Skinless chicken

[crooked stripe]

If I decide to skin instead of pluck my birds how much flavor will be lost? I have a roo that has to go and was going to butcher him. After thinking of all the things I will have to do it would much easier to just skin. If the flavor will not be there I might try to rehome him. The slaughter of a bird when it is this hot can't be a good experience. I know in wild game it is not bad but it is colder. How about some input. John

 

[hdchic]

Although I've read that skinning can lose some flavor, I remember my grandmother skinning a roo then boiling it with lots of veggies. She boiled the meat off the bone, then boiled the bones again for more flavor. Just a thought.

 

[MissPrissy]

If it is a rooster over 12 or so weeks old you'll want to stew him. He will be too tough to roast or fry. In that case the skin won't matter. You can make very good stock from just the meat and bones when you slow cook him in a crockpot.

I have found it doesn't take any more time to pluck or skin. Just a personal preference for many cooks. I do both.

Your rooster will not taste like a chicken from the grocery store. Those grocery store birds are flavorless compared to your rooster. Some people are not expecting that. The texture of the meat will be different as well. A grocery store broiler is only about 5 - 6 weeks old and most of them have been injected with brine to make the meat more plumb and softer. You will have a firm meated bird with tons of flavor. Save the bones and make yourself some really good stock for use later in other cooking needs.

 

[crooked stripe]

I was looking from the point of view of setting up the scalding pot ,scalding, then plucking. Having all the feathers to pick up then clean up. With just one bird it would take just a small amount of time to skin. I can skin out a squirrel or rabbit in no time. There can't be much different between them. Can there? John

 

[MissPrissy]

No, not much difference at all.

 

[Run-A-Muck Ranch]

When we butchered chickens for the last 2 years now, there are a few that I had taken the skin off....

Honestly I didn't notice any taste difference at all...
I didn't notice any flavor loss, or cooking difference.

JMO:
Maybe it has to do with the ways it's cooked to find a diffference. But I have cooked chicken 101 different ways, and notice no difference at all between skinned or not skinned, hens or roosters.

The only thing I seen and it could of been our bags and or my freezer, but the ones that were skinned seemed to have a few freezer crystals on them. Nothing major, but more so than the ones that were left with the skin on...

EDITED TO ADD: I am only comparing my chickens NOT the ones you get in the stores....

 

[dacjohns]

Quote:
Took care of 9 birds today and did both ways, skinning and plucking. Plucking can be time consuming but when I skinned the birds that skin on the wings gave me a dickens of a time.

 

[Promiselandfarm]

I like to skin because I can not stand the smell of a chicken being plucked. The skin has fat so if you are reducing fat take the skin off.

 

[yotetrapper]

Missprissy, my question for you is this: I have some roos right at 12 weeks old now. But they're tiny... not yet half chicken size. Kill them now if I want anything other than soup?

 

[BettyR]

I prefer mine skinned unless I’m planning to bake the whole bird. Almost all my recipes are stewing recipes and I prefer to have the skin off for that.