Egging a baking hen

ronbeaux · May 2006

OK, just when I thought I had it figured out the wife brings home a "baking hen." So I'm thinking, this is a pretty good sized bird I'll just beer butt it and it will take a little longer due to the size. WELL! This babies as tough as a boot even after cooking it at 325 for 2 hours now. No way I'm gonna pull it off and go to munching. The probe reads 170 in just about every place I can manage to get it pocked in, not kidding! Right now I have it at 275 to keep from burning the outside and am basting regular. [p]Is this an allnighter?[p]HELP!

ronbeaux · May 2006

<p />ronbeaux,
OK Here is a pictue. Looks done huh! I guarantee it will bounce!!!

Unknown · May 2006

ronbeaux,
Looks like a great base for stew and stock. Have you considered chinese or pizza take-out? hehe

ronbeaux · May 2006

Richard,
Ha HA! I guess I'll eat left overs from last night. Tri Tip and roasted new potatoes.

Haggis · May 2006

ronbeaux,[p]We had one like that a couple months ago. My Shun knife could hardly penetrate it - reminded me of a michelin radial tire! Got tossed after the first couple bites.

ronbeaux · May 2006

Haggis,
Ditto. If the LAb can't chew it then I have no chance. We ended up cutting into tiny pieces and feeding it to the night animals. Lesson learned. However my Randall made skinner did finally get all the way to the bone.

Haggis · May 2006

ronbeaux,[p]Well, to be honest, so did my Shun. But your Randall sounds a lot more macho so we can keep that a secret!

jake42 · May 2006

<p />ronbeaux, I did one of those quite some time ago. It came out pretty good. Don't quite recall what I done right though.

Unknown · May 2006

ronbeaux,[p]I also tried a baking hen from Winn Dixie a couple of weeks ago - it was like leather. I cook a lot of chicken and that was my first that was almost inedible. I just did several whole chickens (frying?) from Walmart Superstore that were great. Pilgrims Pride and only $0.63/lb. Beer Butted 3, deboned one and cooked it on V-grate, stuffed some chicken breast with green chile, proscuitto ham and provolone. Used Dizzy Pig Raging River and Tsunami Spin liberally on all. I have started de-boning a lot of the chicken before cooking. Found that it holds moisture and final product is compact and makes a nice presentation when sliced. Also, easy to stuff with most anything. Drove up to Morganza last week and got a nice load of Cypress for my soon to be constructed XL BGE table from Jones and Jones. Real nice people.

thirdeye · May 2006

ronbeaux,[p]We (Americans)have gotten pretty spoiled when it comes to poultry. The producers have sort of trained us to like the younger, more tender hens they have engineered. Even some of the organic or free range chickens are hard for some folks to get used to.[p]Those big bombers like the baking hen you had, can be a tough cook (parden the pun) and sometimes are more suited for stewing or slow cooking in a crock pot. We have native prarie chickens (sage hens) in Wyoming and on old ones, even the gravy is tough.[p]~thirdeye~

Unknown · May 2006

ronbeaux,[p]I'm a new (delighted) egg owner, and I'm not surprised that even the egg wouldn't reduce a "baking" hen. Supposing that's the same as a "stewing" hen, on a regular stove, they need about 4-5 hours braising after 4-5 hours of brining.[p]gdenby

ronbeaux · May 2006

ronbeaux,
Thanks for all the input on this "baking hen." I have politely informed Tonya (my wife), who by the way was only trying to help, that under no circumstances should she ever be tempted to bring home another. She loves for me to "get into" using my egg and thought that I would enjoy the challenge of making the perfect butt chicken, not knowing that this particular chicken was close to the same hardness as the ring I bought her for our wedding. Picture me standing guard over a lost cause, then having to explain that I'm not perfect, bad scene. We laughed about it and ate left overs, fell back in love and forgot about it.

Egging a baking hen

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