A bird's readiness for butchering and the quality of its meat depend on the following:

Freedom from defects—no crooked breast bones, crooked or hunched backs, deformed legs and wings, bruises, cuts, tears, breast blisters, or calluses

Feathering—mature feathers only, no stubby broken feathers or pin feathers

Fleshing—degree of meatiness on the breast, legs and thighs

Finish-layer of fat beneath the skin (spread breast feathers to examine the skin; a creamy or yellow color indicates good finish, a reddish or bluish color indicates too little fat)

Conformation—the ideal body shape is blocky and rectangular, not narrow and triangular.

After butchering poultry, the meat quality will improve if you age it before cooking or storing it to allow muscle tissue to relax. The resulting meat will be tastier and more tender. Wrap the whole, freshly butchered birds loosely and age them in the refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours, taking care to space them so cool air can circulate around them.

If you butcher more birds than your refrigerator can rapidly chill, place them in ice water until they reach 40°F and then refrigerate them. Chilling time varies from around six hours for a fryer to 10 hours for a big roaster, so you'll need plenty of ice.

Freshly butchered poultry meat will keep for up to five days in the refrigerator with a temperature between 29°F and 34°F. To store the meat longer, either freeze it or can it within three days of butchering. You can freeze birds whole, but they'll take up less space if they have been cut into parts. Then, if you wish, you may sort the meatier pieces (breasts, thighs, and drumsticks) from the bonier pieces, packaging the meaty pieces for meals and using the bony parts for canning or soup.

Cutting up Poultry

Fryers are usually cut into quarters or smaller pieces for frying. Broilers may be left whole for open-pit roasting or cut into halves or quarters for barbecuing. Roasters are generally left whole. Old hens, being too tough to roast, are cut up to be stewed or fricasseed.

Cutting up poultry.

You may occasionally run across directions for eviscerating and cutting up a bird in one operation, but cutting up a chicken soon after it has been killed causes its muscles to bunch up, making them dense and tough. A chicken that is eviscerated and aged before being cut up will be more tender, and the chilled meat will be easier to handle. To cut up a chicken, use a sharp, heavy knife and follow these steps:

1. Cut the skin between the thighs and the body.

2. Grasp a leg in each hand, lift the bird, and bend the legs back until the hip joints pop free.

3. Cut each leg away by slicing from the back to the front at the hip, as close as possible to the backbones.

4. Leave the leg in one piece or, if you wish, separate the thigh from the drumstick by cutting through the joint between them. You can find the joint by flexing the leg and thigh to locate the bending point.

5. On the same side, remove the wing by cutting along the joint inside the "wingpit," over the joint and down around it. Turn the bird over and remove the other leg and wing. To create mini-drumsticks (aka buffalo wings), separate the upper, meatier portion of each wing from the lower two bony sections.

6. To divide the body, stand the bird on its neck and cut from the tail toward the neck, along the end of the ribs on one side. Cut along the other side to free the back. Bend the back until it snaps in half, and cut along the line of least resistance to separate the ribs from the lower back.

7. Place the breast on the cutting board, skin side down, and cut through white cartilage at the V of the neck.

8. Grasp the breast firmly in both hands and bend back each side, pushing with your fingers to snap the breastbone. Cut the breast in half lengthwise alongside the bone. For boned breasts, place the skin side up on a cutting board. Insert the knife along one side of the keel, and cut the meat away from the bone. Repeat for the other side.

Freezing Poultry Meat

Freezing the meat preserves its quality and retards the growth of bacteria. Freezing does not stop bacterial growth, so maintain strict cleanliness during all aspects of butchering and packing.

The quality of frozen chicken depends on the following:

• how fresh it is when you freeze it
• the temperature under which it remains frozen
• the length of storage time.

Chicken may be frozen raw or cooked, whole or in pieces. If you package cut up chicken, place enough pieces in each packet for at least one meal. I like to pack in a few more pieces than we'd normally need for dinner, saving lunchtime preparation by having planned leftovers.

If you freeze birds whole, never stuff them before freezing them. Dense stuffing slows freezing, giving bacteria more time to proliferate.

