I thought I would pass on a tip about a cheap way to acquire chickens and process them for delicious meals.
My SIL has made a connection with a egg farmer, who sells us surplus roosters and hens that are no longer productive as layers. We buy them live and slaughter them and then process and can the meat and stock.
We use a turkey fryer to dip the slaughtered birds in boiling water to loosen the feathers. After a rough stripping of the loose feathers, we use a mechanical plucker to remove the remaining feathers. (Duck Naked Plucker from Cabela's). The birds are then gutted and placed in ice water to chill. I save the hearts, livers and gizzards(my SIL will not eat them!) After chilling we cut up the birds and seperate by parts. I get the backs and some legs, he takes the breasts and thighs and remaining drumsticks. We then put the parts in an electric roaster with spices, carots, celery and onion and simmer for 10 to 12 hours.(We each have an electric roaster). The chicken and bones are then removed and the meat seperated from the bones and the meat pressure canned. The stock is then strained and also pressure canned. Last sunday we processed fifteen chickens for which we paid $28. This produced 36 quarts of chicken stock, 22 pints of canned chicken and about a quart combined of cooked livers, hearts and gizzards. It took five roaster fulls to process all this chicken. A pretty good return for a $28 out lay and some hard work.
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