Since we still have a few whole chickens and chicken pieces in the freezer, I decided to fire up the ol' pressure cooker and process some of last year's butchering efforts.
I cooked up several packages of chicken wings and a few leg / thigh combos. I picked the meat off the bones and put it aside for further processing. Then I put the bones and "leftovers" back into the pressure cooker, added a bit more water, a few bay leaves, celery tops and a chopped onion & put it back on the stove. Not sure how long I leave it on the stove, but I want the bones to come out where I can easily break them.
And here's what I got from my little pressure cooking foray:
Bunch o' chicken to be made into chicken salad, smothered in homemade BBQ sauce, or served along side a heap of mashed potatoes and gravy. And a quart of chicken stock to boot!
After I strained the chicken stock into the jar, the rest of the pressure cooker contents go into the blender. Yes, bones and all into the blender. The bones have been made soft by the pressure cooking so I just add a bit of the chicken stock & it gets buzzed into a protein & calcium rich slurry. This goes into the chicken scrap bucket and fed back to the chickens. Sounds gross to some people, but I know the chickens weren't sick or given medications or chemicals before we butchered them so I don't see a problem feeding it to our laying flock.
We try to let very little go to waste here and by utilizing this "garbage", we can provide additional feed at no additional cost to us.
The calcium from the bones will do your laying birds good :) Sounds good to me.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it wonderful when you get to use every last bit of something? And how sad that so many people throw out the bones and then go out and buy condensed chicken broth, full of MSG, sodium and other yummy things. I tell you, once you find out how easy it is, there's no turning back! I have to admit that I have never pressured canned the bones so I can slurry them. Next chicken, I will. You are an inspiration, you are!
ReplyDeleteMake some old-fashioned dumplings and toss in some of the boned chicken. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteI should order some Cornish Cross soon.
At first I thought you gave them the stock too and wanted to cry! Not that they don't deserve goodness of course!
ReplyDeleteNever would have thought of this!
Good to see other people using every last bit!! We hope to do Cornish Rock next year - ran out of time to fit it in this year. :(
ReplyDeleteNickie, sounded good to the birds too!
ReplyDeleteSusan, if I could find a way to do something with the feathers & non-yummy "guts", I would, just haven't figured it out yet!
gld, thanks for the idea...guess what we had for dinner? Dumplings!! Belly waaaaayyyy toooo full now.
APG, I like my chickens. Not that much though.
MT, although some people rip on the Cornish X's, we like them. Freaky, monster, eating & pooping machines they are, but they are in the freezer in 8 weeks & I don't have to worry about taking care of them anymore.
There is probably a blog "protocol" about linking to your post and I probably did it all wrong. But I really like it so I did it anyway. Let me know if I should apologize! :)
ReplyDeletehoosier girl, honestly I have no idea what, if any protocol there is for linking. I normally let the person I linked to know, but other than that......Go for it! Besides, I think everyone likes getting linked once in a while....we got egos to boost you know! :)
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