Whether you freeze birds whole or in pieces, trim away excess fat (since fat goes rancid fairly rapidly) and cut off sharp bones that may pierce the wrapping (exposing the meat to freezer burn). Freezer burn occurs when food is not adequately wrapped so that air circulates over the exposed surface, sucking out moisture.

Poultry Storage Guide.

After trying all sorts of packing methods, I have eliminated freezer burn by double-wrapping each packet, first in heavy foil or plastic wrap, then in waxed butcher paper sealed with freezer tape. If I'm packing whole birds, I use plastic bags designed for freezer use; I seal the bird in one bag, then place that bag inside a second bag and seal it.

To remove air from a plastic bag, gather the opening of the bag and use a vacuum pump or clean vacuum cleaner hose to remove the air. (Do not, as is sometimes suggested, inhale through a straw to draw out the air, as you run the risk of inhaling a bit of something from inside the bag.) With much of the air out, the bag will cling tightly to the meat. Twist the opening to close the bag, and apply a twist-tie.

On each packet, jot down the date (so you'll use the oldest first) and the contents (so you won't keep the freezer door open while you try to guess). Spread packets around in the freezer, leaving space between them for air to circulate until they freeze hard, which takes at least 12 hours. After the meat is frozen, you can stack it any way you like.

During freezing, ice crystals form from moisture in the meat. Quick freezing produces small ice crystals. Slow freezing causes big crystals that damage meat tissue. To ensure quick freezing, add no more than three pounds of unfrozen meat at a time per cubic foot of freezer capacity.

Storing chicken in the freezer for any appreciable length of time is an option only if you have a dedicated freezer. The freezer compartment of most refrigerators isn't cold enough to hold meat for more than a couple of weeks.

To monitor the quality and storage time of your frozen chickens, keep a reliable thermometer in your freezer. Chicken stored at 0° F or lower retains its quality longer than meat stored at a higher temperature. Even though meat may remain cold and hard at temperatures above 0° F, it deteriorates more rapidly. If you have a good freezer that maintains a temperature of -10° F, you can safely store chicken meat for up to a year.

Freezing Cooked Poultry

Freezing fully cooked chicken is a handy way to have quick meals later on. If you freeze a roasted, stuffed bird, remove the stuffing and freeze it separately from the meat. Frozen cooked meat eventually takes on a rancid taste, but packing cooked meat in broth or gravy keeps air out and lengthens the storage time.

Cooked meat in a liquid or semi-liquid base may be frozen in heat-sealed boilable plastic bags. To ensure a complete seal, cool the food before filling the bags, and fill them so they're no more than one-inch thick laid flat. When you're ready to reheat the chicken in a pouch, drop the whole pouch into boiling water.

To freeze a cooked casserole, cool the casserole, cover it, and freeze it—container and all. If you wish to reuse the casserole dish, first line it with foil. After the food is fully frozen, you may remove the casserole from its dish, double wrap it, and freeze it. When you're ready to reheat it, unwrap the casserole and drop it back into the original container. Of course, you could use a disposable cooking container and leave the casserole in for the duration.

Any time you freeze cooked food, cool it first so it won't heat up the inside of your freezer. Pack the cooked food for freezing, then let it cool at room temperature for 30 minutes before popping it into the freezer.

Thawing Frozen Poultry

Frozen chicken pieces may be cooked without being thawed, but they'll cook faster if thawed first. A whole chicken should always be thawed before being roasted. Chicken may be safely thawed in one of four ways:

1. In the refrigerator, a four pound chicken will thaw in about a day. This method is the safest, since you don't run the risk of forgetting about the meat and letting it get too warm for too long. Put the package of frozen chicken on a plate or tray to catch drips and place the plate in the refrigerator until the meat is pliable.

2. In cold water, a four pound chicken will thaw in two hours or less. Seal the frozen packet in a plastic bag and submerge it in cold water, changing the water often, until the meat is pliable. I use this method often when I forget to thaw meat a day ahead.

3. In a cool room, a four pound chicken will thaw in about 12 hours. Where the temperature is no more than 70° F, wrap the frozen package in several thicknesses of paper and leave it out until the meat becomes pliable. Thawing chicken this way isn't wise, because if you forget the meat, it may stay too warm for too long. In a warm room, the outside layer of meat will thaw and start to spoil while the inside is still frozen.

