How to Process Chickens: Home Butchering Guide For Beginners Jenny Graham, February 19, 2024February 19, 2024 You’ve got your first batch of meat chickens raised and ready to go. Now you just need to know how to process chickens for the dinner table. Here, you’ll find detailed instructions of the whole process. How to Process Chickens Culling Bleeding Out Scalding Plucking Eviscerating Cleaning Chilling Packaging How to Process Chickens & Necessary Tools Sharp Knife (Several) Killing Cone Dish Soap Scalding Pot & Propane Burner Plucking Machine (Or Use Your Hands) Evisceration Table Water Hose with Sprayer (We Prefer Two Hoses) Ice Chest Plastic Bags How to Process Chickens: Preparations First, you’ll want to start by withholding feed from your chickens for 12-24 hours prior to processing. This will ensure that crops are mostly empty, which makes for easier, cleaner processing. This is an important step in learning how to process chickens. Always provide fresh, clean water to your home-raised chickens right up until processing. Go ahead and move your chickens close to the processing area. Processing Area Set Up When setting up and learning how to process chickens, choose a processing area that is either covered or shaded, has good drainage, and is close to a water spigot. Choose the location and install your kill cone post. From there, you are basically creating an assembly line to move the chickens through. Next to the kill cone will be the scalding area, then the plucking area, then the work surface for cleaning and gutting, and finally the ice water and ice chest. How to Process Chickens: Slaughtering The first step in learning how to process chickens is to place the chicken upside down in the kill cone. Pull the chicken’s head down through the opening of the cone. Using a very sharp knife, quickly remove the chicken’s head, which will slice through the jugular vein. For back yard chicken processing, this one of the most humane ways. We prefer to put all the heads in one bucket and collect the blood that will drain out into a separate bucket of water. You will want to let the chicken bleed out, from the carotid artery, for a couple minutes. How to Process Chickens: Scalding A turkey fryer with a stainless steel pot works well for a scalding pot. The correct water temperature to scald chickens is between 155-160F. To be sure of the temperature, keep your thermometer in the scald water so you can constantly check the temperature of the water. Hot water that is not hot enough will give you chickens that do not pluck well. On the other hand, water that is too hot can give you torn skin when they go through the plucker or meat that is white, which means partially cooked! The best way is to submerge the chicken, head down, holding it by the feet, in the scalding water for 5 seconds. You’ll want to swish it around to get the chicken saturated down to the skin. You’ll do this 2-3 times. Once you can easily pull out some wing feathers, it is scalded properly. Scalding chickens correctly is one of the most important steps in processing chickens. Pro Tip- Add some Dawn dish soap to the scalding water to cut down on the grime. How to Process Chickens: Plucking Once you have your scalded birds, it’s time to pluck! You can use a tub style chicken plucker, a hand drill powered plucker, or hand pluck your chickens. We have always used the large mechanical chicken plucker so we can process more chickens in less time. It is worth the investment if you are going to do large batches of birds year after year. If you are only doing a few chickens occasionally, you may consider hand plucking (that’s what Grandma did) or consider the drill attachment chicken plucker. One person holds the chicken up by the feet while the other person operates the drill plucker. Using a tub style plucker machine, you will have a defeathered bird within 30 seconds or so. Make sure you are spraying water into the plucker as it spins. Also be sure you don’t over spin your chicken, as it can rip their skin and dislocate or break bones! How to Process Chickens: Removing Chicken Feet Once your bird is defeathered, the next part of the process is to gut and clean! Start by giving the outside of the chicken a thorough rinse and remove any remaining feather and feather quills. Pay close attention to the wing and leg areas. Remove the chicken feet by finding the space between the “knuckle” joints on the leg. If you slice right in between the joint you’ll be able to cut the tendon and the feet will easily come off. How to Process Chickens: Eviscerating Locate the two lower pelvic bones, just above the vent on both sides. Pinch the skin between the pelvic bones and below the bottom of the breast bone. These bones form a triangle. Make your initial cut from the top center of the triangle at the bottom of the breast bone. Do not insert your sharp knives too far into the body cavity of the chicken, as you could cut into the intestines and such. Once your knife has made it through the skin, start a diagonal cut down to the right pelvic bone. Once you make the diagonal cut to the pelvic bone, go back to the top and make a diagonal cut down to the left pelvic bone. You should now be able to see the internal organs and