Ardeith,

>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?

Sure - but it's some of the finer details that elude me. Your comments are
very helpful and will be borne in mind next time.

>leave the feet on for a handle until you are finished

One thing that tends to happen is that the legs end up sticking out - not
nicely tucked in to the body like the ones on bought chickens. Is there a
way of dealing with this? I assume it's a matter of putting them in place
before rigor mortis sets in, but this would require very fast work,
wouldn't it?

>split the gizzard....
>empty out whatever feed and grit might be in
>there......pull out the yellow lining

Are you implying that this is an edible part? I thought that the gizzards
(I assume this means the intestines and associated bits, but not organs
like heart and liver) would just be thrown away.

>If you want skinless chicken parts, you can
>skin a chicken, feathers and all, and save
>yourself some time and mess

I've tried this in the past, but the result after cooking was rather dry,
so I prefer to pluck them.

Thanks for all the helpful comments. They will be most useful.

Barbara