4. In a microwave oven frozen chicken may be thawed in a matter of minutes, following your microwave manufacturer's directions.

If you start to thaw chicken in the refrigerator or in a cool room, and it isn't completely thawed by the time you're ready to cook it, speed things along by putting the packet in cold water or in the microwave. Another way to shorten thawing time is by freezing pieces with waxed paper or freezer wrap between them, so the pieces may be easily separated for thawing.

Don't be alarmed if frozen chicken looks dark near the bone after it's cooked. Darkening is a reaction to slow freezing and normally occurs in home-frozen chicken.

Canning Poultry

Storing poultry in canning jars, as an alternative to freezing it, is good protection against power outages. The result doesn't taste quite like fresh chicken, but is good nonetheless. Our family has enjoyed bone-in canned chicken as a quick meal with potato salad, and shredded canned chicken makes awesome tacos.

To safely can chicken, you need a pressure canner; for pint and half-pint jars, you may use a pressure saucepan. No method that processes without pressure is safe for meat. Chicken, like other meat, may contain bacteria that cause botulism, a form of food poisoning. The bacteria are destroyed by processing the meat at 240° F for a specific length of time that depends on the volume. If the temperature is lower or the time is shorter, the risk of botulism occurs.

If you are not familiar with the use of a pressure pot, do not attempt to can chicken based on the suggestions offered here. Read the manual that came with your canner, consult a good canning guidebook, or get information from your state or county Extension home economist.

Canning Meat Safety.

A pressure canner operated at sea level at 10 pounds of pressure reaches a temperature of 240°F. If you live above sea level, adjust the pressure and timing for your altitude, as specified in your manual. If you put up pints or half-pints in a pressure saucepan, add 20 minutes to any specified processing time.

You may can poultry meat as soon as the body heat is gone, although it will be easier to handle and become more tender if it has been thoroughly chilled before being canned. Remove as much fat as possible. Do not can excessively fatty pieces. Add salt for flavor, if you wish, or leave it out, if you prefer—salt does nothing to preserve the meat, but does improve the flavor. Work as quickly as possible and process the jars as soon as they are filled.

Hot Pack Canning

Chicken may be hot-packed with or without the bones, but deboned canned chicken is easier to use and, in my opinion, tastes better if stored for any length of time. Besides, you'll get more meat into each jar: about six pounds per quart, compared to four pounds per quart if the bones are left in. Deboning lets you make good use of meat gleaned from bony parts to make salads and sandwiches.

Simmer the bony pieces, covered in water, just until the meat starts to fall off the bone. Remove all the bones and skin, and pack the meat loosely into clean glass jars. Keep the broth simmering.

If you wish, add salt: 1/4 teaspoon per half-pint, 1/2 teaspoon per pint, 1 teaspoon per quart. Cover the meat with simmering broth, leaving one inch of head space. Wipe the jar rims to rid them of fat and meat particles. Seal jars with clean lids. At sea level, process jars at 10 pounds:

• half-pints, 60 minutes
• pints, 75 minutes
• quarts, 90 minutes.

Raw Pack Canning

If you wish to can chicken pieces bones and all, raw packing is easier than hot packing. For a raw pack, canning the meaty pieces (thighs, breasts, and drumsticks) makes more sense than canning the parts with less meat on the bone. Since the breast bone and drumstick take up lots of room, at least bone the breasts and saw drumsticks short. Trim off any fat and pack pieces loosely into quart jars.

Place thighs and drumsticks with their skin next to the glass. Fit breasts into the center. Use smaller pieces to fill up the remaining space. Leave one inch of head space at the top of the jar. If you wish, add 1 teaspoon of salt. You need not add liquid—raw meat generates its own juice in the pressure canner.

Wipe the jar rims to rid them of fat and meat particles. Seal the jars with clean lids. At sea level, process jars at 10 pounds for 80 minutes.

Our family always has plenty of chicken soup on hand, because every time we butcher we cook up the bony parts (wings, backs, necks), separate the meat from the bones, and use the meat to make at least one cannerful of nutritious soup. We hot pack any left-over meat from these parts to make future chef's salads, sandwiches, tacos, and casseroles. For food safety and nutritional value, it beats anything you could buy at the supermarket.

For a complete guide to butchering your poultry, see the August/September, 2006 issue, page 43.