First time eating raw chicken, tips/advice?

[HoneyBadger]

So the farmer who supplies me my raw chicken eggs said he'd be butchering some chickens at the end of the week and would sell me one with organs intact and all! I'm excited because I used to like chicken cooked and haven't even dared try any of the supermarket shit that's pumped full of antibiotics and hormones.  Any good ways to eat it? What is the texture like? I'm also thinking I might try some of the organs as they are small and seem easy to get down.

[TylerDurden]

In the UK, at least, farmers are "proud"  of feeding their chickens on 100% plant food diets. This is because of the media-stories around the BSE crisis which exposed farmers as feeding chickens with dead chicken parts in order to save on feed. Unfortunately, modern farmers are happy to feed their chickens on 100% grains or 100% soy-filled diets which is a disaster. Even worse, many so-called "organic" farmers deliberately buy chickens which have been bred in intensive-farming battery-hen farms. These chickens are designed to grow at unnatural speed, are extremely inbred, with several body-parts being overly large  so as to provide more meat. As a result, I avoid raw chicken, however organic. I will buy raw goose or raw wild mallard duck. Geese are my exception as they seem to need lots of grass in their diets, apparently.

[HoneyBadger]

Tyler- While I agree that buying chicken, even from an "organic" source, can be sketchy; the guy I am getting it from is just a small country farmer. He raises the chickens himself and he only raises laying hens. Occasionally, he will butcher the hens and that's why I am purchasing from him. I have seen their living conditions and they are very good. They are fed corn feed and have free range to eat insects as much as they want. Plus, the ones he is butchering will be young and succulent, only 8-9 weeks old.

[Iguana]

What is exactly his corn feed? Isn't it processed, heated? Too much corn isn't good and they must also eat other foods such as worms, insects, maggots, some plants, fruits, etc.

My instincto friends and I rather often eat cocks because in our poultry more or less half of the young chicken are cocks and so many aren't needed. Just kill them, skin them and empty their belly. Keep the liver and organs separately and put everything in a fridge a week or two to mature, the body hung on a hook.

Ducks and geese are very tasty as well but as for cocks and hens, only the ones grown by ourselves are safely edible for us.

[eveheart]

They are fed corn feed and have free range to eat insects as much as they want.

Look at the chickens' "free range" - is it a location where insects are likely to flourish? If the chickens are "free to eat insects as much as they want" on a bare patch of land, that doesn't mean much. Chickens eat larval and adult insects like grasshoppers, crickets, flies, moths, butterflies, millipedes, aphids, etc. The bugs, in turn, need to feed and lay their eggs, then their eggs need to hatch into larvae that need to feed on food in their surroundings, and (perhaps) pupate, mature, and mate again. Chickens voraciously eat any stage of the insects' life cycles that they can find. These life cycles don't happen much on bare dirt. This can help you find what you are looking for when you visit a poultry ranching operation.

What's in that corn feed? To match the nutritional profile of an insect, there needs to be some other things, like soy, used frying oil, and lots of processed scraps from the meat-processing industry. Corn feed can be low-quality or premium grade.

Does this matter? Consider that you'll be eating an animal at 1/3 of its mature age, a pre-schooler, so the bird isn't going to be dying of malnutrition. The main thing to consider is how you tolerate grain-fed animal flesh. Many people find grain-fed meat as inflaming as if they ate the grain itself. This will be a good test of your tolerance.

[dariorpl]

Any good ways to eat it?

Just eat it. I like to marinate the skinless breast in lemon juice, that way they last longer in the fridge without spoiling, and then I eat those with avocado. The rest I eat as is, maybe with some tomatoes. Another thing I do with the breast is make patee, with avocado, eggs, tomato, onion and hot peppers, with or without the marination process.

What is the texture like?

Delicious. Much more tender than red meat but much firmer than fish. It's about the perfect texture in my opinion.

I'm also thinking I might try some of the organs as they are small and seem easy to get down.

