field dress chicken

Hi Guys well I'm off work again and thinking more and more seriously about harvesting a chicken so I don't have to pay the big bucks for organic chicken meat at whole foods.

My one concern is I've never field dressed a chicken and was wondering if anybody can offer some tips.

Probably the hardest thing would be removing the feathers. Anybody know any tips or techniques for fast and easy dressing.

Thanks a bunch

was up timmy the best way to get all the fethers off is to put the whole chicken in boiling hot water only dunk it fast kine no leave um too long so the thing cook but blanch um fast kine then just pull them off they just come right off with out yanking um like crazy and feathers go everywhere try this see if work

aliihuntas wrote:was up timmy the best way to get all the fethers off is to put the whole chicken in boiling hot water only dunk it fast kine no leave um too long so the thing cook but blanch um fast kine then just pull them off they just come right off with out yanking um like crazy and feathers go everywhere try this see if work

x2

I don't even bother with that. Take a fillet knife and slit the skin on the belly below the breast. Then slit the skin straight up to the crop on the neck and peel back each side towards the wing. Then fillet the 2 sides of the breast meat off the bone. You end up with 2 boneless reast fillets for a minute or two of work. I don't bother with the drumsticks or wings, because not too much meat anyway.

Just be careful about how you get your chickens. A couple years ago, I was renting a room in a house. There were choke wild chickens in the yard all the time. The landlord and upstairs tenent had put in a garden, spent about $500 on seed and such, and these chickens tore it all up. So they asked me to kill the chickens with my bow. I planned to eat them anyway, so I let arrows fly, being always careful to make sure it was a safe shot in case I missed. I harvested 9 chickens over a couple weeks using broadheads, when I decided to try a blunt--the one that has prongs to catch the arrow in the grass. I figured it would be safer if I miss. First bird I shot with it, the arrow sticks in it, and it ran off into the neighbor's yard and disappeared. the next day the Humane Society showed up. The neighbor below had complained. They claimed they were harvesting the eggs of the wild chickens I was shooting. The animal control officer threatened me with animal cruelty charges, but since they couldn't find the arrow or the chicken they had no proof. I told them that I was harvesting the animals to eat, not for sport or something, and that they were nuisance animals, tearing up the garden and crowng all day long. Also all the ones I killed were on my landlord's property, and I had been asked to remove the chickens, and had written permission. The animal control officer then said I couldn't shoot them with a bow as it was cruel, but I pointed out that archery is a legal hunting method and I am a licensed hunter. Then the officer said he wasn't sure if it was legal for me to shoot inside city limits. I asked him to show me an ordinace prohibiting it. In the end the Humane society said they decided not to press charges because I was eating them, but that I had to find a different way to harvest them. They suggested that I trap them, and offered to rent me a wire box trap, and also said they would take the chickens I caught if I didn't want to kill them. I didn't bother, but I stopped shooting them with my bow, since I didn't need the hassle.

how does the free ranging chickens taste.

Funny thing......da buggah taste just like CHICKEN!!!!!! nah, taste good. Just don't over-cook it or it get tough.....I slipped some in with some store-bought chicken and my wife couldn't tell which was which...