some thoughts on chickens

Two years ago we got broiler chicks that we raised, had butchered and then put in our deep freeze for a year of eating. (Remember this cheeky post introducing them?) What I remember is the first roast chicken we ate and how very quiet we were. There were a lot of things going through our heads, reconciling what we were consuming and deciding if we thought it tasted good.

We ate roast chicken a few more times and I began to really struggle. Our birds were really big when we had them processed because we couldn't get in on the ideal butchering date. So it was hard to cook them well. Parts of the bird were very done while the insides still weren't cooked through. 

The real low point was one night after we had a roast chicken for dinner, I went to a meeting and afterwards swung by Culver's and ordered chicken strips. I came home with my food and Rory was frustrated that I purchased chicken when we clearly had an entire chicken in the fridge. I told him plainly, "I wanted an anonymous bird." (Now one of our favorite quotes of all time.)

We basically stopped making roast chicken for a long time. 

Until earlier this summer when I was picking up garage sale signs with my friend Anne. I cannot remember how the topic of whole chicken preparation came up but she told me how her husband wants her to make a roast chicken and broth out of the carcass.  We bonded over our non-wasteful husbands and she said, "so I told him, I'll roast a chicken anytime as long as you take the meat off the bird. Then I'll make it into enchiladas and a casserole." It was a serious aha moment because I realized part of my problem with the chickens was taking the meat off the carcass. It's just not my thing. And then Anne continued, "and then I told him if he'd like to make the broth from the carcass I will leave it in the fridge, but I'm fine throwing it away." 

I came home and told Rory how Anne has worked this whole chicken thing out with her husband and he enthusiastically agreed to take the meat off the bird and either shred or cube it for me, depending on what I was going to use it in. And this changed everything! Each week since then we have roasted a bird. And then had great meals from that bird. And it's been delicious. We have become broiler chicken enthusiasts! Especially me!

The thing that actually solidified it for me was one day when I passed five semi trucks stuffed with white chickens. They were packed in there, feathers were flying all over the road and as I sat next to one truck at a stop light it hit me how ridiculous this site was. It felt so wrong. Anonymous birds are not happy birds. They have a terrible life. And the whole five semi system is just so unnatural. It was my brother who consoled me originally, two summer ago, saying that there was no happier life a chicken could hope for than one at the Grovestead. And it's true. They do live a happy, sunny, well fed, free range life, right up until their dying day... 

Then it's not so great for the chickens! But at least we know they had a great life. And we know exactly where they came from and what they've eaten and what they haven't been injected with.

So we're doing it again. We have eaten down the birds in the deep freeze all summer (we learned to flip the bird in the middle of baking, which helped cook it more evenly) and it's time to restock. So these sweet chicks have joined our family. Interestingly, this time around the kids know exactly what is going on. Elsie has said a few times, "I don't want to kill the chicks." And I tell her they'll be big chickens when they have to be processed, but it is a hard truth for her to understand. Yet it is how it works. I am glad my kids know where their food comes from. And since when she protests she usually has a chicken nugget in her mouth, I think she'll be fine in the end.

And you want to know what's next? Lamb. Rory announced this one last week. We are going to have one of our lambs processed so we can have lamb chops and gyros and a whole lot of Mediterranean food this winter. I said to Rory, "do we even know how to prepare lamb?!!" and he replied confidently, "you just google it. No big deal."