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[Closed] The amount of crap that comes out of a chicken these days.
All my life I've been the washer upper. Back in the 70s I used to look forward to chicken as it meant easier washing up than pork or lamb. (beef was really expensive and a treat back then).
These days it's a ****ing nightmare . The only reason we have a newspaper is to wipe all that jelly out of the roasting pan and off the chopping board.
What is it?
Why is it there?
We never used to have it.
How can I find a chicken that doesn't have it?
Which chicken are you buying?
and
https://www.quora.com/Is-the-jelly-left-after-cooking-a-chicken-and-it-has-gone-cold-good-for-you
Aldi free range chickens are the business, and as above, the bits you speak of make amazing soup stock.
The jelly is all concentrated flavour. Add it to the gravy or when you boil up the carcass for stock add it to that. Then refrigerate the stock and skim off the fat.
Alternatively just slurp up the jelly on your finger and have it yourself while you're serving up.
My g/f uses all the leftover stuff from a chicken dinner to make her own stock, and damn good it is too!
What is it?
Why is it there?
We never used to have it.
How can I find a chicken that doesn’t have it?
1. It's the best part, pure condensed flavour. Reduce it down and use it to make gravy.
2. To make gravy.
3. Your mum probably scoffed it when you weren't looking.
4. Bury it in the garden for 6 months, then dig up the bones.
You mean you don't deglaze your roasting pan?
what if you have no use for chicken stock?
Your parents used it to make the gravy, chickens didn’t suddenly start producing jelly.
what if you have no use for chicken stock?
Make gravy with it. Just boil the carcas whilst eating the dinner, freeze the resulting stock and use it next time for gravy.
Just don't be one of those people who refuse to add salt to any of their food believing its healthy. There's nothing worse than watery unseasoned meat juice masquerading as gravy.
Pea and ham soup?
Visit rural Tanzania.
You'll have no trouble finding dry, tough stringy chicken to eat, just like the good old days!
If we're having duck breasts I make 2 sauces from the chicken stock frozen after the last roast chicken.
1) Half the chicken stock used to blanch finely chopped leeks together with white wine. When really soft, season and add double cream. This goes on the plate under the duck breast.
2) The other half of the stock, boil up with red wine. Add chopped shallot, chopped mushrooms (really nice with wild ceps, fresh or dried) a dollop of creme de cassis if you have it. when it's reduced maybe add a tiny bit of sweetness to taste (redcurrant jelly, or even strawberry jam if you've nothing else). Add all of the pan juices and a bit of the duck fat to make it shiny. Reduce to thicken. Pour over the duck breasts.
There's loads of crap comes out of our chickens - that's why they are in their own run, not crapping all over the garden.
*reads thread properly*
Oh...
Pea and ham soup?
Now, that's clever 😉
All the left over chicken bones/carcass roasted till little brown. place in pan, put in some chopped celery, carrot, a few few pepper corns and a couple of bay leaves. De glaze roasting tray and pore into pan (if you want to), then fill pan with water till it covers chicken carcuss, bring to boil then turn down to very very low simmer and leave for a good while. When cool strain stock veg and bones and pore the lovely stock in the into pots for the freezer or make a soup of your choice with the stock. If you have a dog give them the stock veg, they'll thank you. Feel smug.
I've got an idea no-one has suggested... make some stock with it! Yay.
So the natural follow up question is
how do you turn that tasty but watery stock into a nice thick gravy?
Reduce it by boiling. If not concentrated enough, wait till another chicken comes along.
What about all the liquid that comes out of the chicken while cooking? What do you do with that?
Make gravy with it.
what if you never make gravy?
can you spread it on toast? I eat a lot of toast.
you can thicken up the gravy with cornflour or just reduce it down. you can also just make a stock with less water in it!
personally i don't bother with a stock, i save all the dripping and freeze it. when I make a particular rice that suits stock (turkish rice made with tosya grains or a risotto) then I lob the dripping in with the liquid, it's delicious!!
what if you never make gravy?
How is this possible?
Free range chickens seem to produce loads more. So maybe it's something to do with the health of the chicken and the exercise it's had - perhaps more stock is linked to better welfare standards?
Quite a bit of what comes out is fat. Best to skim this off. We have a gravy jug which is a transparent jug with a spout coming from the very bottom. You pour off the juices leaving the fat behind as it rises to the top. Alternatively, put the bowl in the fridge once it cools. When it solidifies you can scrape off the fat.
Aldi free range chickens are the business
This.
Chicken roasted in stacks of butter. Bit of white wine and sprig of you herb of choice in the baking tray once the chicken is off and resting. On the hob at a low heat and give it a good scrape to get the good bits of the pan.
Chicken, gravy, done.
There’s loads of crap comes out of our chickens – that’s why they are in their own run, not crapping all over the garden.
*reads thread properly*
I'm with you. We have just restocked the hen house after a fallow period lasting a couple of years and the level of crap seems mighty similar to what I remember from a few years back.
I slow cook my Sunday dinner chicken these days - I start by using some stock from the last Sunday dinner as the base and slow cook all day (with the chicken raised on tin foil balls so it doesn't boil in the soup) and regularly baste.
Left over chicken gets made into chicken and leek pies (which I had last night in fact) and the remaining carcass gets thrown back in the slow cooker with a load of bits n bobs and cooked overnight to make a couple more batches of stock.
The wife and kids hate it because of the smell.
Does the skin crisp up?
The fat is also where the flavour is though! I'd put oil in certain types of rice so chicken dripping (or any dripping!) is a winner
Left over chicken?
When it solidifies you can scrape off the fat.
Or spoon the fat onto bread and have fat sandwiches.