chicken pluck

[svrn]

Is there any way to pluck a chicken without the boiling water? Does the boiling water even affect the rawness of the chicken or is it so insignificant that i should just use the scalding method?

[zeno]

Is there any way to pluck a chicken without the boiling water?

Yea, sure: Use your hands. The plucking is more difficult but not impossible. Boiling the bird will make it easier. With plenty of time and a good state of mind the act becomes meditative.

I personally would not boil the bird. Why risk it? Just take your time. We could all benefit from 'taking our time'. Wouldn't you agree?

[jessica]

I don't think the dip effects the chicken, I have a frozen one hanging from a tree right now, I will probably just skin it cause it's a ton easier, she probably doesn't have much fat anyway and don't feel like making a mess

[donrad]

Insignificant. If you don't scald a 5 minute job will take an hour. Been there.

[Projectile Vomit]

I wouldn't scald it either, I'd skin it and toss the skin & feathers. The skin is usually what introduces salmonella to a butchered bird, so it's not something I'd be willing to eat raw anyway.

[cherimoya_kid]

I've read that if you shuck off the feathers quickly within less than a minute after death, that they will come right of.  I have NO idea if this is true, but it might be worth experimenting.

[dariorpl]

I've been worried about this as I'm eating a lot of chicken and particularly enjoy the skin (plus I need the fats). Is there anyone who's come up with another method that doesn't involve scalding or skinning?

[cherimoya_kid]

Shucking them off against the direction of the feathers very quickly in the minute after death is all I've heard of.

[dariorpl]

I wish I could try. I think it's illegal to buy live animals for slaughter where I live (in the city, and even if it wasn't it certainly is against the rules in my apartment building). I would very much like to slaughter and butcher them myself. I wonder if removing the blood prior to plucking makes it harder for the feathers to come out. It'd be interesting to try other methods.

[dariorpl]

I found someone demonstrating how to pluck a duck using hot wax. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFtVqBKjWFs

First he takes some of the larger feathers off by hand, then he dips the duck for a very short time in hot paraffin wax (probably super toxic stuff), then into cold water right away, and the wax solidifies. Then he just removes the wax and the feathers come right off, leaving the skin intact.

I wonder if the same process would work with something less toxic, like bees wax. And if it would work with chickens. It seems that the skin would be less exposed to heat than through scalding because it seems that it's a smaller amount of time that the bird is submerged in the hot wax. I don't know how hot you have to heat wax to make it liquid though. It might be more or (more likely) it might be less than the temperature used for scalding (which is around 65C or 150F).

Still not ideal if you want 100% raw (like I do), but it's something that might improve things somewhat.