Since we started on this raising chickens for the table malarkey, we've found it very difficult to buy chicken - even free range, organic. I think we've bought chicken breasts twice this year. So, this means that we don't have chicken for dinner very often.
And when it's one of ours, we do our best to not waste anything.
This week was the first time we had culled one of the new cross (Sasso x Welsh Black). We had high hopes for this, because the Welsh Black mums are half Indian Game, and Indian Game was said to make for a very good table cross.
It really did.
The flavour was very strong without being at all gamey. He was 15 weeks old and dressed out at 4 pounds 3 oz. Looking at him prepped for the oven, I thought about all the farmed chickens who are that size at only 5 weeks old. It made me shudder, and went a bit towards making me feel less miserable at eating a bird I had known personally.
We had roast chicken on Wednesday, and had only one breast betweeen us. The flavour was sfabukous, and we really didn't need anymore.
On Thursday, we used the leg meat to make some gorgeous Fajitas. They were much more delicious than I expected them to be. I've made delicious fajitas with chicken breast before, I was just a bit dubious about using leg meat. This will definitely be my preferred choice for Chicken Day 2 in the future. We were very greedy, and we ate far more than we needed to. This could easily have spread into another pair of meals.
On Friday, I was out, and DH ate the whole of the other chicken breast.
We picked over the remains today while preparing to make stock, and have enough meat to make a chicken pasta bake for dinner tonight.
I'm using the pressure cooker. I haven't made stock in a pressure cooker before, but I have high hopes of a rich stock in only 30 minutes, without making the house smell of chicken soup.
You might wonder how we don't get bored, having chicken for 4 consecutive nights. It's not difficult as all the meals are so different. If we were going to have similar meals, I'd simply have something else in between.
Besides, we only have 2 more birds until next year's eggs are hatched, and raised (about July time, I guess) so that makes chicken something of a luxury to be appreciated.
And when it's one of ours, we do our best to not waste anything.
This week was the first time we had culled one of the new cross (Sasso x Welsh Black). We had high hopes for this, because the Welsh Black mums are half Indian Game, and Indian Game was said to make for a very good table cross.
It really did.
The flavour was very strong without being at all gamey. He was 15 weeks old and dressed out at 4 pounds 3 oz. Looking at him prepped for the oven, I thought about all the farmed chickens who are that size at only 5 weeks old. It made me shudder, and went a bit towards making me feel less miserable at eating a bird I had known personally.
We had roast chicken on Wednesday, and had only one breast betweeen us. The flavour was sfabukous, and we really didn't need anymore.
On Thursday, we used the leg meat to make some gorgeous Fajitas. They were much more delicious than I expected them to be. I've made delicious fajitas with chicken breast before, I was just a bit dubious about using leg meat. This will definitely be my preferred choice for Chicken Day 2 in the future. We were very greedy, and we ate far more than we needed to. This could easily have spread into another pair of meals.
On Friday, I was out, and DH ate the whole of the other chicken breast.
We picked over the remains today while preparing to make stock, and have enough meat to make a chicken pasta bake for dinner tonight.
I'm using the pressure cooker. I haven't made stock in a pressure cooker before, but I have high hopes of a rich stock in only 30 minutes, without making the house smell of chicken soup.
You might wonder how we don't get bored, having chicken for 4 consecutive nights. It's not difficult as all the meals are so different. If we were going to have similar meals, I'd simply have something else in between.
Besides, we only have 2 more birds until next year's eggs are hatched, and raised (about July time, I guess) so that makes chicken something of a luxury to be appreciated.
