They're pretty gross (ie chewy and tough) if you try roasting, grilling, or frying them. But chicken and dumplings, soups, and stews have all been traditionally made with old spent hens. We pressure cook ours to make a broth, pick the carcasses clean, and can the meat. We've also crock potted old hens and shredded the meat for awesome chicken tacos. Tonight's dinner was chicken and gnnochi soup (I googled the recipe, I think the one I used made mention that it was similar to the Olive Garden soup of the same name) made with canned spent hen and was pretty darn good. This soup also freezes and reheats well (tonight's was a portion that I pulled out of the freezer and thawed on the stovetop for a quick meal). If you can the meat after making broth it tends to be really stringy in texture (or at least mine does) so may be better suited for things like chicken and noodles, chicken and dumplings, and chicken enchiladas which call for a pulled/shredded chicken type consistency.