Once upon a time, every grocery store sold “stewing hens.” These were old laying hens from commercial farms and there was quite a market for them. Back then, people understood that older chickens are tastier chickens. But the grocery store market for stewing hens went by the wayside decades ago – perhaps because modern commercial battery operations leave hens small and sickly. It’s no wonder many people today don’t know how to cook old birds.
The good news is, cooking old hens and roosters to tender perfection isn’t difficult – it’s just different.
Dispatching Tips
The first step to tasty, tender chicken – whether young or old – is correctly dispatching and resting it. You can dispatch old chickens just like you would young ones; however, I generally don’t bother to pluck them. Not only are older birds more difficult to pluck, but I most often use their meat shredded, so the skin isn’t really needed.
That said, if you want to keep the skin on your birds, you certainly can. To make plucking older birds easier, I recommend two things:
1. Dispatching by cutting the carotid artery/external jugular vein
and 2. pithing.
When you cut the carotid and jugular (which, by the way, is widely considered the most humane way to kill a chicken), the heart continues beating for a bit, which ensures the carcass is well bled. If you simply cut the chicken’s head off, the heart stops more quickly, which not only means the animal doesn’t bleed out as well, but the follicles holding the feathers in place actually constrict, making plucking more difficult.
Once the carotid and jugular are cut, it’s also smart to pith (i.e., “debrain”) the bird. Pithing makes plucking easier because it relaxes the follicles that hold feathers tightly in place. To pith a chicken, hold the dispatched bird's head with one hand, and with the other, use the tip of the knife to find the cleft in the roof of the bird's mouth. Push the knife straight into the skull. (Be careful not to push the knife all the way through, cutting your opposite hand.)
Now you may proceed to pluck or skin the chicken in the usual way. For tips on that, click here.
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| Resting the carcasses. |
Resting the Bird
Next, I recommend resting the carcass. If you move quickly and the carcass doesn’t start going into rigor mortis, you can start cooking the bird right away. But if the carcass starts going into rigor - even a little bit - and you allow it to remain that way, it will never produce tender meat.
I like to rest my freshly slaughtered poultry by putting it in a cooler filled with ice. I then lightly sprinkle salt over the carcasses (not essential, but I do think it helps get more blood out of the birds and it may help make the meat more tender) and cover them with more ice. I keep the cooler in an outbuilding until rigor mortis has passed, adding ice daily, as needed. Another option is to put a carcass in a pot, put the lid on, and let it rest in the refrigerator.
How do you know the carcass is out of rigor? I recommend checking on the carcass a few hours after putting it on ice or in the refrigerator. Attempt to move one of the legs and notice how very stiff the whole carcass is. When you can move a leg rather freely – like you can with a grocery store chicken – it is out of rigor. How quickly that happens depends on the temperature the bird is stored at. Typically, I let birds rest in my cooler at least 3 and up to 4 days.
Once rigor is passed, I rinse each bird and either cook it or freeze it.
Cooking Old Chickens
The next key to getting great results from old chickens is to cook them one of two ways: Either low and slow or in a pressure cooker.
I usually opt for the latter, since it’s faster. But you need to remember that the bird will require more cook time than a young hen. I start with 10-12 minutes of pressurized cooking per pound, then I check the meat on the thigh – which tends to be the toughest part of older birds. If I can easily pull the thigh meat away with a fork, I know the chicken is done cooking. If the meat doesn’t fall off readily, I cook it a bit longer, until it passes the fork test.
If you prefer, you can use a crock pot or just a pot on the stove. If you use a pot, submerge the chicken in water (by the end of cooking, the water will turn into broth). Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat until the liquid just simmers. Leave the lid on the pot and simmer until the thigh meat passes the fork test. If you prefer to use a crock pot, just cook on low (with the lid on) until the thigh passes the fork test.
At this point, I remove the bird from the pressure cooker or pot and shred the meat using two forks. It will be moist, tender, and great for any recipe that calls for shredded poultry, such as pot pie, enchiladas, soup, tacos, salad, or sandwiches.
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| Chicken pot pie filling made from rooster. |
Another cooking method that’s suitable for parts of older chickens is called velveting. This is a Chinese method that’s often used for stir fry meat. Start by slicing the chicken thin. (Hint: Pop the bird into the freezer just until its meat is firm; then remove it and slice the meat.) Now, for every 8 oz. or so of chicken meat, sprinkle ¾ teaspoon of baking soda on all sides. Let it sit for 20 minutes, then rinse well under running water. Pat dry, then cook the meat. Traditionally, the meat is stir fried in a pan.
If you prefer, you may sub the baking soda with a cornstarch slurry (cornstarch and just enough water to turn it into a smooth paste). Be sure to use organic cornstarch if you want to avoid bio-engineered food, and rinse it off thoroughly before cooking.
Canning Older Birds
Over the years, I’ve found that pressure canning old hens and roosters isn’t as simple as some people make it seem. Depending on the age of your birds, if you raw pack the meat, it will still be a bit tough upon opening the jar. And while generally canning fully cooked poultry isn’t recommended (because it's considered a quality issue - not a safety issue), my recommendation is to pre-cook the meat in a crock pot or pressure cooker, as described above, and then pressure can it in chicken broth, using the hot pack method.
Using Up the Whole Bird
As it happens, not only is older chicken meat super tasty, but old birds make some of the best chicken broth! I like to keep and peel the feet to add lots of healthy collogen to the broth, but you can also just use the bones. If you add a splash of vinegar, you can re-use the bones for another batch of broth. In fact, you can keep doing that until the broth starts looking pale or until the bones begin disintegrating. (More on making chicken feet broth here; more on broth-making here.)
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| Homemade chicken broth. |
When you’re done making broth, you can turn the bones into bone meal for your garden. Just make sure any meat left on the bones after broth-making is picked off, then pop the bones into an electric dehydrator at 160 degrees F (or in the oven, on its lowest setting with the door propped open) for about 4 hours, or until the bones disintegrate when pressed with your fingers. You can now use a mortar and pestle or a food processor to pulverize the bones. If you need to store the bone meal, put it in a glass jar with an air tight lid in a cool, dark, dry location.
In addition, older chickens tend to have more fat than younger birds, so I recommend you harvest that glorious fat. If your birds eat a lot of bugs, weeds, and so on, their fat will be golden yellow - a healthy choice to use in your cooking or baking.
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| Homemade schmaltz (rendered chicken fat). |
To harvest the fat, simply trim it off the bird. (I recommend leaving some fat on the carcass, since it does add flavor and nutrition to the meat.) After trimming, render the fat by putting it in a single layer in a pan to which just enough water has been added to coat the bottom. Now cook on very low heat. Don’t rush things; it takes a wee bit of time to get the fat to render beautifully. The fat will melt and all skin, cartilage, and so on will turn brown and crispy. (More on rendering fats here.)
Once all the fat is melted. Carefully strain it through a fine mesh sieve. (If you don’t have one, you can simply line a regular sieve with a couple of layers of good quality cheesecloth.) The brown bits can go back in the pan to get crispier. They are a tasty snack and a lot like pork rinds – but unlike most store-bought rinds, your “chicken rinds” are all natural.
Now let the rendered fat – called schmaltz - cool. This traditional fat is used in place of butter on top of bread, for cooking in skillets, and can even be used in place of oil or butter in your savory baking. Store the fat in the fridge or freezer; it lasts several months in the refrigerator.
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