What's for Dinner?

So we LOVE our chickens, and we LOVE our eggs, but honestly they were never meant to be pets.  Now that we have hatched two of our own, we will probably have those two until they die of natural causes, and Isaac already named them......

When our first chicks were getting bigger into adolescent stage we noticed that three of the four cute little Bantam chicks were now feisty, hormonal, mean, fighting, teenage boy, ROOSTERS!  What were we to do?  We didn't want to rid ourselves of these we had raised from babies, but man were they mean!  Roosters of course fight, and protect, but it just got to be too much.  We had to sacrifice the three little Roos.  It was something we never planned on, but as a couple we tackled the challenge.  We watched YouTube University for tips and techniques, and check some chicken raising blogs to see how others butcher their own meat.  We made sure we had the kids away from the hatchet and beheading, but they did watch the hanging and plucking part.  Not only do they now know where their eggs come from, they truly had a meal farm to table. 

Alex first got a fire started in the fire pit outside. Then we used a large canning pot to boil water.  This is to dip the chicken in to "blanch" them so that the feathers come out easier.  The first one we put in too long and learned the hard way that you really only need 30 seconds or the skin comes off too.  He set up a large piece of plywood on two buckets for a table, and we used our outside swing stand for the hanging. 

He learned that if you swing them around by the feet first then they are a bit stunned and it is easier to "take care" of them and not have them running around your yard like the headless horseman.  After they hung for about 30 minutes he dipped them and we stared pulling feathers.  We joked about keeping them for feather pillows but I nixed that idea.  Then he gutted them and got rid of the feet.

I wanted to try roasting them so they went right into the oven.  After the allotted amount of time we had roast chicken for supper.  Or so we thought......these little Roos were laughing at us again!  They were so tough there was no eating roast chicken that night!  Instead I stuck them in a large stock pot and started the boiling down process of chicken noodle soup.  After simmering for a day I removed all the bones and we had much more tender, and tastier meat.  I added spices, used the broth from the simmering, and threw in some carrots, with the noodles going in last so they weren't so mushy.  It was sooooo yummy!  We had so much extra from the three Roos that we froze it.  Guess what is perfect for a cold night?  Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup!  We have plenty for tonight, tomorrow, and leftovers all week!  Thanks wonderful chickens, we love you!