Killing a chicken

We have been debating killing one of the cockerels for some time, we have caught different ones a couple of times and felt they were not fat enough to be worth it.

Doug managed to grab one during the day, quite a job as they are frisky fellows and easiest caught at night. We decided he was ready, he didn't feel very fat and his breast bone still stood out, but he felt a decent weight.

We planned on killing him with the killing pliers,

but he didn't agree with this plan. I used them twice and he was still blinking at us and not having his death throes, so we got a stick and put it across his neck and I stepped on while Doug pulled gently on his legs until we could hear his neck give. Then he flapped madly for 20 seconds or so and it was done.

Next we chopped his head off with an axe and let the blood drain in to the compost heap, not much came out perhaps we didn't do it quite quickly enough. Then we dunked him in a big pot of hot water - 60 C - to loosen his feathers. We dunked and shoogled him in the arm water for about 30 seconds - I have read since then that you can test whether you have dunked for long enough by test plucking feathers as you go. However it seems we judged well as plucking wasn't the nightmare I expected. There were a lot of feathers and they stick all over you hands as you go, but the feathers came out easily, even the pin feathers (new feathers growing - they have blood in them and are wrapped in a hard tube which they will eventually break free from) which are notoriously difficult to get out.

After plucking I chopped the feet off then started on the gross parts. First was removing the windpipe and crop then the tricky part of getting the guts out. I read a number of guides for doing this, all were very clear you need to avoid cutting too deep and accidentally chopping through the guts. So I was nervous approaching this bit and it took longer than it will next time. There was actually quite a thick layer of fat to get through before hitting the guts.

Sticking ones hand up the warm and slightly stinky backend of the bird was a bit gross I must say, but needs must and all that.

Once finished I think it looked pretty good, he is thinner than chickens we get in the supermarket with a more prominent breast bone, and much bigger legs. Reading on the internet suggests this is normal for non meat breeds. His weight after processing was 2.1kg.

I stuffed it with chestnut and dried apple stuffing and roasted it. Since then I have read that we should have let him rest for 24 hours before cooking to let the rigor mortise relax resulting in less tough meat. Our result was that the breast was very juicy and tender but the legs were tasty but rather more chewy than they could have been. They reminded me more of game bird.

We are planning on 'doing' one of his friends next week and letting him sit in the fridge for 24 hours after  plucking and gutting. Will update.

We ate his liver fried with left over roast beetroot and carrot. Delicious!

I think that is the heart on the right. In the instructions we we followed there were some gross things about preparing the gizzard (I didn't read closely enough to find out for what...) but I felt I had gone beyond the call of duty already.

A lot of people say something like 'eeew I'm not sure I could' when we talk about killing the chicks we raised from eggs. Before Doug caught this guy I had been fretting about my ability to kill one of them and 'process' him. But in the end it kind of happened so quick I just leapt in to action without thinking too much, Doug caught him, we killed and plucked him together and I gutted and cooked him. The lambs and pigs are easier in some ways as the abattoir deals with it. I wonder what they would say if we turned up with a chicken...

Useful link... and another... some pics a bit gross...