such. Removing the Internal Organs & Digestive Tract Take your fingers and make a sweeping motion over the top and sides of the innards to loosen them from the inner body cavity walls. Once they are loose, use your hand to start guiding the innards out of the body cavity. This will expose the internal organs, like the liver and heart, which you can take out first by cutting them away. You can save them in a separate clean bucket. You’ll also find the gall bladder, which you do not want to break. You can’t miss it. It’s dark green and full of neon green liquid. Removing the Crop Once the heart and liver are removed go ahead and reach in further to find the crop, esophagus and windpipe. If your chickens had food withheld for the proper amount of time, you will be able to pull the esophagus and windpipe by wrapping a finger around them which will allow you to pull the crop out. On occasion, you will have a crop that does not pull out nicely. In that case you may have to work your way down the side of the neck, near the top of the breast meat to loosen the crop from the inside of the breast and neck skin. If your crop breaks while pulling it out make sure you do a thorough cleaning of the bird before it is put in the cooler. Once the crop pulls through, move your bird to the edge of the table to let gravity start taking the whole digestive tract to the bucket below. Once they have moved below the tail, you can make a diagonal cut on both sides of the tail to remove the vent, oil gland, and tail. Drop it all into the innards bucket! At this point, the inside cavity should be empty, except for small lungs and if it’s a male, testicles. Those come out easy. How to Process Chickens: Final Cleaning At this point, give your bird one final lookover for any missed feathers or feather quills and give it a good final rinse. Resting Your Chicken Through Rigor Mortis The next step is to let the chicken rest overnight in ice water. Pack the cavity with ice and let it rest for 24 hours. Resting poultry at a lower temperature of at least 41 degrees is the safest way to go, to avoid foodborne illness. You can also dry rest your chicken in a refrigerator. Simply put it in a pan in the refrigerator, which works fine if it’s just one chicken. Dry resting/aging multiple chickens requires a walk-in cooler or an empty refrigerator. We personally prefer dry resting. It cooks up crispier skin. We did, however, rest chickens in ice water for years with perfectly good results before making the switch to dry resting. Packaging & Storing the Chicken After Butchering After your chicken rests for 24 hours you can go ahead and piece out your chicken or leave as a whole bird. You can then shrink wrap them and freeze them. The shrink wrap bags are the best choice for preventing freezer burn. Parts of a Chicken and What to Use Them For Many people enjoy eating the heart, liver, and gizzards. If you do not enjoy eating the organ meats and such they can be given to dogs as frozen treats. Our dogs even enjoy the occasional frozen chicken foot. The chicken’s feet can also be used to make a large pot of collagen rich, chicken broth. We always collect the blood while butchering chickens to use in the garden as blood meal. As you can see, there are many different ways to use up the spare chicken parts. Why Raise Meat Chickens Raising meat chickens, often referred to as broilers, is a great way to provide food for your family. In just a couple of months you can have your freezer stocked with fresh, homegrown chicken. How We Raise Our Meat Chickens We pasture raise our meat chickens by using a moveable chicken tractor. Ours is a hoop house style tractor made out of wood, pvc, metal fencing, and shade cloth. It was built to be lightweight so it can be moved by hand. Every day the meat birds get moved to a fresh patch of pasture grass and fed a locally milled chick starter. The Choice Between Cornish Cross Broilers , Hybrids, or Heritage Breeds When it comes to raising meat chickens you have some choices to make on which breed to raise. They all have their pros and cons. Let’s take a look at some of the best meat chicken breeds for your backyard homestead. Cornish Cross Broiler There are specific broiler breeds that have been bred for rapid growth, such as the most recommended meat chicken, the Cornish Cross broiler. These are typically the best meat chicken and the type of chicken sold at the grocery store. They are a cross between the Cornish and White Rock and will grow out in a short 8-10 weeks and finish out between 4 and 8lbs! Cornish Cross Broilers do require a lot of feed, as they are not good foragers. How much do they eat though? They give a large amount of meat, especially breast meat. So, if you are looking for a large, meaty bird this may be your top choice. They do tend to have some health issues, due to their rapid growth and size that are worth mentioning and do not mature enough to lay eggs. Some have shown issues with their legs due to their fast growth. Health Issues with Cornish Cross This seems to be more common in a commercial setting and does not present itself as frequently when they are raised on pasture. In my opinion, the environment that they are raised in makes a difference. In my