Ok! I am at work.
Pay attention to the sizes and ages. We have been seriously messed up by the Monster chickens sold in the stores!
Rediscovering Traditional Meats from Historic Chicken Breeds
By Gina Bisco
The chicken meat most of us take for granted today is quite different from what our grandparents
experienced. ...
The traditional broiler age range was from 7 to 12 weeks, and carcass weight from 1 to 2 1/2 lbs. (Squab broilers would be youngest and
smallest of these, typically Leghorn cockerels about 3/4 to 1 pound dressed.) The next age and weight group
was called the fryer. Traditional fryer age range was from 14 to 20 weeks, and carcass weight from 2 1/2 to 4
lbs. Traditional roaster age range was from 5 to 12 months, and carcass weight from 4 to 8 pounds. Most
roasters were butchered between 6 and 9 months. Hens and roosters 12 months and older were called “fowl” or
“stewing fowl” signifying that slow moist cooking methods were required.
...
Even though modern product labels and modern cookbooks still use the terms broiler, fryer and
roaster, these traditional meat classes no longer apply to the modern “meat line” chickens because of their
extremely fast growth rate. The modern “meat line” chickens grow so fast that all sizes, even the largest size,
are butchered before they are old enough to be classified as traditional fryers....