with two Dorking roosters. They are primarily what we eat here.

The Cornish Cross we raised were better than store bought definitely but I agree with the OP and others who have stated the meat was bland and soft. I also didn't like raising them as they ate and ate and when they ran out of food they would break out of their pen and go after the layers foods or the eggs or anything else that wasn't nailed down. I guess this means they are good foragers but they don't forage like my layers do.

The Freedom Rangers grow a little slower and taste about the same as the Cornish Cross do but I had the same problems with them as I do with the Cornish Cross. They would eat all the food and then go after anything that wasn't locked up. So eggs, chicks, human legs were all easy targets. Others have said that they are friendly and easy going. That wasn't my experience. They were free range from the time they were large enough that my other chickens wouldn't kill them so it wasn't that I was keeping them penned up or not giving them enough. I was going through a 50lb bag of food every 2 days if not more.

The Heritage birds are much calmer in my opinion. I can run the ones I am going to be eating right with my layers and they are mellow and easy going. They have access to fruit trees as well as bugs and pastures for grains and grasses and they go out in the morning and always come back with their crops full (and I still get eggs). As far as cooking the heritage birds. I have roasted, grilled, slow cooked, fried etc all my birds (up to 6 months for roasting frying or grilling, up to 2 years for crock pot so far) with no problems. On my grill I do indirect heat so I turn on a burner to the side of the bird and the bird sits out of the direct heat but still gets browned up nicely. Fried chicken I usually brine or soak in milk or yogurt before adding the coating and frying. So far I have not had a tough meal from this. Roasting is lower temp than store bought birds like 275-300 in a closed dutch oven usually with veggies in the bottom and a little fluid of some kind. Skin gets crispy and it tastes wonderful.

It is definitely different cooking Heritage birds than cooking store bought or cornish cross birds. I agree with Natali that you definitely need to look into how to do it before you give it a try. I am not saying that I doubt what others are saying I can only tell you what I have experienced so far with the birds I have had. Maybe it's the breeds I am using or how I prep them ahead of time, I am not sure but so far I have had no complaints from the family that their meat has been tough, bad tasting or inedible in any way.

I was just going to chime in that nobody had mentioned the best tasting bird ever, the Dorking. And here you are.

They were so good that Julius Caesar brought them to England in AD 46 when he invaded Britain. And later the Dorking was Queen Victoria's favorite bird. What they are especially good for is using to breed other mixes, like the Sussex. This is going to be my 1st breeding experiment. The White Dorking and either a White Plymouth Rock and Light Brahma. I read a lot of old chicken books 1850 and on and several of them have touted the Dorking. I know nothing about the Light Brahma but they seem to think it's the best mix ever. Just saying.

Another thing I'll try to post this link for you on Rare Breeds http://www.albc-usa.etapwss.com/images/uploads/docs/chickenbreedscomparison.pdf
Hope that comes through.
It will bring you to the Livestock Conservancy's site. Click on it. Edited

 

[LindaB220]

One more thought, when you get about ready to process, separate the birds from the rest and keep in a small pen for a couple of weeks. Feed a wet mash of cornmeal and sweet or buttermilk, three or four times a day. (Pancake batter consistancy). Maybe a tablespoon of lard once or twice during this period. Even though they are fat this will give the muscles time to soften up and the excess fat around the rump to redistibute through the muscles. I have read a dozen old books and it was in ALL of them on how to finish the birds. After processing let them rest in the fridge for a day or two to let rigor mortis settle. Then freeze or cook. If you have to freeze first, let defrost in fridge the same amount of time. Hope this helps

 

[yogifink]

What about a breed(s) that has a fair amount of dark meat to it?

 

[LindaB220]

How about some of the American breeds dominiques, plymouth rocks etc. Here's some extra info available:

http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html#d

Good luck

 

[LilyD]

I was just going to chime in that nobody had mentioned the best tasting bird ever, the Dorking. And here you are.

They were so good that Julius Caesar brought them to England in AD 46 when he invaded Britain. And later the Dorking was Queen Victoria's favorite bird. What they are especially good for is using to breed other mixes, like the Sussex. This is going to be my 1st breeding experiment. The White Dorking and either a White Plymouth Rock and Light Brahma. I read a lot of old chicken books 1850 and on and several of them have touted the Dorking. I know nothing about the Light Brahma but they seem to think it's the best mix ever. Just saying.

Another thing I'll try to post this link for you on Rare Breeds http://www.albc-usa.etapwss.com/images/uploads/docs/chickenbreedscomparison.pdf
Hope that comes through.
It will bring you to the Livestock Conservancy's site. Click on it. Edited

This was my first year eating birds we grew. The dorking purebred birds were the best tasting and had more breast meat than the other birds. I also have Light Brahmas and did some Light Brahma and Dorking's crossed and the cross worked wonderfully. The birds were large like the Brahmas but had the meatier breasts of the dorkings as well as a lot of the dark meat like the Brahmas. Best of both worlds in my opinion. I have the Silver Gray Dorking rather than the white and that was the only complaint I had heard. When we processed the birds had black pin feathers in the skin which makes it look less attractive. The birds themselves though, taste amazing. We did the freedom rangers at the same time and hands down the dorking and dorking crosses are the birds that the family prefers to eat.

 

[LindaB220]

Question, on the Brahma-Dorking mix, what color did the skin turn out. People say that the yellow will come through on these but not some others and Americans prefer yellow skins and fat. I've never seen the white skin before so I'm interested in crossing these two and selling them. My market might prefer them.

 

[BCMaraniac]

Glad you are doing the recipe - hope you will like it !

(Don't forget to put skin and bones back in the crock pot and make a stock

Sticky Chicken was outstanding!! I made a slightly spicy glaze with ketchup, honey, brown sugar, lowsodium soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and sriracha sauce to brush over it periodically while it was cooking. I couldn't keep my kids out of it. I made extra sauce, so I am going to bake some chicken with it next time and let the glaze caramelize on the individual pieces.

 

[LilyD]

Question, on the Brahma-Dorking mix, what color did the skin turn out. People say that the yellow will come through on these but not some others and Americans prefer yellow skins and fat. I've never seen the white skin before so I'm interested in crossing these two and selling them. My market might prefer them.

The skin on these birds is yellow so far. On the purebred birds their skin is always white/yellow but they do have the black pin feathers since I am using Silver Gray Dorking, which some people don't like. You were talking about having white dorkings with the Light Brahmas so you probably wouldn't have that problem with white dorkings. The skin looks the same color as the regular chickens but the white meat is definitely more and definitely better tasting in my opinion. The dark meat is darker almost a purple color and is also very good.

 

[Natalijaasbj]

BCMaraniac!
So glad you liked the recipe. I did it with BC Maran - this is the best recipe so far.
My hausband NEVER tasted "real" chicken, so when I did my first roo - I tried Coq a Vin. He did not like it that much. But when I did this one - he loved it. Although I liked Coq a Vin as well. Not everybody likes "French" recipes, though, you know