Cooked chicken real tough

[chickensnewtome]

We just butchered out 50 chickens. We let them brine in salt water for a minimum of 12 hrs then cook or freeze. Tough chicken is NO GOOD!!!

 

[Glor]

I just had a rooster slaughtered Thursday morning and let I rest until Saturday evening I roasted it & the skin browned up nice but was like leather/rubber & so tonight Sunday threw it in a pot of water going to see how that works out my rooster was a year old or 15 months old he was a Mean Barred Rock. I was so disappointed. The slaughter house said I could have cooked it right away when I got home that it would be fine. What is everyone's in-put on that idea. I am not new to raising chickens but I am new as far cooking my own birds. Question...are they more like store bought tender the younger you do them in between 2.5 & 4 months old?

 

[kynewbchickie]

We slaughtered our first, a 22-week Australorp rooster, yesterday. I SO WISH I had found this thread before hand!

He was tough - I roasted him with butter/marinade injection - but wasn't too tough, because the guys put it away. Since I did the majority of the plucking and eviscerating, I just couldn't eat it. I'm weird now that I'm pregnant - if I touch raw meat or smell it at all, I can't eat it. Most of the time, my son has to do the meat handling/cooking if my husband isn't home just so I can enjoy some meat with meals.

I'll definitely let ours rest when we go to slaughter the rest of the roosters this weekend!

 

[garp94]

We just ate our first official homegrown rooster for supper tonight. Culled him last weekend, rested in cold water in the fridge will Wednesday, brined from Thursday till today.

Roo- 9 month
Plymouth Rock
pen and coop..not free range.

Results- Should have separated him for 1 month, fed him higher calories (more scratch maybe).

I roasted him in a 350F oven for 2.5 hours with butter, thyme, sage, carrots, celery and onions. And 1 cup chicken broth added.

We ate the legs, but they were still stringy. Tomorrow he goes into the crockpot for chicken and noodles for supper.

Next time try a lower temp: 250 or 275. That should help.
Once they're tough, I don't know if the crockpot will soften the muscles. I had a hen I overcooked but I didn't want to waste her, so I ended up pureeing the meat and adding it to sauce.

 

[Glor]

Thank you for the tip, out of my last batch that hatched the day before mothers day I got 4 roosters out of 8 gave 1 with a hen to my nephew would like to see if I can have 2 together (highly doubt it'll work out) but giving it a shot the 3rd one is already seems to be a nasty to the others so he may make it to the table so if I do that should I be feeding him grower feed or something like grower/finisher food, also does it make any diffrence on wether or not I keep him from getting much excersize? If I keep him separate he will still be in a pretty roomy area 6'x4' area.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

Next time try a lower temp: 250 or 275. That should help.
Once they're tough, I don't know if the crockpot will soften the muscles. I had a hen I overcooked but I didn't want to waste her, so I ended up pureeing the meat and adding it to sauce.

Ok, thanks! I'll try that next time! We won't be butchering any more till this November.

 

[gypsychicken]

Great article!!!!

 

[Chickens R Us]

My DH and I butchered 4 of our roosters today I just put them in the freezer, my DH said a guy he works with does it like that all the time. I thought I had heard to leave them in the frig for a few days first, thank god I read this thread I am going to take them out of the freezer and put them in the frig right now.

 

[donrae]

My DH and I butchered 4 of our roosters today I just put them in the freezer, my DH said a guy he works with does it like that all the time. I thought I had heard to leave them in the frig for a few days first, thank god I read this thread I am going to take them out of the freezer and put them in the frig right now.

You can leave them in the freezer, lots of us put them in right away. We let them thaw/"rest" in the fridge when we pull them out to eat them.

 

[kbunny]

I just cooked my first backyard chicken, an older hen that a friend culled from his flock when she stopped laying. No idea whether the bird rested before being frozen, but I had it thawing in the fridge three days. I made coq au vin, thinking that would address the bird's age (several years I would think as an old laying hen), but the meat was still tough. I didn't know about brining.

My question is, should old layers even be eaten after a certain point? Or only eaten as soup? Or can a bird of any age be tenderized with the right technique?