This year marks the 35th year that I have been hunting, bagging and cleaning game. Catching and cleaning fish has been part of my life for longer still. I have no idea why harvesting and cleaning (we call it dressing) a small farm animal such as a chicken intimidated me for so long. But it did.
However, I had a few free hours this afternoon and I decided to give it a go.
I watched a few yourube videos about harvesting chickens, took copious notes, gathered the materials, selected the bird and had fried chicken for lunch so fresh it still maintained some residual body heat when I dropped him in the grease.
The experience was not nearly bad as I thought it would be. The only part that could have gone better was gutting the bird. The only reason this gave me some minor problems was because this was a kinda-sorta spur of the moment thing, I didn't withhold feed for any length of time. As such the bird's crop was full and that made removing the digestive tract in one piece a bit more difficult but I eventually got it all out without spilling but a tiny amout that spilled on the neck which I then turned into hog food.
As this was my first attempt, I didn't try to save and use everything that could have been. I was just interested in the basic Colonel Sanders cuts for now.
After cleaning and butchering the carcass, I marinated the pieces for a few minutes in buttermilk, seasoned everything with salt and black pepper, dredged it all in plain flour and dropped each bit of hope into ~320 degree grease.
When the thigh hit about 160 degrees, I called the kids. Most were anxious to have their initial experience with home grown chicken. Because of my hesitancy, this particular batch of birds have gone a bit long to be Colonel Sanders tender. It wasnt exteremly tough. Just tougher than it would have been had it been taken in a more timely fashion. However, having said that, in spite of the relative toughness of the meat, twas still the best chicken I've ever eaten. One thing that made it good was the fact that it was bled properly. According to Joel Salatin, improper bleed out of factory processed birds is why there if oftentimes blood that accumulates around those birds. The bird I harvested today had meat that appeared to be perfectly homogenous and of perfect color all the way to the bone.
I look forward to repeating the process.