Smokin.....Oh Yeah !!!

[JohnDeere4300]

I've done a deer, but nothing stinks like a chicken..

Bird,__

You have to be joking, when i kill a deer my wife field dresses it because i get sick__looks like a lot of work for her

Good Evenin Bill and Bird,
Well I have never dressed out any chickens either, but I can tell you I remember my Great Grandmother goin in to the hen house, grabbin a bird and makin quick work of its neck out on the choppin block out behind her house !

Scott,

Now that is what I'm wanting, something quick, she can do the rest.

Scotty, when you have free range chickens, sometimes just catching one can be quite a chore..

Ok Bird,

We have free range chickens.___Good eggs.

But i already took care of the catching, 30 minutes ago me and my son went out in the hen house and pick out the best young ones, and locked them in the barn.
________________________________________________

So the other day me and my wife talked about killing chickens, and this is what i learned tonight.

1) Nothing stinks like chicken.____Wife can handle it.

2) Doing it quick.____I can handle that.

3) Catching a free range chicken.____They are already caught.

 

[tallyho8]

I must have been about 6 years old the last time my parents butchered a chicken but I can still remember chasing it around trying to catch it after they cut it's head off.

 

[JESSE1]

My Grandmother had a large chicken yard and somehow she always knew which hens had stopped laying (they were all white leghorns). She would wring their necks and douse them in hot water to loosen the feathers before plucking. That's when it really smelled bad. She would then take the cleaned chicken and dress it out. These older hens tended to be tough but if you stewed them long enough they would always make great chicken and dumplings.

 

[Bird]

My Grandmother had a large chicken yard and somehow she always knew which hens had stopped laying (they were all white leghorns). She would wring their necks and douse them in hot water to loosen the feathers before plucking. That's when it really smelled bad. She would then take the cleaned chicken and dress it out. These older hens tended to be tough but if you stewed them long enough they would always make great chicken and dumplings.

Yep, a pressure cooker is the fastest way, then as you said, chicken & dumplings, chicken soup or stew, or ground up to make chicken salad sandwiches.

And like a lot of youngsters, I guess, when we were first marrie, my wife tried frying one without realizing she'd bought a "roasting" chicken instead of a "fryer". They're so tough you can't chew it.

 

[scott_vt]

I must have been about 6 years old the last time my parents butchered a chicken but I can still remember chasing it around trying to catch it after they cut it's head off.

Good Evenin Dudley,
I was too petrified at 3 or 4 to do any chasing !

 

[Bird]

I must have been about 6 years old the last time my parents butchered a chicken but I can still remember chasing it around trying to catch it after they cut it's head off.

I've always heard of folks wringing a chicken's neck, or chopping a chicken's head off with a hatchet, but we didn't do it that way. Maybe that was because Dad made me start killing and dressing chickens before I was big enough to wring one's neck, or to hold the chicken with one hand and a hatchet with the other.

So we held the chicken by both feet, bent over to let its neck touch the ground, laid a short and stout stick across its neck, and quickly stepped on the stick, one foot on each side of the chicken's head, and pulled up on the feet, thereby very quickly pulling the chicken's head off, and in the same motion tossed the chicken out in front of us so we didn't get blood on us and our clothes from it flopping around. The "stick" for the purpose could be an old piece of a broomstick, although we preferred something a little stronger, like an old piece of a broken hoe or shovel handle, or even a 3/4" or 1" iron pipe.

 

[JohnDeere4300]

Good Mornin Guys,
Sorry about bringin up an old thread, pullin a little LB this mornin ! Sorry LB !
Spring fever has hit ... 50 degs and gettin warmer.

Good mornin Scott,

I'm pulling a little LB this morning____I'm sorry LB
______________________________________________

Giving a update on the chickens.

We didn't kill none because of the weather,__From last Friday to Tuesday of this week it was in the upper 70's, then Wednesday it got cold...and Thursday night it started snowing.

I keep thinking about the last picture, _to get back to fishing.

 

[scott_vt]

Good mornin Scott,

I'm pulling a little LB this morning____I'm sorry LB
______________________________________________

Giving a update on the chickens.

We didn't kill none because of the weather,__From last Friday to Tuesday of this week it was in the upper 70's, then Wednesday it got cold...and Thursday night it started snowing.

I keep thinking about the last picture, _to get back to fishing.

Good Evenin Bill,
Hey your entitled !!!

BTW thanks for the great pics !

You could throw some smokin recipes in there too !

 

[Bird]

Jim, there may be some bad news. I was in Walmart this morning and thought I'd just see if he price had changed on those drip pans. They didn't have any, so I happened to see the department manager and asked about them. She knew exactly what I was talking about and said they discontinued them, but she doesn't know wny, nor did she know whether it was all Walmarts or just this store, but she thinks it's probably all Walmarts.

Mine are 25" x 47", stamped "Auto Drip Pan" and "Auto Trend Products".

So I don't know where to find more like them.

So last year Walmart discontinued the big drip pans that I liked to put under the grill and the smoker and I had to get the smaller size at AutoZone and O'Reilly's, but this morning I was in the Hickory Creek, TX, Walmart and there was a whole stack of them priced at $9.96 each.

Incidentally, they're marked "Made in the USA".

 

[dooleysm]

Back to the chicken discussion...I gave up plucking mine, way too much work for chickens that were just going in the stew pot. If I were going to fry them I might go to the trouble, but mine are too old and tough for that. They skin out fairly easy for me, about on par with a rabbit or squirrel. I always try to snatch mine off the roost and put them in solitary confinement for a day or two with just water, no food. This empties them out pretty good and makes the butchering alot cleaner and less stinky.