“A whole chicken is one of the most economical things you can bring into your kitchen” Jamie Waldron, Butcher
The chicken, the whole chicken, and nothing but the chicken! Pasture-raised, ethical meat is a popular catch-phrase nowadays, but can it really be affordable? In this episode we will show you that it is, and how becoming fluent in “whole chicken” will make your meals more nutritious, delicious, easy AND budget-friendly. We’ll also bust a few chicken myths and share how we utilize whole chickens – including the odd bits – in our kitchens!
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Here’s what we cover:
0:00-5:20 Intro, what we last ate and welcome new patreon community member
5:20-15:00 Chicken price comparison organic/conventional in UK and US; astounding difference in whole chicken/breast price, challenges of organic certification
“Whole chickens and supermarket chicken breasts are incomparable in terms of both nutrition and cost”
15:00-24:00 Nutritional content, craziness of industrial animal raising and what do we (and should we) feed chickens
“Give a store label 0% of your trust”
24:00 onwards: Practicalities in the kitchen
“I love the idea of freezing shredded chicken in stock”
25:00 -29:00 How to cut up a whole chicken before cooking, including information on the Patreon chicken video!
29:00-38:50 Cooking a whole chicken
38:50-49:45 The ‘extra bits’: Head, feet, neck and broth, including the value of broth obtained from a whole chicken
“$72 of broth from one single whole chicken”
49:45 How Andrea uses her chicken meat
Resources Mentioned:
Flavio is Alison’s farmer
Polyface Farm (Joel Salatin’s farm)
Jamie Waldron parting a chicken video – notice in the video the original butcher left the chicken butt ON and just cut the gland OUT. At the end he does a demo without any background talking.
Another way to cut the whole chicken, including backbone. Doesn’t evenly portion meat, though.
“Get to know your farmer, build a relationship – don’t pay attention to something stamped on a label on a supermarket shelf”
Additional Resources Not Mentioned:
If you are ready to deep dive into chickens, this trio of books will set you off and running:
Your Successful Farm Business by Joel Salatin (yes – non-farmers should be reading this, too. If you are ready to explore the ideas of redemptive farming, this book will open up an entire universe. It will pack in way more than you expect!)
Pastured Poultry Profits by Joel Salatin (again – not planning to raise chickens? Good! You will benefit from this book just as much as a chicken farmer will. Know thy produce… and understand why pastured poultry and ancestral farming is so healing to the land. Again – it’s gonna have more in it than you think!)
Plucked! The Truth About Chicken by Maryn McKenna – go deep into the murky world of chicken factory farming and get a grasp on why factory farming is a toxic production system with no sustainable future,
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Original Music, Episode Mixing and Post-Production by Robert Michael Kay