Well, we finally got around to slaughtering some of the chickens. The first to go were a couple of red roosters that hatched last year here at the farm. Following were three of the older (retired) laying hens, making five birds in all. We had Kim's parents come over to the house to school us in the ways of killing, plucking, eviscerating, and cleaning the birds. It's quite an interesting process for somebody who has never had his fist completely buried in a chicken carcass.
After processing the chickens, we sent four to the freezer and kept one out for dinner that night, figuring it wouldn't get much better than a fresh chicken butchered that very morning.
This was the first mistake. We've since learned that the bird needs a little time to "relax" after being processed to allow the tissues to loosen up a little.
For our first meal featuring our own birds, we chose a time honored recipe sure to make a tender and succulent dish out of these tough birds (they get a lot of exercise out here); Coq au Vin, or Rooster (cock) with Wine. Surely we could cook a bird with a few onions and mushrooms as people have been doing for centuries before us. We found several variations of the recipe online and settled on the one that claimed it could be cooked and served in the same evening, whereas others require that you marinade the chicken pieces in wine for at least a day before cooking. Being hungry and eager to taste the fruits of our labors, we decided to skip the marinading and dive straight into cooking.
This was the second mistake.
We knew that marinading the bird in wine served to break down the tissues a bit and make the meat more tender. What we didn't know, having never cooked our own chickens before, was just how tough that meat was going to be. So off we went to the grocery store to fetch the ingredients.
We returned from the grocery store, near starvation by now, anticipating the feast ahead. Well into the cooking process, I reached for a can of chicken broth to pour into the pan with the meat, not realizing that we had accidentally bought a can of vegetable stock instead. Into the mix went the vegetable stock.
This was the third mistake.
After what seemed like an eternity of cooking, we finally sat down at the dinner table with the grand culmination of work that began almost a year ago with the hatching of that bird. This gleaming moment of pride and accomplishment was immediately shot down by what had to be the toughest meat I have ever masticated upon in all my days. While Kim could not tolerate more than a few bites, I sat and chewed on that bird, resiliently and bitterly, until every morsel of him was gone.
After all, one must maintain a dominance over his flock, and I wasn't going to let him win out in the end.
We learned an important lesson that evening. Never, ever take shortcuts when it comes to coq au vin. Between properly marinating the meat and using all the right ingredients, we will, someday, enjoy our cock with wine.
