Step 7: Use Chicken Meat
Photo by Rachael Brugger
Roasting is just one of many ways to put a processed chicken to use. |
Heidi and Ken’s favorite way of utilizing their processed laying hens is as stew chicken. Because of the abundance of tough but flavorful muscle on their free-range chicken, they find the best method of preparation to be one that allows the meat to simmer for a long time.
Traditionally, older chickens were highly sought after as stew chicken, and they’re still favored in traditional cultures for chicken stew and recipes, such as coq au vin. Often Heidi simply stews the meat in water with onion and herbs for flavorful stock and saves the chicken pieces for use in other recipes. (See “Turn Tough Old Birds into Tender Dinners” in the Summer 2010 issue of Chickens for five great recipes for aged-out hens.)
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