CornishX vs Red Ranger

Well I've been a bad blogger. We finished processing the last of the meat birds a little while ago. Maybe two weeks or so. I even had The Boy take pictures, but his idea of what was interesting and mine were different. Who wants to see the inside of a trash bag full of chicken guts? lol.

Scott and Connie plucking

Connie and Pat plucking

I manned the dispatch station. I caught the chicken and did the killing, and bleeding out. Then I took it to the boiling water pot and did the swishing. Pat, Connie, and Scott did all the plucking while I went after another bird. Then over to Larry for the gutting. Andrea was in charge of cleaning off, cooling, and bagging. We did 15 chickens in not too much time. I parted out 8 of them and froze 7 of them whole.

I've made a few dishes out of the cornish and the rangers now. The cornish (creepy meats) had much larger breasts and smaller legs and wings. The rangers were more proportionate as a whole bird. The leg quarters on the rangers were a lot bigger and leaner looking. They were great for the barbeque or roasted in the oven. I did both birds in the crockpot and then broiled in the oven to crisp up the skin. They tasted just like the rotisserie chickens you get at the grocery store. The rangers were more forgiving of being over cooked. They didn't get as mushy. Over all I'm very pleased with the birds we raised. They don't taste more intensely chicken, but do make the store bought birds taste a bit watered down. I know my birds were raised humanely, were dispatched humanely, and I know what they ate. No antibiotics, no soy, no growth hormones. I know they free ranged and were happy birds. I'l definitely raise meat birds again in the spring. I'll order a set of cornish x's for the breast meat and the tenders. They were more plump and just overall bigger, and the rangers more for whole birds. The cornish were better before it got too hot outside too. I don't want to stress them.