utilizing whole chicken at slaughter? rec reading?

[Ridgerunner]

The legs, thighs, breasts, and wishbones are mine for meals. The wings, back, neck, gizzard, heart, and feet are for stock. If I pluck instead of skin, I take the skin off the pieces I keep and add that to the stock. The dogs get the livers. The rest gets buried in my orchard. It will soon decompose and feed my trees. The poop goes in the compost pile.

After I make stock, the meat gets picked from those bones, or more accurately, the meat has mostly cooked off the bones and gets separated from the debris. I usually eat the heart and gizzard while picking the meat out of the debris. That cooked meat is great for chicken salad, tacos, or casseroles. The vegetables that are cooked to make the stock goes in my compost pile, which really means the chickens get them.

Hint: to clean the feet, scald them in really hot water for about 45 seconds. Grab the spurs and twist. The cover comes right off. The scales will peel off very easily. Very clean feet with almost no effort.

To clean the gizzard, split it open and take the grit and food out. Rinse well. Many people pull that tough membrane on the inside off, but I usually don't bother.

 

[2overeasy]

Ha! First, for clarification, I am a "her." And I have 5 dogs - always hungry!

 

[feathersnuggles]

About chicken heads... it's used in stock or soup-making all over the world. For example, Chinese do and many countries in Latin Am. I've eaten in a few well-to-do homes in Latin Am. and they serve chicken soup with heads, and have done so for generations.

Compare this. Until less than a decade ago in the US, it was almost unheard of to use chicken feet for stock-making. Feet were thrown away during processing. Approximately 5 years ago, I asked farmers at our farmers market to start saving the chicken feet and bring them to market for sale. They collectively said, "WHAAAAT? Chicken feet? they're dirty and no one will use them!" Fast forward a few years, last week at our market, they sold out of chicken feet.

Just sayin... From Ick to Yum.

 

[Renee']

Quote:
Why throw away the water that you boiled the parts in? I always use that water to make the rice with, it just adds more flavor to the rice. Then I mix in the picked meat, portion it out and freeze it that way.

Good idea, I'll do that this year. Thank you.

 

[Renee']

I used Frugal's steps as my guide for my processing.

Scoll down a ways and you'll see great pictures of cleaning a gizzard.

Here is a link to Frugal's guide:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=109583

 

[2overeasy]

So what if a bird just dies, and you don't know why - and we all know it happens every once in a while. Just a few weeks ago I found one of my young ones (about 6 months old) dead in the coop. It happened in the middle of the day because she wasn't there when I let them out in the morning. I just got rid of the body. however, is there something I could have done with her? Even just burying the whole body?

 

[EggsForIHOP]

Around here cases of "cause of death unknown" become coyote/buzzard sacrifice - left WAY out in the woods, back corner of the property. Or if I find it stiff, but NOT bloated, then I may skin it, gut it, and give it to the dogs raw. I have a puppy that INSISTS on still eating feathers and intestines - don't kiss that dog, you don't know what he's had in his mouth! But the others are more discriminating...one loves the feet/heads - another only wants meaty parts and our shar pei will only eat it boiled and boneless...go figure...but usually, if IDK what happened...I call it a sacrifice and leave it in the woods - though if you don't have woods, burial is a good idea too I suppose ... decomposing into fertilizer I guess that way?

 

[2overeasy]

You know, when I processed 2 the other day, I gave the livers, hearts, and necks to my dogs in their feed bowls and they wouldn't eat them! Is that weird or unusual?
And wouldn't giving the dead chicken as a "sacrifice" encourage the predator to come around for live ones? I'm thinking of hawks, actually. Coyotes can't get on my property as the whole farm is completely fenced...

 

[EggsForIHOP]

I'm sure on a smaller place it would...but we are lucky enough to have 10 acres...that far back corner is just wooded and not used at this time besides to ride through occasionally...even the LGDs don't go out there much, and they are free to roam the whole thing...but with them...nothing comes up close to the critters anyways...and I have all the animals closest to the house for ease in feeding and so I can always see them...I'm weird, I know...but I'm not digging a hole if I can avoid it...and out here we don't have normal trash service - so I have to do something and would prefer a carcass FAR from the house as can be...not everyone has that luxury, but they probably do have a trash company that comes by once or twice a week, we don't (and with the drought we can't burn either...which really sucks...) It's just an option for those with the space and nowhere else for it to go that doesn't include the digging of any holes (I hate to dig holes, rather run fencing or muck stalls than dig holes).

It's not weird they wouldn't eat it - like I said, I have one dog that won't...if her stuff ain't cooked to perfection, deboned, and practically seasoned perfectly she just sits at the dish and looks at me like I've lost my mind...and the puppy...well...he's like Mikey from the cereal commercial - he'll eat anything...the LGDs fall in between in their pickiness...even dogs have stuff they prefer like people do

I know it took a while to even get the shar pei to eat "people food" because she had been on store bought dog food for 5 years and I didn't give her scraps...she did change her mind a little...still wants it cooked though...give the dogs some time, or even try boiling it first. it doesn't have to be pan seared or roasted...just boil it til done and they might go for it.

We eat the livers fried with gravy and sauteed onions over rice tho - the dogs don't get those - and DH sometimes cooks and then grinds other stuff to make his special "poor mans dirty rice" with as he calls it...liver, gizzard, heart...it all goes in and comes out pretty good and run through a meat grinder it's what I call "chicken dust" and not chewy or tough- if he has a bunch of his dirty rice left over, he'll stuff that into a casing and smoke it and then he calls it "poor mans boudin"...usually all the dogs are lucky enough to get is feet and heads unless I'm getting tired or I need it for the homemade dog food for the pei - that's a specific recipe we follow and I do give her some special treatment...in a normal year, feathers and intestines go in the burn pile downwind of the house - that's how I usually remove the "evidence" to detour predators...this years burn ban has required I change up my game plan though...

 

[Tracydr]

How do I process the fat and what do I do with it? Can I use it for pie crust?