This is my first visit to this forum, usually I'm over in the vegetable and fruit forums. But I have had backyard chickens for years, so I loved this rooster tail. ;-) My first 2 backyard chickens were hens purchased from the "free-range" egg farm a couple of towns away. They had been laying for a year and were "worn out" for commercial purposes, but once they molted and settled in, they provided more than enough eggs for me. We had white leghorns on the farm when I was growing up, so I got one production white leghorn (x-large white eggs) and one red something (jumbo brown eggs). Then I started reading up about chickens, and discovered there was a whole world of different birds. When Red keeled over dead the next spring and a lonely Henny Penny started following my 2 cats everywhere, terrorizing them, I went down to the feed store and picked up 2 Easter Egger pullets and, on my vet's advice, 2 bantams (one cochine and one Polish). Both bantams grew up to be roosters! I kept them for a while without any complaints from the neighbors, but I was working nights then, and the constant crowing when I was trying to sleep in the day finally convinced me to give them away. (I thought I had a dozen roosters at one point, but it turned out my neighbor's grandchildren were standing on the other side of the fence, crowing away for HOURS, just for fun. AAAK!) A couple of years later I decided I needed a brown-egger, so I picked up a couple of Black Stars (sex-links). However, I didn't watch the clerk pick out the chicks, and when I got home darned if he hadn't put a barred chick (male) in with a black chick (female). This time a neighbor DID complain--pounding on my door and screaming at me at 4:30 in the morning. Dinner was then and remains the only chicken I have butchered (even growing up my dad did the butchering, although us kids did pluck). This spring my flock was all killed when the meter-reader left my back gate open and 2 vicious dogs got in. My children (then 3 1/2) told me they were very sad that our chickens were gone, then in the next breath told me we needed to get some new chicks. This time I was VERY careful to only get pullets. We started out with 1 americanua, 1 buff Orpington, 1 barred rock, and 1 black star. Unfortunately a racoon got one, and a domesticated cat (not one of mine) got another, so we have "Blacky" and "Buffy" in the back yard, carefully confined to their dog/chicken run. I know there is a rooster in the neighborhood again now, but his owners must keep him in the house until about 6:30 in the morning, because I don't hear him earlier than that. Glad you found homes for all of your spares. I'd still like to try some bantams, but I don't want to deal with roosters again! Catherine

Again, thank you to everyone for your ideas. I went to the kitchen thinking Mexican. Even got the cilantro out of the refrig... Then I remembered that I had a bag of couscous, bought on a whim. (Had never eaten the stuff.) And a trial jar of Penzey's Mural of Flavor. So I splashed some chardonnay on the meat side of the chicken and liberally sprinkled w/ MOF. Had a some garlic/ olive oil butter leftover from making garlic bread the night before so I added that & some dehydrated onion to the couscous as it was cooking. (Chicken broth would have been better but I hadn't pressure cooked the carcass yet.) When the couscous was done and cooled a bit, I piled it onto the chicken & laced the chicken up w/ cotton twine. (Too tired to hunt down needles & floss.) Skewered floppy bits like the legs to the rest of the bird w/ bamboo skewers. (Leftover couscous went into the bottom of the casserole--DON'T do that!) Cranked the oven up to 450-500 & shoved the chicken (in a covered casserole, breast side down) into the oven. Roasted beautifully w/ golden brown crispy skin (and crunchy bottom of the casserole couscous--which the pupsters enjoyed immensely.) Long story short--It turned out good. I hesitate to say very good because there is some herb (not sure what) in the Mural of Flavor that I don't much like...and it's quite prominent in the flavor profile. What I DO like about this method, and what makes it worth deboning a chicken for are: Wonderful way to get flavors into the meat of the bird. Meat is very moist throughout the bird. Even cooking...no overcooked dry breast meat/ undercooked thigh meat. Can be prepared ahead (morning of) and cooked later (I'll let you all sort out the food safety issues)... OR, at the very least, you don't have fiddly work actually cooking the bird (as opposed to battering/ breading/ frying). OH...and it's Fun & Different, even when you are as dog-tired as I was yesterday. Again, thank you all for the great ideas. Have added ingredients to the shopping list to have on hand.

Thanks, Teresa, I don't think I've ever seen a chicken pie recipe without vegetables, that looks really interesting and efficient, because Bud and Makayla wouldn't have to pick out the pieces of veggies, LOL. Ruthanna, the chicken pudding looks good, I'm going to try a couple of these as meals when Elery's family comes. I'll have 11 visitors for 5 days over the 4th of July weekend, so I'm going to have to find things that I can bake ahead or multiply to get enough servings. The following week is Fair Week too, so Bud and Makayla are spending the night tomorrow night, the fair entries will just have to be baked and frozen, then thawed for the fair. (shrug) Just as well, they're getting too complacent about all those ribbons every year, make 'em work at it this time! Ryse, where are you that you need to move to Tennessee for a better climate? I live in North/West Michigan and I really like to process chickens in the fall, far fewer flies and I don't rush so much to get the birds on ice like I do when it's warmer here. sleevendog, the traffic cones actually worked pretty well, but they weren't quite deep enough. Hey, I'm creative! I didn't have enough room to partially freeze all those halves before packaging, that was part of the problem, I think. On another food related note, the second calf of the year was born today, hooray. I left Mama to tend it and didn't bother them by getting close enough to determine whether it was a heifer or bull, I'll know soon enough. Oh, and Elery and I had chicken on the grill last night. No salting or pre-brining, because I wanted to see just how it was. Elery cooked it slowlyl on the cooler side of the grill and it was moist, juicy and delicious. I'm happy. Annie

Patty, what a great birthday gift. I hope you have a wonderful time. Please post about your trip when you get back. ~Ann