Heritage Chickens

I got four heritage chickens from HeritageFoodsUSA.com. Two Plymouth Rock birds and two New Hampshires. I have made one of each, and been unhappy with the results. First one was done with a vertical roast at 350-75 on the grill. Skin turned to leather, uncrispy, despite method that never fails to produce bite-through skin. Connective tissue turned to stone. I thought it was just the high heat, whole bird roasting that was the problem, so I decided to make the next one using the Cant F It Up Fried Chicken. Followed the recipe as written, except that I added the wings to the breasts in the bag, and because the breasts were so small, I didn't break them into two pieces before frying. Very similar problems... very chewy skin, though edible, meat that wouldn't pull from the bone on the thigh, drum and wing, and connective tissue that was hard, though not quite the stone I got when done on the grill. I should note, the breasts curled up and looked pretty odd out of the SV bath, just from a form factor. I know what SV chicken should look like. The Can't F It Up process worked pretty well, but the chicken was not pleasant to eat. How can I avoid effing up the remaining two birds? Is it braise time?

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Update: I got a response from HeritageFoodsUSA.com to my note. They provided several recipes, and apparently have a blog with multiple recipes (though they use a different breed of chicken with different features) and techniques. One common thread among many recipes and places I've looked is that 425 seems to be the go to temperature for their oven roasting. They also do a two day brine in buttermilk before cooking. So, that might be the way forward for traditional cooking. They are refunding me on the two failed birds. So, I feel like I can mention the company now, as they are doing what they can to make it right.

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artstype

I'm purely guessing, but it sounds as though these beasts are lacking the degree of subcutaneous fat that we normally see. Other than adding a layer of some kind of fat between the skin and the meat serious adjustments regarding time and temp would be required to avoid similar results. I would contact the supplier and ask for recommendations.

artstype

Just did a quick search, http://modernfarmer.com/2014/03/find-cook-heritage-chicken/

tshewman

I've had a few of those locally and there's a few things that can be done. First, I would suggest brining and letting it hang out in the fridge for a few days (2-3). Next, take the skin off the bird OR finish it similar to the CS crispy duck recipe (with hot oil). If you take the ski off, you can pin it to a rack and then quickly deep fry to finish. For the flesh, SV typically works well and PC works really well for the pulled texture (and flavor is stronger). The roast was too high unless you want to use it as a stock (which BTW - the birds i get locally are only ~$10 and are great roasted and used for stock , so pretty economical). Hope that helps.

DiggingDogFarm_65362

Plymouth Rocks and New Hampshires!?

"Okay" for "soup" or the like — that's about it, IMHO.

Max_Harris_88932

Have sent a letter to the supplier, will see what comes of that. Have considered injecting with butter as a possible solution.

Max_Harris_88932

Wet brine or dry brine? First bird was dry brined for an hour or two (I forget) but that wasn't great.

Max_Harris_88932

Thanks for that. It would seem, based on the market weights there, that I should treat these as cornish hens, as they are about 3.3 lbs, so likely fairly young.

Max_Harris_88932

They are really lean for chicken, which is already pretty lean. The skin on the raw chickens are practically see through in the legs.

ethanunick

This speaks to a large issue regarding our expectations of meat products that have been set by commodity birds for many years. A pastured bird is going to get more exercise thus develop more collagen and likely that will need longer to break down and become succulent. In an ideal world that would be the standard rather than the exception. The current standard are anemic weak birds raised in confinement that have tender meat because of lack of activity.