With your dead, bled, scalded, and freshly plucked chicken in hand, I suggest the first thing you do is give it a good rinsing off, as shown in the following two pictures. This is where the makeshift sink with running water (discussed in Step 1) comes in real handy.
As I am rinsing, I’m examining the carcass and rubbing, pulling, or scraping off any remaining pin feathers. If you had a proper scald and used a mechanical chicken plucker (i.e., a homemade Whizbang Plucker) you won’t have much in the way of pinfeathers to remove, especially with the Cornish-X meat birds.
I begin butchering a chicken by removing its feet.
Lay the bird on its back. Grasp a foot and apply downward tension while slicing into the joint, as shown in this picture.
There is no need to cut here with a lot of force. You want to direct your knife blade between the joint and through the tendons. Just saw gently ahead and back with the sharp knife while bending back on the foot. You will find this is an easy thing to do. Here are a couple more pictures.
If your children are interested in seeing how the exposed tendons in the feet work, get a pair of pliers, grip on the exposed tendon ends in the foot, and give a pull. The toes will move. Very cool. Butchering chickens is educational, don’t you know? You can see the white tendon tips in this picture:
I throw the feet away. But you can actually put them to good use. Save them for making chicken feet soup. Or, I understand that in South Africa, enterprising street vendors sell fried chicken feet on a stick, and it is a very popular treat. You first.
As I am rinsing, I’m examining the carcass and rubbing, pulling, or scraping off any remaining pin feathers. If you had a proper scald and used a mechanical chicken plucker (i.e., a homemade Whizbang Plucker) you won’t have much in the way of pinfeathers to remove, especially with the Cornish-X meat birds.
I begin butchering a chicken by removing its feet.
Lay the bird on its back. Grasp a foot and apply downward tension while slicing into the joint, as shown in this picture.
There is no need to cut here with a lot of force. You want to direct your knife blade between the joint and through the tendons. Just saw gently ahead and back with the sharp knife while bending back on the foot. You will find this is an easy thing to do. Here are a couple more pictures.
If your children are interested in seeing how the exposed tendons in the feet work, get a pair of pliers, grip on the exposed tendon ends in the foot, and give a pull. The toes will move. Very cool. Butchering chickens is educational, don’t you know? You can see the white tendon tips in this picture:
I throw the feet away. But you can actually put them to good use. Save them for making chicken feet soup. Or, I understand that in South Africa, enterprising street vendors sell fried chicken feet on a stick, and it is a very popular treat. You first.
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