Chicken Heads!

[larels]

Somehow at the farmer's market I got myself into a 5 lb bag of chicken heads, feet, wings and necks. I came home and threw it into the freezer, not thinking about how difficult it would be to separate all the parts later. So, now I have thawed about 14 chicken feet, 10 heads and other parts.

I have never put even 1 head or feet in my stock before (never had them to throw in). Any tips as to how many heads/feet I should throw in with my one chicken carcass? I am thinking about using half the parts to make stock right now and then do a second batch with the remaining parts once the first pot is done. Can I overdo it with heads and feet?

I don't want to waste what I bought and I want to use it all soon since I have thawed it out!

Thanks! Hopefully someone out there has some chicken head/foot experience!

[Magelet]

So what I would do is use some of it, and flash freeze the rest. Since it's going in stock, it won't really make a difference (twice freezing would change the texture, but shouldn't change the nutrition). To flash freeze it, lay them out induvidually on a cookie sheet (optionally lined with parchment paper) flat in the freezer. When they are frozen solid, put them in a bag or whatever, so they don't stick together.

As for how many parts per chicken, generally, I go by about the right amount of parts that the chicken had orginaly though sometimes I double that. So 2-4 feet per chicken, 1-2 heads per chicken. Heads and feet add a lot of nutrition, they don't add a great deal of taste. Necks and wings, however do add a ton of flavor, you could probably even make stock MOSTLY of wings and necks. so those, I would use a few depending on how you have. 5-6 per batch maybe?

[larels]

Thanks so much for the response and tips! I have 1 body and probably 6 heads, 3 necks and 7-8 feet in the crockpot now (after bringing to a boil stovetop and skimming foam). I also have been putting the livers that come with the chicken, do you?

We'll see how it turns out. I think the flash freezing sound great...gonna try it!

By the way, I see your in the Bay Area. Where do you get your chickens?

[Magelet]

No way would I put the livers in, I'd freeze them and make them into pate or some other liver dish when I had several or fry it up (ok, occasionally we feed it to the cat, if he hasn't had liver in too long. usually we eat it though). Or I'd do what I did with the duck livers that turned out so great: more of a rustic... liver/meat chop. I chopped meat and liver small, mushrooms and onions pretty small. I fried the mushrooms and onions in duck fat (butter would be yummy too), added a splash of vinegar to take out any off tastes in the mushrooms. I also added some thyme. Then I added the meat and liver, and more fat if needed, salt and pepper to taste, fried it all up and served it with bread. It was delicious and not super livery.

I don't think you'll get the best nutrients out of the liver if you put it in stock, and it might make your stock sort of cloudy. I mean, I don't think it's bad, but it's not great.

As for chickens, at the moment I buy rosies at the supermarket, most around here seem to carry them. We're on too tight of a budget for pastured. I know rosies aren't that good, but I figure they must be a little better than the worst.

I'm hoping to join the soul foods farm's csa, because I could actually afford their seconds regularly, and a very rare regular bird, but other good options would be Marin sun farms, and I think prather sells them. There is a farmer (I'm not sure who) who I've bought pastured chickens from at the sunday market in marin (I grew up there), that were quite good, and I'm sure it was neither marin sun farms, nor prather, he was also selling veggies and eggs... I think highland farms also sells chickens. I saw the other day that butcher on chesnut in SF (on the corner of divis and chesnut) carried soul food farms chickens.

HTH

[larels]

Thought I would update in case anyone is curious in the future...the stock with lots of feet and heads turned out to be the best stock we've made so far. Truly gelled and delicious, too! I did a bit of research and ended up trimming all the talons off the feet (some people said the talons throw the flavor off?) and tried to keep family members away from the crock pot so that wouldn't be too weirded out by the heads and feet that occasionally came to the surface despite my best attempts to cover them with veggies. They all ended up seeing the heads despite my attempts, but enjoyed their soup anyway.