Tired of the bustle of the city, many people move to live closer to nature and buy a house in the village or cottage. Over time, having mastered all the tricks of growing various crops in their personal plot, they begin to think about how to provide the family with environmentally friendly food products of not only plant but also animal origin. Simply put, they decide to fatten chickens, ducks and rabbits to get homemade meat. Usually the first test as a farmer begins with growing young broilers. Their meat is very tender, tasty and precocious (no more than 60 days are required to gain weight up to three kilograms). But many, not yet quite experienced “chicken houses” do not fully know how to properly chop chicken. Of course, an experienced adviser will not interfere in this matter. But what should you do if you still had to face the future “tobacco chicken” face to face? In this article you will find useful tips on how to chop chicken. Photos of all stages will help you with this. Follow the directions and you will get carefully pinched and gutted poultry carcasses .
How to chop chicken. Stage one: from fishing to scalding
1. The bird that you plan to chop for meat is usually not fed on the evening of the previous day. This is necessary so that the goiter and the insides are not filled.
2. Select the largest individuals. If the bird is young, try not to damage the wings when fishing, as the cartilaginous tissue is very delicate and you can easily rotate the limbs. Such a carcass will no longer be “first-class”.
3. For convenience, make a special device during the moment of chopping off the head. To do this, roll a dense tin with a funnel, leaving a hole with a diameter of 5-6 cm. By lowering the chicken there, you can easily cut off the chicken head with an ax .
4. After all the blood comes off the carcass, and it stops convulsing (after 15-20 minutes), proceed to scalding. Bring the water to a boil, while the temperature should not be above 80 degrees. Otherwise, pieces of skin may peel off the chicken. Take the carcass and, holding one paw, dip in hot water for one and a half to two minutes.
How to chop chicken. Stage two: from plucking to searing carcasses
- Pull the skin around the neck and tie it with a cord.
- Remove feathers from the chicken, placing it on the table with its paws in itself. Move, grabbing a small beam, from top to bottom.
- Use special care to pinch delicate wings.
- Singe the naked carcass of the chicken using a burner (or above the gas stove burner). This is necessary to remove excess thin hairs.
How to chop chicken. Stage Three: Gutting
- Remove the thread from the neck and, after making a small incision, remove the goiter, trying to stretch the esophagus and the tube going to the lungs. Act with a sharp knife.
- Cut off the legs while moving along the phalanges.
- The abdomen is cut transversely from leg to leg above the posterior opening. Try not to damage the intestines, so as not to smear the meat.
- Remove the chicken entrails by grabbing it with your hand, while trying not to tear or pull strongly so as not to damage the gallbladder located near the liver.
- Cut off the stomach, heart and liver, with which you cut off, a little indentation, a dark green sac. If you suddenly crush it, you need to very quickly rinse all the insides of the chicken with a stream of cold water so that the meat does not bitter from the bile that has fallen on it. The stomach is cut across into two fleshy halves. Use a knife to scrape off the thick yellow film with the rest of the feed.
- With your hand or special device inside the chicken, remove the esophagus, lungs, and gut.
How to chop chicken. Stage Four: from washing to packaging for storage
- Wash the chicken well first with hot and then cold water.
- After draining the liquid, place the carcass in a plastic bag, and then in the freezer.
But still, the most common use case for a finished chopped bird is not freezing “until better times,” but roasting in the oven!