Cooking Older Chickens

[Animal Lover]

My grandmother taught me how to cook the tough old bird I love soup and casseroles too. She always looked to get the old birds for making her soups and stews with broth. We had gravy over buns and leftover meat tonight for supper. Love it that way. Stretches a little into a full tummy.

The old bird wasn't my beautiful Grammy The old chicken or rooster was the Old bird.

[goatlady]

I remember when one could buy "stewing hens" in the meat departments of all the grocery stores! That went by the wayside looong ago though.

[Summerthyme]

I remember when one could buy "stewing hens" in the meat departments of all the grocery stores! That went by the wayside looong ago though.

Yeah- no such thing these days, except for those of us who raise our own eggs and use "heavy breed" hens as egg layers.

Those scrawny little hybrid Leghorns the commercial producers use literally aren't worth "stewing"- heck, they only dress around 2 1/2-3# of bone and a little bit of meat. They'd flavor a broth- sort of- but that's about it.

Now, my Cuckoo Maran hens or the Slow Whites- they're a different story. They dress out between 5-6# and they're fat and meaty. Not tender, but so flavorful. I end up skimming off at least a couple pounds of schmaltz (chicken fat) off the top of the stock pot. It's nicely clarified, and as long as i don't season the broth before skimming (I wait to add salt and pepper until after I'd skimmed the fat), it's actually a mild flavored, delicious fat. I wouldn't use it for baking sweets, of course, but it's WONDERFUL (well chilled) for biscuits and dumplings.

Summerthyme