Barbara, you *do* know you need to dunk the dead
chicken in steaming hot water before you try to pluck
out the feathers, don't you?  I presume the head is cut
off....maybe you wring necks......but we always chopped
off the head.......leave the feet on for a handle until you
are finished.............Mama used pliers to pull out the
heavy wing and tail feathers......but fingers worked
fine for the fluffier feathers.   Dunk the chicken in the
hot water for a few seconds.....lift out and pluck feathers
as fast as you can (cussing the heat as you go )  then
when things cool down, dunk the chicken again....just
seconds at a time....you don't want to leave the bird
in the water long enough to start cooking the skin....
that makes things harder, not easier...........look on the
back, just above the tail, for the oil gland....using a
very sharp knife, cut through the skin on the tail
side of this gland....and down to the spinal bones
then turn the knife and draw it under the gland and
toward where the head was.........just and inch or so...
then cut through the skin again and discard this
oily gland.....My Granny taught me that this oil
could leave an unpleasant taste to the meat if you
cooked the chicken with the gland left on.......

We always removed the feed from the pens several
hours before we planned to chop heads......this assures
the crop is empty....saving some mess.......
Slit the abdomenal skin and reach in as far as you can
and pull the innerd's mass out....get the windpipe too....
pull everything out and down.....then cut carefully
around the cloaca and remove it with the innerds....
If you do this right....you won't wind up with chicken
poo spread around.    Once you get the innerds out....
separate the liver, heart, and gizzard.......look for a
little dark green gland associated with the liver....
carefully cut it away....that's the gall bladder and
you don't want that getting all over the place....
makes things taste awful.......split the gizzard....
empty out whatever feed and grit might be in
there......pull out the yellow lining.......cut the
heart free of the veins/arteries..................
Cut off the feet......wash everything in clean
cold water.....and you're done..........

My mother dunked the feet in steaming hot
water and peeled off the heavy scaly skin....
then she'd fry the feet for me to chew the
meat off of........as a little girl, I loved these
fried chicken feet, but I learned that other
people thought this was very strange......

If you want skinless chicken parts, you can
skin a chicken, feathers and all, and save
yourself some time and mess.....Daddy used
to chop the tips of the wings off and pull the
heavy feathers with pliers and then skin
the rest of the bird......he did this with ducks
too..........................but you
still have to use come care when cutting
the innerds and cloaca free.......I prefer to
keep the chicken poo inside the intestines
..........but I have also found partially formed
eggs inside chickens we were cleaning......
we usually gave them to the dogs......for
some reason....................

I'm sure you know this stuff......but I just
had to show off my "country cunning"
don'tcha' know...............................
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