Description
These come from a small flock near Elgin that moves onto fresh pasture every few days. They are air chilled, which means no water is picked up in processing, so you are paying for chicken rather than brine. The skin arrives dry to the touch and that is why it crisps. We take the birds whole, remove the giblets and bag them separately, and truss on request.
Salt the bird a day ahead and leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge. Roast at 425F breast up on a bed of onion halves, around eighteen minutes per pound for a four pound bird. Pull it when the thickest part of the thigh reads 165F and the breast is around 155F, then rest twenty minutes, the carryover finishes the breast without drying it.
Specification
- Flock: pasture raised, Elgin, Central Texas
- Chill: air chilled, no added water
- Feed: non medicated grain plus forage
- Trim: whole bird, giblets bagged separately
- Sold by: the bird, weight banded
Cooking
Roast at 425F, roughly eighteen minutes per pound, to 165F in the thigh. Spatchcock it if you want it done in forty minutes flat.
Storage
Two to three days in the fridge, and leave it uncovered if you are roasting it, dry skin is worth more than a wrapper. Freezes two months whole, better broken into parts first.
Dana R. (verified owner) –
You can tell it is air chilled the moment you unwrap it, the skin is dry not slippery. Roasted at 425 and got the best skin I have managed at home.
Marcus Adeyemi (verified owner) –
Four pound bird fed four of us and the carcass made two quarts of stock. Giblets bagged separately which I appreciated.
S. Vandermeer (verified owner) –
The bird itself was good, real flavour in the dark meat. Mine came in nearer three and a half pounds when I ordered the four pound band, so dinner was a bit tight for five people. Fine for four.
Kelly Ortiz (verified owner) –
Priced above the supermarket but it tastes like something. I dry brined overnight as they suggested and it was noticeably better.