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| Chicken! It's what's for dinner. |
Raising chickens for meat is not a huge money saving endeavor. You aren't going to raise it much cheaper than a large-scale poultry producer. What you gain is freshness, knowledge that the chickens were treated well and fed what you want them to eat, and meat without anything added during packaging. The chicken pictured above was grown by me, never frozen, and went from the pen to the plate in less than 24 hours.
Here's a quick breakdown of my recent costs:
| Item | Units | Cost per Unit | Total |
| Chicks | 15 | $2.00 | $30.00 |
| Bags of Feed | 4 | $9.00 | $36.00 |
| Bag of Pine Shavings | 1 | $5.00 | $5.00 |
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| Total | $71.00 |
That $71.00 raised 30 boneless-skinless breasts, 30 chicken tenders, 30 wings, 30 thighs, 30 drumsticks, 15 livers, 15 gizzards, and 15 hearts. This doesn't take into account my time (six weeks) or things I reused such as a feeder, waterers, and the space to raise them in.
So you've decided it's worth the effort to raise your own. You've read my posts
HERE and
HERE and now after 6 weeks of raising birds you have full grown chickens. How should you process them out?
The rest of this post contains pictures and descriptions of the humane killing and processing of chickens. If this offends you, do not read further.
The first step is to gather your supplies and set everything up. Hang two pieces of twine 18" from each other from something like a horizontal tree branch. Cut them off and tie a
slip knot at the end of each one so that the chicken will hang at chest level. You will also need a sharp, thin bladed knife, a box cutter with new blade, an ice chest or large bowl with ice, baggies, and a hose with sprayer nozzle. I prefer to wear gloves while processing, but it's not necessary if you wash your hands well.
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| Two chickens hung for processing |
My prefered method of humanly killing chickens is to hang them up and bleed them out. It's relatively painfree and the easier on the butcher than
cervical dislocation or a chopping block. It removes the blood from the meat and keeps the bird calm. A calm bird is the key to a good quality meat.
To bleed a bird out, hang them by their legs and pluck a few feathers from the neck near the head as seen above. Pull the skin tight between your fingers. You will see the dark blue jugular vein running along side the trachea. Sever that with a sharp knife (I prefer the point of a box cutter). Be careful not to cut into the trachea as that will upset the bird and prevent a good, calm bleed. Step back and wait for 3-4 minutes. When no more blood drips from the bird and it is still, it is ready to process. Be prepared for the bird to flap its wings for a few seconds at the very end. This is normal and just a nerve reaction.
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| Skin pulled off of the breast |
At this point the bird can either be plucked or skinned. Plucking takes a lot of time and effort and we don't eat the skin anyway, so we skin the birds. It's a much quicker process. If you want to pluck,
HERE is how to do it.
To skin the bird, start by making a small incision at the point of the breast bone. Grab that incision and pull downward to peel the skin off and expose the breast as seen above.
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| One boneless, skinless breast removed |
Using the sharp, thin bladed knife, slice along the sternum. Then peel the breast off, cutting it loose close to the ribs as you go. Rinse it off and put it on ice. Repeat for the other side.
A reader (
pixilatedtoo) suggested that leaving the breast meat on the bone until rigor mortis had completed its cycle would result in more tender meat. I did some reading and found
THIS study confirming what she was saying. I now suggest removing the entire breast on the bone and then chilling it for 24 hours before deboning. I would use a set of
kitchen shears to remove the entire structure.
If you want the wings, remove them by dislocating and cutting through the joints. Pluck as described in the link above.
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| Internal organs exposed |
If you want the liver, gizzard, heart, etc., grab the top of the sternum and slowly pull down to expose the internal organs. Even if you don't want these items, they make great fresh pet food so don't waste them if you have pets.
The liver and heart can be pulled out with your fingers. When removing the liver, be careful not to rupture the gallbladder as seen above. If you do, keep the bile off of anything you plan to eat. Once they are out, bag them up and put them on ice.
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| Gizzard pulled out |
To remove the gizzard, cut the two tubes. The contents are anything but sterile, so I suggest using a separate knife to do this cutting. Put it in a baggie on ice for later.
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Skin removed from leg quarter |
All that's left are the leg quarters. Run the knife just under the skin on the inside of the leg and cut up to the knee joint. Pull the skin up and off of the leg as seen above.
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| Removing leg quarter |
Sever the leg through the hip joint.
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| Removing foot |
Remove the foot by cutting through the ankle joint.
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| One chicken on ice |
Rinse and put it on ice.
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| Gizzard cut open |
Because of the nature of a gizzard's contents, wait until you are done with all of the other meat to process these. Cut along the edge of the gizzard until you are halfway around.
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| Gizzard contents |
Remember the gizzard is full of rocks, so don't cut too deep or you will dull your knife.
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| Gizzard cleaned out |
Rinse out the contents of the gizzard.
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| Removing the koilin membrane |
The gizzard has a thick membrane inside to protect it from the rocks inside. This is called the koilin membrane. Peel it off and discard. Rinse the gizzard well and bag it up
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| Ready to freeze |
Once you've become proficient at it, a chicken can be completely disassembled into its parts in about 5 minutes.
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