The organs and the bone marrow are the best tasting and most nutritious parts. I eat everything including the skin, cartilage and even some of the bones, particularly the spongy bones. I'd stay away from the stomach and digestive tract though, at least at first. But the liver, heart, gizzard, necks, are all amazing tasting. I haven't tried the brain but I'm sure it's a treat if you can get it.

[Iguana]

What's in that corn feed? To match the nutritional profile of an insect, there needs to be some other things, like soy, used frying oil, and lots of processed scraps from the meat-processing industry. Corn feed can be low-quality or premium grade.

Hmmh, I fear that the toxic molecules in frying oil and scraps from the meat-processing industry will accumulate in the insects and further concentrate in the chickens. 

[HoneyBadger]

Iguana- Why do you hang it in the fridge? Couldn't I just eat it as soon as it's butchered...seems to me it would be the best at it's freshest, IMO anyways.

Eveheart- As I mentioned in my reply to Tyler, the farmer only raises egg-laying hens, for the purpose of collecting their eggs.  They have a large enclosure with which to roam and the ground they do have access too is well-grassed.  I should probably press the farmer a bit more about what all is in the corn-feed though.  I didn't realize the feed could have some less-than-desirable ingredients in it.  What would be the best questions to ask him regarding what he does/doesn't put in his feed?

Dariorpl- Thanks for the tips on how to eat/prepare the chicken! I liked your ideas, they sound yummy   You mentioned making a "patee" with the chicken and I am curious what that is and how one would prepare that as I'm assuming it isn't a cooked dish...

[sabertooth]

Its difficult to get the kind of quality chicken that I could endorse.... sometimes the best one can hope for is non GMO corn supplemented pasture raised. Chicken can be a great addition to the paleo diet, I just wouldn't recommend it as a staple unless you can get higher quality truly pastured fowl. I personally like wild goose much more than chicken, I ran one over with my car once, and brought it home...best bird I ever ate.....

Chickens will eat about anything, I know some farmers who feed their breading stock industrial bags of dog kibble........ so it is important to know for sure what exactly they are being fed if you want to be sure of the quality. I supplement my egg laying chickens with a non GMO Soy free feed made with a blend of corn with a variety of other seeds, and peas, they also eat butchering scarps, kitchen leftovers and garden waste.

[eveheart]

Iguana- Why do you hang it in the fridge? Couldn't I just eat it as soon as it's butchered...seems to me it would be the best at it's freshest, IMO anyways.

There are some "processes" that occur after the death of the animal. Hunter's practice hanging meat for a little aging to improve taste and texture. Try it.

Eveheart- As I mentioned in my reply to Tyler, the farmer only raises egg-laying hens, for the purpose of collecting their eggs.  They have a large enclosure with which to roam and the ground they do have access too is well-grassed.  I should probably press the farmer a bit more about what all is in the corn-feed though.  I didn't realize the feed could have some less-than-desirable ingredients in it.  What would be the best questions to ask him regarding what he does/doesn't put in his feed?

In all likelihood, this farmer bought a few "extra" female chicks this past spring with the idea of eating and/or selling a few at the tender age of 8 weeks, while allowing his future laying hens to reach egg-laying maturity at 6 months. This provides a little meat and moolah for very little extra expense and effort. Farming is a plan-ahead business this way.

This is a carryover from the practice that we used to follow with our own chickens that we raised from our own eggs, that is: the spring brought hatched chicks of both sexes, so we ate the males during the summer at various stages of young-ness and any females that we didn't need for egg production later in their lives. Nowadays, poultry hatcheries "process" the male chicks into poor-defenseless-baby-chick meal for use a feed to other land and sea farmed animals, but never to the same species as the meal comes from.

Here are some chicken feed links:
Probably pretty good: http://cocofeed.com/
Probably not so good: https://www.purinamills.com/chicken-feed/products/layena/ Notice oyster shells are the source of calcium. Where do pastured chickens get calcium? From the exoskeletons of insects!
General info: http://articles.extension.org/pages/68432/common-feed-ingredients-in-poultry-diets

Nobody's telling you not to eat these chickens; we are sharing some information about how to imitate a paleolithic human diet in modern times. I have found this information useful. I am sensitive to animal flesh that has been fed corn - if it weren't for this information, I would have thought that the meat itself was bad for me.