opinion, pastured birds are just healthier and have fewer problems. Another common ailment they suffer from is heat exhaustion. These birds do not do well in the sweltering heat. It can kill them. We choose not to raise meat birds in the summer, in Florida, for that reason. All around, the cornish cross broiler is a solid choice if provided the correct care. Hybrid Breeds Of Meat Chickens Another meat chicken breed worth mentioning is the Freedom Ranger, also called red broilers. They are an excellent choice to raise, as they are good foragers, so require a *little* less feed. Freedom Rangers are great out on pasture and don’t seem to have the health issues that cornish cross do. They do have their differences though. Freedom Rangers do take more time to mature, usually between 12-14 weeks to reach their slaughter dates, but can be left to mature even further. This is a good option if you are ok with butchering a chicken or two at a time (think great grandma going out to wring a chicken’s neck for dinner!) As a bonus, if left to mature they will also lay eggs. Freedom Ranger Grow Out Freedom Rangers grow out to be nice sized birds, averaging 5-10lbs at butcher. These birds tend to have more dark meat and less breast meat than a cornish cross, which is an important consideration. They are not your typical grocery store bird, which some will love and some will not. They are a hybrid breed. Another thing worth mentioning is the flavor. The flavor is a little richer and earthier than the cornish. It’s amazing! Heritage Breeds are Often Dual-Purpose There are chickens that fall into the dual-purpose bird category. Backyard chickens, such as Breese, Turken, Jersey Giants, Orpingtons, and Delaware to name a few. These are all backyard chickens that will lay eggs and grow out to be meaty birds. Heritage birds take at least 4-5 months to mature. Where to Purchase Chicks Meat chickens are most often purchased from a hatchery, like Hoover’s, and shipped to your local post office. We prefer to buy from a hatchery that is somewhat in our region. It gives the chicks a shorter distance to travel, which can mean less mortality. When chickens hatch, they naturally have enough nutrients for 2-3 days from their retained yolk sac, but not much longer than that. They are packed somewhat tight for warmth. Be ready on pickup day to get to the post office early so you can get them to their food, water, and heat! As you are unboxing your chicks and putting them in the brooder, dip their beaks so they can find their water. Meat Chickens in the Brooder For the first week or two, you’ll need a brooder to provide a warm and controlled environment for the chicks. Use heat lamps or brooder heaters to maintain the appropriate temperature, around 95°F (35°C) initially, and gradually decrease it as the chicks grow. A good rule of thumb is one heat lamp for every 25 chicks. Just be sure your heat lamps are secured, as they can be quick to start a fire if they fall. Alternatively, you can use a heat plate which is much safer than a heat lamp. You can use a thermometer in your brooder to keep the temperature correct or just watch your chicks! They will tell you they are too hot if they are panting or hiding in a corner from the heat lamp. You will know they are too cold if they are all piled up on each other trying to keep warm. You will know that the temperature is perfect when they are all scattered about being baby chicks. Clean Water and Clean Bedding Clean water is also an absolute must for healthy birds. Use a waterer made for chicks. They are at risk of falling into the water and drowning and can also die from being wet and cold. You can put rocks or pebbles into their water to keep them from getting in too far. Another must is clean bedding. I’ve used many different types such as: hay, straw, pine shavings, and even leaves. The most important thing is to keep it clean and dry. How to Process Chickens in Your Backyard When you are learning how to process chickens, or your own meat for the first time it does require a little preparation and planning. Once you have done the butchering process a few times you’ll be amazed that the entire process can go pretty quickly. Just be sure when learning how to process chickens, to start with the right tools, the correct set-up, and the motivation to raise and butcher your own meat chickens. Good luck and trust me when I say that it’s worth the time and effort to raise and process poultry in your own backyard. You may also enjoy reading What is the Best Knife for Butchering Chickens? Happy Homesteading, Jenny @ The GrahamStead Family Farm Jenny and her family have been homesteading for over 20 years. They are currently farming on their 10 acre Florida farm, that they built from the ground up, 8 years ago, growing 100% of their meat and a lot of their vegetables. From their small herd of Aberdeen Angus Cattle, Pastured Poultry, Sheep, and seasonal pigs, they are able to raise enough meat for the family while selling extra to the community. All the while, striving to butcher at home, as much as possible, and use the bits and pieces of their harvest by preserving food, making bone broth, and (Jenny’s favorite) tanning all kinds of hides! Chickens Homesteading