It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it. Have you noticed that when it’s chicken butchering time on the farm children are often scarce, and you suddenly discover who your real friends are?
It’s a fact that butchering a chicken is one of those tasks that no one wants to do, but if you raise poultry at some point you’ll end up with the inevitable dilemma: what to do with the chickens that no longer serve a purpose on the farm or how to butcher if you’re raising meat birds for home consumption.
Butchering chickens can be time consuming, tedious and messy, so it’s common sense you’ll want to end the whole process as quickly as possible. Prepare everything you will need ahead of time so it’s within reach so the assembly line will move smoothly from one task to another without stopping to hunt around for a tool.
This is particularly important when you’re butchering larger numbers of birds, to prevent time wasted in butchering one chicken from start to finish. Instead, you tackle one step of the process for as many chickens as you can before moving on to the next step.
There’s a lot of preparation that takes place before you begin butchering, and it’s important to ensure everything is set up ahead of time, using a well thought out assembly-line system that will make each step of butchering the most efficient from start to finish.
Here’s what you will need to have on hand before getting started:
- Scald tank or large pot of boiling water (big enough to completely submerge a bird)
- Large pot or cooler of ice water
- Large pot of fresh water
- Garbage for innards and feathers
- Cutting board
- Sharp knife
- Rubber gloves (multiple pairs)
- Large table/cutting board to work on
- Place to hang your bird using twine or string (for easier manual plucking)
- Mechanical plucker (if you will be using one)
Step One: Killing the Chicken
The night before, remove access to feed; this includes access to pasture. This will prevent food from being left in the crop which can potentially contaminate a carcass during butchering.
Next, prepare whatever method you’ve selected for killing your chicken. There are a number of ways this can achieved, from snapping its neck to cutting off its head or slitting its throat. All are quick, efficient, and painless when executed properly.
This dual purpose rooster had its throat slit while inverted in a bucket with a hole cut in the
Using the cone method shown here limits wing movement, reducing the risk of bruising on the carcass
bottom. The chicken is inverted into the bucket so its head pokes out of the hole, which provides easy access to its throat and an effective place for the chicken to bleed out after killing.
How a chicken is killed can have a direct impact on the quality of the meat, and it’s important to keep the bird as calm and stress-free as possible. The bucket method restricts wing movement, which can reduce bruising. Once in the cone, slit the throat and allow the chicken to bleed out. Once it’s bled out, cut off the head.
Step Two: Scalding and Plucking
Put on your first set of rubber gloves. Scald the chicken by holding it by its feet and dipping it into water that’s approximately 145 degrees Fahrenheit. Swish it around for one-and-a-half to two minutes. Moving the bird around in the water ensures the water is able to reach all parts of the skin and feathers.
Be careful not to keep it in the water for too long or you can cook the skin, too little and the feathers will be difficult to pull out. You can also use a scalding tank, but any large pot will do. Make sure the pot is large enough to fully immerse the chicken.
Next, pluck the chicken. You can rent or buy a plucker, but if you’re plucking manually, it’s easiest to do this by hanging it from its feet. You can also lay it on a table and pluck from there, whichever you prefer. Whichever way you go, pluck fast, because as the carcass cools the feathers will become harder to pull out. Start with the wings, which are the hardest to pluck.
Don’t be overzealous in yanking out feathers; if the scalding was successful the feathers should essentially just slide off. This is critical when you’re plucking older birds, where the skin can tear easily. The feathers on this rooster were difficult to remove, and you can see the skin has torn in places, not very appetizing to look at! Once the chicken is fully plucked, rinse it again in fresh, cold water, then cut off the feet at the leg joint.
Bend the foot over to find and break the joint, which will make it easier to cut the connecting tendons
If you’re not into plucking, an easy alternative is to simply skin the chicken, which eliminates one of the more time consuming components of home butchering. Not for those who really like a nice, crispy skin on their chicken, but still an option.
After plucking, change your gloves before beginning the butchering process.
Step Three: Cleaning or Gutting:
Slit the skin around the neck to the breastbone then use a knife or your fingers to reach inside the neck and gently release the esophagus, trachea and crop to remove the neck. Using your fingers will give you more dexterity and less likelihood of damaging the crop.
Next, find the oil gland and cut around it and the anus or vent and pull it out and away from the carcass to avoid accidentally contaminating the meat.
Spread out the innards to ensure they are intact. Find the gizzard, liver, intestines and heart. Discard the organs and rinse the carcass in fresh water, then place it in ice water to rapidly cool it, especially if you will be continuing to butcher. Once it’s completely cool you can dry it, bag it and freeze or refrigerate it.
The innards are (l to r): liver, heart, intestines, oil gland, and gizzard
Once you have some experience butchering, the entire process from start to finish can take roughly 15 to 20 minutes for a single chicken. When doing multiple chickens, you can move them through the butchering steps in batches which will reduce the timeframe.
— Amy Hogue