whole versus cut up chicken in the freezer

[Beau coop]

Does anyone process their birds and cut them up in to:
breasts, thighs, drums and wings instead of leaving them whole?

Does this pose any problems in being stringy or not being tender?

 

[jaku]

Quote:
I do some both ways. No problems.

 

[willheveland]

Another nice thing about going to your processor is that most can half them for you.Mine charges $.25 each bird.It saves a ton of space in your freezer without that body cavity.My most recent batch I had to use a different guy.He doesn't have a bandsaw,so I got whole birds.Doesn't make the meat any different just packs away different. Will

 

[Brunty_Farms]

I cut mine in half as well. They stack flat and you can fit twice as many in your freezer....

 

[Acre of Blessings]

Quote:
For the first 20 that we have processed.....we cut 10 of them in half and cut the other 10 into pieces (breast, thigh, leg, wing). Either way they are still delicious.

I battered and fried some of the cut up one and all I can say is ........ YUMMY!!!

Let us know how they taste for you.

ETA: Make sure you wrap them well so they don't get freezer burn. I wrapped ours with wax paper or freezer paper, then I wrapped that in suran wrap, then I put that into a clear storage bag (sucking all air out), then I put that bag into a blue Glad Freezer bag (suck all air out). Some may say that this is to extreme, but when you spend all that time and money to raise your own meat....you don't want it to ruin. Just a thought.

 

[becky3086]

I am thinking when I get mine this year I will do cut up chicken mostly since that is the way we like it. Boneless skinless for the breasts but skin on for the thighs and wings.
Becky

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

I do them the way I want them to cook, it makes no change in the meat. So I have some whole for roasting, some in pieces for eating that way. For sure the pieces or even just halves fit the freezer way better.

Same with turkeys, I do quite a bit of ground turkey to use instead of hamburger at times, and some in halves or pieces and some whole.

When I piece mine I do boneless skinless for even more space save, because we eat it that way, and I have dogs that get raw bones and they have their own old freezer in the barn.

 

[ninjapoodles]

You can also spatchcock them, which is what I actually prefer even when cooking a whole chicken. Makes it really easy to cook on the grill, too.

You can store a spatchcocked bird really flat. You remove the back/neck in the process, so can store those separately to save for stock (or to feed to poodles, in our case). You also pop out the keel bone.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
April, I have lots of questions about ground turkey, because we are really wanting to put up a lot of that next time we butcher! My main issue is how to get all the dark meat off the carcass, especially from the legs, since there's so much sinew/tendon in our Narris' legs.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

I keep telling my wife that turkey was never meant to be gorund and used in place of ground beef.