Tuesday, August 26, 2014

I butchered a bird like a MasterChef

DH and I love to watch cooking shows and get super hungry doing so.
Masterchef is one of our current favorites. While watching we are always commenting,
   "oh I can so do that!" 
   "What are they thinking?! Apples with turmeric, in THAT dish?! Come on!"
   "What is that? Is that alive?"
   ....you get the idea.

I decided that since I am raising 2 kids under 2 that I should take and put more challenging things on my plate, like recreated things they do or other crazy Pinterest ideas (***Side note: DH hates to go out to eat in a restaurant so if I want something fancy more then 4 - 6 times per year I have to create it myself .... and no darling, Wendys drive thru isn't 'going out to eat').

I found a local farmer from a lower west-side Cleveland farm and bought a few half chickens from her. I love a good free range/hormone free chicken. Below is a picture of my first attempt of butchering my own chicken. I am quite pleased with how it turned out. The breast was cut short and that thigh has seen better days. However, for a first try I think I did fairly well.



I watched a video on YouTube.com to get a grasp on how to this this magic with a knife. I wanted to share the URL, but it has been deleted. Probably had hidden Nazi subliminal messaging in it, like most YouTube videos do. ***Side note: this was butchered with your basic table steak knife. I was unable to get threw the skin (yes, I also removed the skin myself) with the huge butcher knife, so the good old trusty table knife it was.

A week after attempting this I visited the West Side Market in Downtown Cleveland, Ohio. I found beautiful skinned and separated, yet bone in, chicken parts and will be purchasing my parts from them in the future.

Here is a link to the butcher:
 http://westsidemarket.org/vendor/kauffman-poultry/?portfolioID=955

2 comments:

  1. One of the first things we learned in culinary school was to fabricate a chicken from a whole chicken I can get wings, thighs,breast, and legs then have the carcass for soup or stock for super cheap

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    1. That's so interesting, Marie! I actually made bone broth with one if the chicken halves I bought. I didn't butcher that one. I left it whole and let the slow cooking break it down. I put it in a crock pot for 24 hours. Skimming out the bones, skin, feet and gizzards took a little bit but it was worth it.

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