weebiscuit
Well-Known Member
Every year for the last five years we order around 70 meat chickens. Our son and his family live just across the hay field. His wife raises the chicks, feeding and watering them, and then my husband and finish the job. We take them to an Amish family and they butcher and clean them for $1.25 a bird.
So Monday morning we had to get up at 5 AM in order to get our dogs fed and outside to do their thing, then get all the horses out of the barn and into their pastures, and drive the half hour to the Yoder home with 32 chickens. while they butcher them, my husband and I drive five miles into town for breakfast. Back home by 9:30 and put four chickens in the big Nesco roaster and three into DIL'S smaller roaster. While they are cooking we wash and freeze the rest of them. I debone them after they're cooked, then put about a pound of meat into each bag and vacuum seal them.
Tuesday morning, another 32 chickens are carted off, but on this particular day I had to cook a stinkin' FIFTEEN chickens! My DIL wanted a lot of cooked meat in handy bags as well. What a chore! Husband helped debone them all. I used all the bones and fat and other stuff to make chicken stock in the two roasting pans, adding celery, carrots, onion and garlic. But before I put the chicken scraps in, I fried them all to give the stock a nice rich brown color.
The stock finished, and was very concentrated, which was what I wanted. It went into the fridge for the fat to rise to the top. On Wednesday I skimmed off the fat, and added 1 cup water to each cup concentrated stock. It was absolutely DELICIOUS! Honestly, so much better than anything I've ever had from a store! I pressure canned 24 quarts and 14 pints.
Uh... do you have any idea how long that took? Waiting for the canner to come up to pressure, processing for 25 minutes, then waiting 45 minutes for the pressure to drop when done! But this stuff is so good! All I'll have to do is add noodles or rice, cooked chicken and veggies and we'll have a quick delicious soup all winter long!And of course I'll use it in cooking and for gravies.
Raising chickens is NOT cheap! But our chickens all dressed out at between 5.5 and 6.5 pounds, so they are big birds, but just absolutely tender and so healthy!
So Monday morning we had to get up at 5 AM in order to get our dogs fed and outside to do their thing, then get all the horses out of the barn and into their pastures, and drive the half hour to the Yoder home with 32 chickens. while they butcher them, my husband and I drive five miles into town for breakfast. Back home by 9:30 and put four chickens in the big Nesco roaster and three into DIL'S smaller roaster. While they are cooking we wash and freeze the rest of them. I debone them after they're cooked, then put about a pound of meat into each bag and vacuum seal them.
Tuesday morning, another 32 chickens are carted off, but on this particular day I had to cook a stinkin' FIFTEEN chickens! My DIL wanted a lot of cooked meat in handy bags as well. What a chore! Husband helped debone them all. I used all the bones and fat and other stuff to make chicken stock in the two roasting pans, adding celery, carrots, onion and garlic. But before I put the chicken scraps in, I fried them all to give the stock a nice rich brown color.
The stock finished, and was very concentrated, which was what I wanted. It went into the fridge for the fat to rise to the top. On Wednesday I skimmed off the fat, and added 1 cup water to each cup concentrated stock. It was absolutely DELICIOUS! Honestly, so much better than anything I've ever had from a store! I pressure canned 24 quarts and 14 pints.
Uh... do you have any idea how long that took? Waiting for the canner to come up to pressure, processing for 25 minutes, then waiting 45 minutes for the pressure to drop when done! But this stuff is so good! All I'll have to do is add noodles or rice, cooked chicken and veggies and we'll have a quick delicious soup all winter long!And of course I'll use it in cooking and for gravies.
Raising chickens is NOT cheap! But our chickens all dressed out at between 5.5 and 6.5 pounds, so they are big birds, but just absolutely tender and so healthy!
