Whole Chicken

About this cut

A whole bird from our pasture-raised chickens, moved to fresh grass every single day. Pastured birds have more structure and less water in them than what you're used to, and they hold together differently in the pan.

Good for

Roasting whole is the easy answer: dry the skin, salt it well, hot oven. Spatchcocking it cuts the time down and crisps the skin better. Or break it into parts and get two or three meals out of one bird. Either way, save the carcass for stock.

From our kitchen

Roast chicken Sunday, and the carcass goes into the stockpot before we go to bed.

The bird gets salted in the morning and left uncovered in the fridge so the skin dries out, then into a 425 oven for an hour or so with potatoes and carrots underneath cooking in the drippings. What's left gets picked off the bones that night, and the carcass goes into a pot of water with an onion and a bay leaf to simmer low overnight. Soup by Tuesday.

Storage

Arrives frozen and vacuum sealed, and keeps about a year in the freezer. Thaw it overnight in the fridge, or quick thaw it in a bowl of cold water. Once it's thawed, keep it in the fridge and cook it within 2 to 3 days.