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Free range chicken

Posted at 5:40 PM on January 15, 2008 by Margaret Hochla (1 Comments)

You may be aware by now that meats present a special challenge for me. Chicken and poultry were the next new world to conquer after beef. I purchased six chickens from the coop. I like to cook in large quantities, freeze the meat and make soup stock from the bones.

My husband grilled the chickens to a nice golden brown, basting with my own special mixture. We like our meats tender. I always finish cooking them, not on the grill, but in a low temperature oven for several hours. This time was no exception.

We saved out two to serve that evening and froze the rest. They were tough as shoe leather, stringy as shoe laces, and dryer than the Mojave. I was shocked and bewildered. I had suddenly lost the ability to cook chicken.

My family expressed some doubts (make that shouts) about the coop food. I made a few calls and found that people used to brine their meats before the current practice of injecting them. I pooled several recipes from the library and the internet. Most had more salt than I wanted to use. I reduced the salt and persuaded my family to give me one more chance.

The next chicken was a success. It is true that overnight preparation is needed as the chicken should be brined for several hours. It took a few months to be patient enough to always allow sufficient time for preparation.

Do you think free range chicken and poultry are worth this effort?

Comments (1)

Isn't the difference between the two types of chicken amazing? My SO and I try to buy free-range chickens as often as we can afford it. Yes, the brining is a little intense, but we have a small bucket that we use exclusively for brining. We have used a cup of soy sauce and grapefruit in our brine (inspired by an NPR Kitchen Window podcast) as well as trying other fun additives.

Lastly, there is a great recipe on America's Test Kitchen website that is very simple but works well - butterflying the chicken and roasting it for approximately 45 minutes in a very hot oven.

Anyway, we live in an apartment with only a small amount of space, so we roast approximately 2 chickens a month. We enjoy the streamlined process and the experimentation with brining and concoctions to put under the skin, and prefer a non-injected, non-hormonal chicken anyday!!

Cheers - Amy

Posted by Amy B | April 13, 2008 12:55 PM