Gut a chicken

[the.fee.fairy]

So...i found out today that chicken sold whole here are just that...whole...guts and all!

I looked on the internet (thank ye gods for t'internet!) and found some instructions, but i wanted to make sure that i did it right.
If i didn't it's a bit late...chicken's in the oven...

I cut the head and the feet off.
Then cut down around the neck and found the crop and cut that out.
Then i went to the other end and cut gently until i could get into it.
Stuck my hand in and pulled. Guts and stuff came spilling out, and then i kept raking the cavity until i was sure that everything was taken out.

Then i cleaned the chicken and removed the neck and extra skin and fat.
Then i cleaned it again, and cleaned my hands.
then i cleaned the chicken again and stuck it in the oven.

I did notice that the lungs stuck, so i got them out separately.
I have kept the heart, kidneys and liver for the dog. I also kept the visceral fat and the gizzard. I emptied the gizzard and will cook that lot for the dog.

I hope that this sounds about right. it looked a lot easier in the pictures!

I'll let you know whether i've poisoned myself and my guests later...

[oldjerry]

Sounds dead right to me,sometimes if there's too much neck bone left you have to cut it lower so you can cover with flap of skin.It's pretty solid I've got a good pair of pruning shears solely for that purpose.Easier when you've done one! (don't waste the gizzard or hearts on the dog stick them in a rissotto-----any how thats what the 'outlaws' would do, not me,never ate a chicken in my life,but kept ,killed,and dressed them every Christmas since I was a littlun...used to be a good earner,not now though.

[boboff]

Sounds spot on to me.

Enjoy!

[the.fee.fairy]

Aaah good good. Thanks for the approval.

I've just washed the kitchen down with very hot soapy water and soaked everything i used in it too.

So hopefully there'll be bo poisoning going on!

I left a bit of the neck on because i couldn't get a good grip on it to pull and break.

And i had to rub my keyboard with alcohol gel to make sure it was clean...it's difficult to scroll down a page with a chicken on a plate on your lap and a sharp knife!!

[bonniethomas06]

Shouldn't have read this eating my breakfast. Thank goodness my OH does all of that stuff. Good on you for having a try though. I wish chicken was sold like that over here, that way maybe people would think twice before buying 3 for £5, if they had to go and gut three of them! I am sure we would become much less wasteful. Did you have to pluck it too?

[rjt88]

The only thing I'd add is that it's best to be quite gentle when you're scooping the guts out, else you could puncture the gall bladder. It's a little greenish ball attached to the liver that's full of bile, so makes the chicken terribly bitter if it's popped! That said, provided you don't go completely crazy in the gutting process you shouldn't have a problem.

[Mrs H]

Welldone Fee Fairy and I hope u enjoyed ur chook. All sounds good my love, a new skill aquired! If u r struggling with the neck using a cloth will help u grip it, bend it to break it then a sharp twist has it off. X

[the.fee.fairy]

You know what? If i had half a brain i would have thought of that!!

Bit late now...

So, Karin and i ate half the chicken between us a couple of hours ago and it was good! Neither of us are sick yet, so i guess it's safe!

No plucking invilved thankfully, and i admit that i chopped the neck about an inch down at forst so i didn't have to look at the head as i chopped it off!!

I don't know if it would be a good thing to sell them like this in the UK. Would put people off though!! Might make people see that you can use more than just the main body bits as well. When i took the bag of guts out to the bin there was a little old man who asked if he could have them. I asked why, and he said 'good food, good food!' so, each to their own. I had a nice roast chicken, he had chicken insides, all were happy! I know that they do cook the gizzards here (you can buy them in the supermarket), and they strip out the intestines somehow and make meat noodles, or 'noodle sausage' with them. The dog enjoyed the heart and gizzard, and is currently sleeping off her feast!

ok, so...i might be a bit thick here...when i was gutting the thing there were little yellow balls that felt a bit like balloons with water in them. Were they yolks that would have become eggs if the chicken had lived another day or so? Or were they a sign that the chicken wasn't that healthy? I'm assuming that they were eggs-to-be.

[JulieSherris]

ok, so...i might be a bit thick here...when i was gutting the thing there were little yellow balls that felt a bit like balloons with water in them. Were they yolks that would have become eggs if the chicken had lived another day or so? Or were they a sign that the chicken wasn't that healthy? I'm assuming that they were eggs-to-be.

Yep, it sounds like you had a hen there, Fee!

The first couple of chooks that we did here were hens & Leah had great fun lining up the yolks-to-be on a plate in size order from the very largest, to the teeny tiny ones!!

Ahhh.... as for the neck, my hands aren't as strong as they used to be, so I bend the neck, find a joint as low as possible & saw away at it with my boning knife - it gets there eventually!