chicken week

No pics - hands were too yukky and covered in chickeny stuff!

I've wanted to support local butchers and producers for along time, but there's never been a convenient way for me to do this. I want to help them, but they won't meet me halfway with their 9am - 4pm opening times, and Saturday isn't easy for me. Ideally they'd be open late one night a week. Then, out for a walk the other day I found a butcher near me that opens at 8am, just enough time to scrape my shopping in before work. So I popped in there.

It was so nice to chat to a knowledgeable guy who clearly cared about the meat he was handling, and wanted to tell me so much about his produce and what offers he had on. I was only in there for a whole bird, but I knew I would be coming back next week.

So, I decided to have a chicken week this week; buy a whole bird (£6) and get various meals out of it. Before that I have to part it, so I set to.

First the breast: I peel back the skin, then make an incision down the breastbone, then go down and around following the body either side and remove the breast/supreme. A little trim here and there and I've got two lovely plump pieces of meat.

Then the legs: an icision in a circle around the hip joint, then twist and pull for the rest.

Finally the wings: another simple twist and pull.

Then I'm left with a lovely carcass with some dark meat on that I'll roast and stock later on. The whole process took less than ten minutes, and just felt right. It felt like the way things should be done, rather than prepacked sweaty grey flesh with a tampon underneath.

I'll be back with the chicken recipes in the week. Tomorrow is Yaki Soba, which I've blogged before, but made with the legs from here. I'll pic how they roast up.