Tough meat chickens

[Chikenux]

Hello Everyone,
I harvested my first 25 Cornish X this week. My Cornish X are about 8-9 weeks old when they got harvested. My question is why are these chickens tough when I cooked them? these are the same breed the grocery has.

 

[Tre3hugger]

Did you allow them to rest before freezing, giving riga mortis tgime to run its course?

 

[Chikenux]

Did you allow them to rest before freezing, giving riga mortis tgime to run its course?

yes we put them in a chill tank after cleaning the guts out

 

[Isadora]

yes we put them in a chill tank after cleaning the guts out

How many hours did they rest? Typically tough meat for birds that young is they were not given sufficient time to rest.

 

[Chikenux]

How many hours did they rest? Typically tough meat for birds that young is they were not given sufficient time to rest.

about 2 hours of cleaning the equipment so 2 hours

 

[Isadora]

about 2 hours of cleaning the equipment so 2 hours

It needs between 24 to 48 hours of rest time after butchering. If you've already frozen it, you can do the rest period in the fridge before you cook it. A little more inconvenient and requires some pre-planning as far as cooking, but it will have the desired effect of a more tender meat.

 

[Molpet]

Yes Rest until the joints move freely. At least 24hrs .... otherwise I thought I was eating rubber bands. I like to rest them a few days.
If you can get them cooking before a half hour of death, rigor mortis hasn't started yet. I am not that quick.