Anybody can raise pure-paleo poultry and eggs, but the market price for those perfect products would be prohibitive, like true Kobe beef that costs at least $500/pound. How many chicks roam that grassy enclosure? How tall is the grass? What animals are pooping there so that insect larvae can thrive in the dung?

[Projectile Vomit]

I've eaten raw chicken, but quite frankly it isn't all that great. The white meat is tasteless, the dark meat very bland and not particularly satisfying.

Like all animals, the quality of a chicken's diet will influence the quality of their fat and meat. A diet dense with phytochemicals from consumed plants and good fats and protein from insects and other invertebrates will yield meat and eggs with a high omega-3 to omega-6 ratio in the fat, and a good density of phytochemicals in the meat itself. A diet high in corn or other grain will lead to fat with an omega-3 to omega-6 ratio heavily skewed towards 6, which is bad, and meat that is largely devoid of phytochemicals.

Personally, the question I would ask the producer is "What percentage of the chicken's daily calories come from corn, or other grain-derived feeds?" If the answer is more than 20 percent, I wouldn't bother buying the chicken. In my experience, it is very hard to find good chicken or eggs available commercially in the US. When you find them, it's usually from a tiny hobby operation just selling surplus. I have an excellent supplier of duck eggs here in Burlington Vermont, but have gone long stretches without eating eggs or poultry because the quality just isn't there.

[ys]

I also do not like the taste of it and I think beef/lamb meat is far superior to chicken.
I only eat egg yolks.

Even if beef is not available I would turn to sea food before I would touch chicken.

[Iguana]

I also do not like the taste of it and I think beef/lamb meat is far superior to chicken.
I only eat egg yolks.
Even if beef is not available I would turn to sea food before I would touch chicken.

I've eaten raw chicken, but quite frankly it isn't all that great. The white meat is tasteless, the dark meat very bland and not particularly satisfying.

Did both of you aged it for about two week in a fridge? It's not palatable fresh, but it becomes delicious once aged. 

[ys]

I have not.

[dariorpl]

You mentioned making a "patee" with the chicken and I am curious what that is and how one would prepare that as I'm assuming it isn't a cooked dish...

You need a food processor (a blender won't work unless you use a much higher ratio of tomatoes to meat) and the idea is to grind it down to a paste. The way I make mine is I take about 1lb ripe tomatoes, 1 medium onion, a few hot peppers and maybe some garlic and/or ginger and/or horseradish root, and process that down to a liquid. Then I add about 2.5lb meat, which can be chicken breast, beef, fish, or any other meat of your choice, without bones. I further blend that down to a paste. Then I add 2-3 medium avocados and 6-10 eggs, stir a little bit with a wooden spoon to ease the mixing, then and turn the processor back on for a bit, to mix the ingredients together into a paste (doesn't have to be perfectly homogenous unless you want that). I do this as a last step because I want to prevent the eggs from oxidizing too much. And that's it, ready to serve. It'll last for at least a day in the fridge without changing it's flavor, although the eggs may continue to oxidize as time goes by. You can do it with just tomatoes and without all the other spicy veggies if you want a milder taste. Or you could just do meat and eggs if you want it to be entirely carnivorous. If it's gonna be just for you you may want to adjust the amounts downward so that it doesn't sit in the fridge for too long while you eat it day after day. You can always make more if you're still hungry after you finish it. A good trick for that is make the salsa ahead of time and save it in a glass jar in the fridge. It'll last for days if there isn't a lot of air space. Then you save about half of the time it takes to make a new batch.

Btw, pateeing meats is quite likely to make you gain weight, and that's a good thing for your health, but if you want to maintain your weight for looks, you may want to avoid doing this, or doing it too often.

[svrn]

marinating chicken in lemon for a few hours gives it a cooked feel without harming nutrition. DOnt use lime as that will kill bacteria, lemon only.

THere are many delicious chicken recipes in aajonus' recipe for living without disease book. Most of them are paleo too.