We Did Not Rest The Birds for Days - And They Were Wonderful

[becky3086]

Frankly, I don't really think supermarket chicken is a old as everyone makes them out to be. I'm not real speedy in my processing so I think I'll stick to letting them rest in the frig for a couple days. There are enough posts on here about cornish x being tough when this isn't done to make me think it is a good idea.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

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So they did rest for 8 hours.

I've seen varying recommendations in professional literature; 4-8 hours, 4-12 hours, 6-24 hours, etc., it's never more than a day. The fellow who helped you recommended 5 hours.

It seems to get extended here. The usual recommendation is to give it a day, although they probably need less than that. Then there are the folks here who want to be "absolutely sure" and it gets extended to two days, or even three...

 

[yinepu]

i used to work at a commercial processing plant.. the birds are processed and go to a storage area until we had enough to fill the orders.. from there they would go to the main distribution centers for the different stores.. there they are packaged into case lots .. from there they got sorted out and shipped to the regional distribution centers .. some individual stores package their own birds .. some do not.. all depends on where they are going.. however the only birds we packaged individually in house were turkeys and special label birds.. so depending on where they were they would have to be broken back down and packaged for sale

by the time you buy that bird it's a minimum of two weeks old..

 

[LiLRedCV]

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that's an eye opener!

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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To me, that statement is a little scary. A freshly processed bird should keep in the fridge for at least 10 days. I say 10 days because I accidentally let one in the fridge that long once. I opened the bag and it had no unusual smell, so we ate it and it tasted fine.

I can't imagine leaving a chicken in the fridge for 10 days. We usually leave them in a pail of ice cold water until the next morning, then bag and freeze them.

 

[yinepu]

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that's an eye opener!

yup.. i know for a fact that we held some orders there at the plant for at least a week at 45* temps til the orders were filled..
larger orders where little processing was done to the bird went out sooner IF they had bought the birds when they were still in the broiler houses
however the more we had to process it (chicken tenders, legs thighs etc) the longer an order would take to fill... lets say that you ordered 5,000 tenders
but Mr Smith ordered 15,000 whole fryers
and lets say Mr Jones ordered 2,000 leg/thigh/breasts

Mr Smith's order would be filled first since he paid for whole birds and little processing would have to be done
part of your order (2,000 tenders) would be filled when we did the leg/thigh/breast order for Mr Jones.. but we would have to wait until we had enough partial orders in order to fill the rest of your tenders
that may take a day or two.. or it may take a week.. all depends on how many pounds of bird and how the companies wanted it processed

 

[bigredfeather]

I don't appreciate those of you condeming me for eating a bird that's been in the fridge for an extended period of time. Just as i suspected, store bought chickens are left sitting around for an extended period of time. Just because one unknowingly buys chicken from the store that has been stored much longer than 10 days, that doesn't change it's age. Had I opened the bag of the 10 day old and it smelled bad, was discolored, or slimey, I would have pitched it. I see no reason to disgard something that is perfectly fit to eat.

So if the you had one in the fridge that long and it smelled fine, would you throw it away just because it had been sitting that long? Seems wasteful to me. I have complete faith in the cleanliness of the birds I process, and that's where it all starts.

 

[al6517]

I think it's important to keep in mind that if it's the Cornish X that is being processed you have more options available for resting times or even none at all, these birds have been developed over the years for their exceptional meat qualities so resting isn't that big a deal. Now dealing with a non meat bird in your flock or the occasional rooster is something different, these birds tend to be older and of a totaly different texture of meat. So there is that very important variable the type of bird has alot to do with it's table fitness.

 

[KenK]

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That seems like a strong accusation to make about somebody who simply has a different opinion.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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I wouldn't have forgotten it in the fridge in the first place...