What do you do with.....

[sonjab314]

the spare parts? After you clean the chicken, what do you do with their insides and feet, and heads....the parts that are not useable?

 

[lorieMN]

feed it to my dogs

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Insides= dogs

Heads & feet= bury in the compost heap

 

[Illia]

Heads - Let the cats play with and eat.

Feet - Parts of the legs and feet are good for chicken stock, the rest can be thrown out.

Insides - If the dogs or cats won't eat it, I throw it out to decompose. Surprisingly it does not attract predators out here.

 

[sonjab314]

So you can compost it? I dont have any outside dogs or cats to feed the leftovers to. I was worried about attracting predators with the blood scent.

 

[Red&Yellow]

I'm too lazy to compost, so the intestines go in the trash. But the necks are saved for crabbing, the feet and heads are thrown to the dog, the reproductive organs, heart, gizzard, liver, kidney, and something else that is edible whose name escapes me goes into a pot for the dog. The resulting stock also goes into the dog's kibble. Yes, she is spoiled

 

[lorieMN]

Quote:
OMG!!! feed the heads and feet to them also,,the brains are wonderful for them and the feet are full of (I know im going to spell it wrong) glocosumine..cleans up the teeth very nicely too,if you have enough of them.

 

[HEChicken]

Are you kidding? There are non useable parts?

Seriously, the feet make the absolute BEST chicken stock you will EVER find. What I do is blanch the feet for 1-2 minutes in boiling water so that the skin peels off. Its just like pulling off a sock at that point. Once the skin is off, I add them to a pot of boiling water, with a few carrots and celery and simmer for an hour or so. Cool and pour into jars to freeze or refrigerate. I kid you not - it will be hard to go back to regular chicken stock after you've tried this.

The heads - I do the same, except for the blanching part.

For both feet and heads, after they've simmered, I give the remainder to the pets. The dogs get the feet. The chickens get the heads

The insides? Well, it depends if you are talking organ meat or intestines. The first time I processed, I cooked up the intestines and fed to the dogs. They didn't mind, but the smell was pretty rank so last time I tossed them. I'd be willing to cook them up on an outside burner though, if I had one. The organ meats can be eaten - either by people or pets. The gonads are a delicacy (ever hear of rocky mountain oysters?) while both the chickens and the dogs will be happy to eat liver, kidneys, heart, brain etc.

The gizzard is actually a delicacy, a pricey dish in fancy restaurants. Google how to cook it in a sauce that makes it zing. Yum!

The ONLY part of the chicken I threw away was the feathers. And I even felt guilty about that, thinking I should dry them out and make a pillow or quill or something.

 

[DianeS]

The last time I processed I tried to use every piece I could.

Feathers - compost
Blood - compost and yard fertilizer
Feet - stock
Heart/liver/kidneys/neck - boiled for eating (I remove the neck bones after the meat is boiled)
Crop and gizzard - back to the other chickens (because they're full of food that hasn't been digested yet)
Windpipe type thing - dog ate it

I threw away the intestines because I couldn't figure out a way to make them edible, and I threw away the head because the dog wouldn't eat it - the feathers kept weirding her out but I wasn't going to take the time to pluck or skin it.

 

[draye]

Feed to the dog and cats around the place.
But timethis family is though with a chicken about all that's left is the inside, I guess we could clean those out and make some link sausage out of them.