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growing up, we never had chicken pieces. My mom and grandma always cooked a whole chicken and then sliced it up. I cant even replicate what they did bc im so used to cooking the parts by themselves

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I think I've decided to forego convenience for a while.

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So you’re going to raise the chickens then kill them and pluck the feathers?

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So you’re going to raise the chickens then kill them and pluck the feathers?

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I mean I do have 50 or so chickens.

But they aren't for eating

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I mean I do have 50 or so chickens.

But they aren't for eating

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Correct me if I am wrong, but they only lay eggs for 3 years and the can live for ten years.

My grandmother quickly took care of those that had "retired". She did have some "lookin at chickens" that lived a long life...kept the bugs/slugs out of her garden.

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I try to always buy whole chickens and cut them up

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Been doing it more lately. Saves $5-6 but the tradeoff is clean up time. I am not the best cleaver wielder

Think of the untold amount of pitiful children who have never attempted to conquer one of their siblings over a pully-bone.

That's a missed opportunity to build character.

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Same for their chicken spaghetti.

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One of my least favorite things was navigating around bones and slimy skin when eatinn chicken spaghetti

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 you’re going to raise the chickens then kill them and pluck the feathers

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When we lived in Hoboken there was a store in the back of town, you could go there and pick out your chicken, duck or rabbit and the would take it in the back and kill it and pluck or skin it and bring it out for you to take it home to cook. Not the most sanitary of places but I loved what you got from there

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Which got me thinking. The old timers used cut up bone in chicken for their jambalaya.

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Guess I'm an old-timer since I use whole chickens for most of my cooking that involves chicken in the recipe. Jambalaya, Gumbo, King Ranch Chicken Casserole are all dishes I use whole chickens in.

When I make chicken noodle soup, I prefer to use a baking hen since they have a lot more flavor, but do require longer cooking since they are older birds and generally a bit tougher than fryers. But the ultimate is a true yard bird raised in someone's back yard for a very lean bird with a totally different texture of meat.

I got 3 roosters from my sister-in-law's yard a couple years ago when she bought chickens in the spring for laying hens and they were not sexed correctly. When she realized she had 3 roosters out of the 12 chicks she bought she asked me to come cull them from her brood, and I gladly did.

Got them home and dispatched them, plucked the feathers and processed them for making a nice pot of chicken and dumplings and a pot of chicken noodle soup it was killer.

The only time we buy cut chicken pieces is when the legs or wings go on sale. The rest of the time, it's whole chickens. Catch them when they go on sale for 77c per pound and load up. It literally takes 5 minutes to cut and clean a bird into 9 pieces.