re: chicken stew using hen or rooster

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Hen or rooster is not important. Yard or store bought is significant. .

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I've cooked quite a few yard birds in my time and the difference in the meat and fat content is very noticeable with the yard birds having a more robust flavor, and longer cooking time.

yes
thighs and legs off a fryer don’t have the same flavor. Google what a fryer looks like at a chicken factory…they can barely walk

a laying hen at least can walk around (barely). A rooster does nothing but. So in order of preference for chicken stew

yard rooster
yard hen
factory hen
fryer legs and thighs

You can make a gumbo I suppose with anything you want - quail, fryer, snake, gater, coon - but I like South Louisiana Chicken and Sausage or Chicken and Andouille Gumbo - which IS made with a Hen or Rooster. Very hard to find an actual recipe on the internet. Most recipes use fryers - sad. A fryer is not even close to being a Hen in flavor. That is very similar (identical) to serving veal and calling it beef.

I’m not going to suggest I have enough experience with chickens to know, but I don’t know why an older bird would have more flavor? Chicken fat is chicken fat. Now, if you want to compare a free range type of bird to a young fryer, then absolutely, just because it has a better diet.

But generally speaking older birds are stewed because they are tougher and it helps to break them down. I don’t see why that makes a younger bird taste not as good. I just feel like this is sorta an old wives tale. In the reverse, you don’t want to use an older tougher bird for grilling or frying because the lack of cook time to brake it down.

HogBalls - I was raised on a farm - we ate all of our chickens once they had retired from laying - I would weigh for my father every single one after it was fully gutted and plucked with its neck, gizzard, heart and liver - never had one that weighed less than 10lbs - a few pushed 12lb but never quite there. Since then we/I have used retired hens (9-10.5lb) from Marietta, GA (Tip Top,TopBee) - they are virtually identical (identical) to our home processed retired layers. Now if you use a fryer (6-7 week old from hatch) the broth will be very weak and a totally different flavor from a 1-3year old Hen. Soups (gumbo included) in cans in the supermarket are made with old birds. PRO-TIP: and 8lb hen is better than a 7lb hen, a 9lb is better than an 8lb, a 10lb is better than a 9lb - so shop wisely. INSIDE INFO: Only place to find Top Bee Tip Top Hens is Winn Dixie in South Louisiana - all other grocery stores have Southern Hen's of Hattiesburg, MS - they are available very large but it's a warmer weather bird and pales in comparison to the flavor of a Top Bee Tip Top (colder weather bird) - By the way, all of these birds need to simmer (230ish in oven or stovetop) for 4-5 hours on the bone with all fat and giblets

I love this thread

I used a fresh hen back when I had chickens. In order to make a good stock, you should put the hen in the stock pot with a whole stalk of celery, a carrot, an onion, fresh parsley, fresh thyme, a clove of garlic, kosher salt, and black peppercorns. Bring to a boil, simmer 4 hours, strain, discard solids, chill overnight, and remove surface fat. This makes a nicely flavored stock for soups and stews.

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I remember this hood butcher on Dryades back in the day had roosters, raccoons all types of hood meat.

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When I was a kid living in the Lower 9th Ward they had a shop on St. Claude near Forstall St. that had live turkeys, ducks, chickens and probably a few other animals that they'd butcher on site. Couldn't get any fresher than that back in the day.