Can we dry age chicken

Hi All,

I am a new member and this is my first post.

We all know how tastier meat steak become after dry aging in the fridge for many days. My question is can we follow the same technique with raw chicken before roasting or grilling on charcoal?
Would that make any difference and worth the wait? has anyone tried this before and is able to share their experience? does this process really enahnce the taste or does it only dry the skin a d produce crispy skin?

Thanks

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Manfred_18311

No it’s not

possible with poultry! You can smoke it or cure it in brine but not dry age it.

This is related to the variouse bacteria Poultry is carrying per se during

its live time. Unlike beef, after slaughtering

the pH value inherent in the poultry’s musculature drops, which gives gems

advantage for growth. Gems don’t do well

in high alkaline solutions.

In the process

of accelerated decay of poultry microorganism take a decisive role. Gems are located

on the skin preferably in the feather/quill openings, but also to be found,

contrary to beef meat, in the muscular system.

Dried Beef

never involves any part of the skin, nor is it as sensitive as poultry. So no

you would get seriously sick, but as the decay is rather fast you would smell

it very strongly within two or three days.

As a bottom

line; anything you can eat raw (Beef, Fish) is appropriate for dry processing. Poultry isn't!

Matthew_Snyder_68770

Chicken Tartare........ mmm, mmmm good!

ren_74229

I love aged duck, wood pigeon and other game birds, but I've never tried to take a chicken as far as possible.

Manfred_18311

Tim..… Form me personally its rather a no go,….but ok

try to dry age chicken.

I‘m citing

from the CS recipe:

font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333;background:white;mso-ansi-language:

EN-US">“Thus, there are a few ways to sanitize the surface to combat food-borne

illness. Start by freezing the surface of the chicken breast. Next, either drop

in boiling water for two seconds, or briefly torch all sides with a propane

torch. Once the surface has been sanitized, the chicken is good to go.”

Manfred_18311

Game bird

meat holds a completely different structure than farm raised chicken, or better

said industrial raised chicken and poultry from the shelf. If not from a trusted

farm and slaughtered the day I use it, I would be very apprehensively using

such products for raw consumption in general. There is a reason why antibiotics used exorbitantly

in mass poultry farming.

@Ren did

you brine the game bird first before the drying process?

ren_74229

@manfred no.

Manfred_18311

@ren, I the

only thing I know for certain with game birds or game in general is a process called

Haut gout, French “haute goût” I remember reading about it in a Paul Bocuse Book. Born in a time where proper cooling wasn’t available

wild game was hanged head down in rather warm places until the decay process

started, giving the goods a strong smell far away and different from what is known as the game

taste. Most usual in the Hut gout method; to leave the feathers or skin on the

animal. 3-10 days

for game birds, if I remember correctly, until the feathers are easily to be taken

off the bird.

Care to elaborate

the method you are using,... might be interesting to know.

ren_74229

@Manfred Method depends on the bird, but for duck, I take a whole bird and butcher it to get the breasts on the bone/cage (Legs for confit, fat for render, etc). Pat dry then place the cage on a rack in the fridge and just let it go! Check it every day, it's good to go when the keel bone becomes prominent. To cook, I render the fat/crisp the skin in a med-hot sautee pan and finish in the oven.

Below is a picture of a wood pigeon, but at least you can see what I mean by "when the keel bone becomes prominent"

robert.c.brown15

I don't know if this is the same as what everyone is getting at, but I will frequently buy a chicken, heavily salt the skin and inside, and place on a cooling rack above a pan. That will sit in my fridge for 24 to 72 hours. Then I'll roast it or whatever I decide. The results are phenomenal, but I'm not sure that is the same as the dry aging being discussed here.

In terms of dry aging like beef, I don't think the proteins are the same. As said above, dry aging beef results in enzymes breaking down and the beef "rotting" from the outside in, therefore tendering the meat and giving it that nutty flavor. I'm not sure chicken rots from the outside in. The outside of say the breast meat of a chicken will get a little tough like a jerky, but when cooked, does not result in the same gains as beef.

Game birds and duck are different, but I don't think any of them would benefit from the dry aging lengths that beef does, and in fact probably would suffer. There are benefits for a fresh chicken, duck, etc. being hung after being slaughtered for a period of time, but nothing close compared to beef, as far as I know.

Ren is spot on about the keel bone. I didn't know what it was called until now, but I follow the same thing. Which ends up being for the chicken I have a maximum of 72 hours. Closer to 48, but I've gone 72 without any detrimental effects.

ren_74229

@Robert Agree. I wouldn't try to age any bird as long as I can take a piece of beef, just long enough to give me the best flavor I can get out of it. Similarly, I've aged beef close to 8 months, and while it does provide something unique and interesting, I'd hardly call it getting the best flavor out of the beef.

lfmichaud

Another advantage of the beef over any bird is the size of the primal cuts. For the same reason you can't dry age a single steak I don't think you can age a chicken/duck breast. After trimming your aged piece of meat nothing would be left!

Joseph_P_Lopez_852504

I do this everyday and there is a big difference if done properly. I do a heavy salt brine with half the amount of salt for the sugar. I drop in whole birds and let it sit for 2 hours or else it’s too salty. The. I personally spatchcock the birds and lay them on roasting racks over sheet pans or hang em up on hooks making sure they don’t pierce the skin and put them in the walk-in where they do not get disturbed. Let air dry for minimum 72 hours but no more than 5 days.