2. Preparing poultry

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Opportunity knocked today and I decided to let it in.  A friend of mine has poultry, mostly hens, but also a couple of roosters.  One of them has been getting too aggressive and needed a final solution.  This has given me the chance  to practice hands-on a skill my persona would have used regularly on the farm.

So with my husband (a hunter) as backup, I have now gone through the process from rooster to ready-to-roast and am an experience richer:

  1. Definitely an outdoor activity as the feathers want to wander  EVERYWHERE.
  2. Birds should be on water  rations the last 24 hours before slaughter.  That's what I get for reading the book on butchering after I get home.
  3. Feathers are the worst part of the job.  I ended up flaying this bird in the end.


So now I have a 4 1/2 lb bird, and I assume he's not especially tender.  He has the hugest legs have ever seen on a chicken:

 

My son has declared that he wants a chicken pie, so time to go find a  recipe.

(originally posted to LiveJournal October 10, 2010)