The bag of parts that come in the chicken?

[Rocklobster]

I remember when nobody wanted chicken livers in the early '80s, and they were like 24 cents/pound. I used to make all kinds of creative (and some not so imaginative like "chicken livers with onions) recipes. Now they're like $1.50/$2.00 per pound. PPL discovered you can make good stuff with chicken livers.

Yup. Same thing happened with wings about 20 years ago. You could get them dirt cheap. Now they are priced like breasts...

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Yeah, exactly. And look at the price of whole chickens. I don't mean roasters or anything, just plain bag whole chickens. They used to be "cheep, cheep, cheep" but somehow the public discovered that you could just buy a whole chicken and part it out yourself.

The costs today have adjusted to the public not caring if they have to do a bit of chopping, slicing and parting to save some money. It seems as if the markets have assumed that if you buy a whole chicken you're going to part it out yourself, and they can part out 100 chickens for less than 1/100 of what labor it takes you to part out 1 chicken.

They've priced we frugal people out of the market. We might as well just buy skinned, boned breasts and thighs, or livers if we want them. Our free labor has been priced out of the product.

 

[Snip 13]

I remember when nobody wanted chicken livers in the early '80s, and they were like 24 cents/pound. I used to make all kinds of creative (and some not so imaginative like "chicken livers with onions) recipes. Now they're like $1.50/$2.00 per pound. PPL discovered you can make good stuff with chicken livers.

I hate it when they do that! Oxtail is also way more expensive since it gained popularity. All my favourites have gone up

 

[Addie]

You can blame the increase in meat products on this past summer's drought. Farmers had to sell of part of their herd because there was a shortage of feed. No there is not so much meat on the market. Cattle and corn farmers got hit the hardest by the drought.

 

[menumaker]

I call it the little bag of gold.
Put the contents in 1 1/2pt water, ( one and half pts ) with onion, S&P, some herbs and maybe a little carrot and some celery if you have it and simmer until you can put a knife through easy. Drain. now you have a choice. You can let it cool and freeze for a soup base at your leisure or use some as a gravy by adding a little thickener, depending on how much you want, or use as a wonderful base for a casserole another day. Will be fine in fridge for a week. Our dog gets the cooked bits as a treat with his dinner. Everybody wins!
Here in France you can buy separate containers of 10-12 hearts, or gizzards which is confited ( cooked slowly in duck or goose fat) and served as a warm salad on lettuce as a starter and tubs of chicken livers to turn into pate. All good stuff

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I hate it when they do that! Oxtail is also way more expensive since it gained popularity. All my favourites have gone up

I've been meaning to try that. I guess I missed the "wave."

 

[Snip 13]

I've been meaning to try that. I guess I missed the "wave."

Have you never eaten oxtail? You're missing something great! I make kick a$$ oxtail, if you decide to ry it I'll give you my recipe

 

[legend_018]

I ended up making a pate and it came out pretty good.

 

[Claire]

The bag of innards that comes inside of your chicken is just enough to make a small batch of dirty rice.

Fry the innards with some finely chopped garlic, onion, celery, carrots and green pepper. Toss in some salt, pepper and Bell's poultry seasoning. Then add about two cups of water and simmer for a half hour or more. Remove the meat, pick it off the bones of the neck and mince the remaining meat. Add it back to the pot with a cup of raw rice and cook for approx. 15 minutes.

Serve with some hot sauce.

Cheap and easy!

You get my vote!

 

[Claire]

When I found out Shrek liked liver I hit him on the head and dragged him back to my cave...now there was a man I could grow old with.

I love it! I love it! My husband and I both love liver, and a love of common foods is a real marriage tie for us (30 years soon!)(not necessarily liver).

 

[Claire]

When I was young, Mom would take the bags of "innards" every time she roasted a chicken (often a Sunday dinner) and toss back into the freezer. When she had enough, she'd stew them (and yes, if you don't remove the livers early on, they will turn bitter and rubbery and flavor the entire mess). Then she'd pull out the necks, gizzards, hearts, and boil egg noodles in the broth until it was a lovely, sticky mess. As they were finishing, in went a bag of frozen mixed vegetables. I LOVED this meal. A dab of butter (well, we called it that, it was margarine), salt and pepper (Mom always had a love of fresh ground pepper) (had? She's still grinding pepper), a salad. Loved that meal. And it was sort of, as I put it now, found food. My fussy sis loved a neck. Daddy and I loved the livers and the rest, but mostly livers. Mom was for gizzards and heart. Two (at the time, another to come later) other sisters could easily live off the noodles and veggies.

Sis and I called it "lizards and gizzards".

I keep thinking to maybe make it some day, but don't cook a whole chicken often enough to get a meal even for two, so wind up putting the innards into a bag to add to bones for a later stock. When I can get them.

Anyone ever notice that sometimes chickens don't have them any more? How about when you buy a turkey and pull out the innards and realize that there is no way that big a bird could possibly live on those tiny innards? What did they do, take an 8 lb bird and put it's innards in the 22 pounder I bought?

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I often buy a package of gizzards and hearts, boil them up and feast. Shrek won't eat them, so they are mine...all mine!

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Yes, throw in the roasted neck also and discard.

I always thought "stock" and "broth" were interchangeable, but I found this interesting. What's the Difference? Stock vs. Broth | The Kitchn

Wow! That's perfect. It's what I've been trying to say in all of those stock vs. broth posts over the years. Stock is the basic extraction of flavors from meat, bones, or veggies, or some combination of them. It's a basic liquid used to make other things. The way I think of it, Stock is what you stock your pantry with. Thanks for that post.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I love the giblets, and am the only one in the house that does. I purchase a container of chicken livers occasionally to make a rich and smooth chicken liver pate'. It is so yummy.

And yes, simmer those giblets to make stock for rice, for gravy, to cook noodles in, to make soup, etc. And that neck meat. It's a challenge to remove from the neck. But go ahead and boil it up in salted water. Then gnaw on it. It is some of the best flavored meat on the chicken. And I'm not exagerating. If there was an easy way of separating it from the neck bones, I'd purchase chicken necks all the time.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Andy M.]

... If there was an easy way of separating it from the neck bones, I'd purchase chicken necks all the time...

Go for the turkey necks. More meat and easier to de-flesh-ify.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Go for the turkey necks. More meat and easier to de-flesh-ify.

My bad. It is turkey necks I chew on, after removing most of the meat for the dressing. It has savory/sweet flavor that is unmatched by the other turkey meat. Not sure why that is. But it is sooooo good. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, Andy.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Addie]

My bad. It is turkey necks I chew on, after removing most of the meat for the dressing. It has savory/sweet flavor that is unmatched by the other turkey meat. Not sure why that is. But it is sooooo good. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, Andy.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

When turkey necks are cooked long enough, you can almost suck the meat out between the bones.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Have you never eaten oxtail? You're missing something great! I make kick a$$ oxtail, if you decide to ry it I'll give you my recipe

I've been coveting oxtails although in my present minimalistic cooking facilities I feel that I would postpone it until I have a better kitchen. Although believe me oxtails are on my list. Isn't that like Osso Bucco?

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I often buy a package of gizzards and hearts, boil them up and feast. Shrek won't eat them, so they are mine...all mine!

My new local supermarket Super King has huge packages (2-3#) of you pick, chicken hearts, chicken gizzards, chicken livers.

Chicken livers are of course delicious. I'm tempted to come up with a chicken hearted recipe...

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Go for the turkey necks. More meat and easier to de-flesh-ify.

I've never gotten enough meat out of turkey necks unless it's a really big turkey, to add the meat to the gravy. I simmer the necks/liver/giblets for 1-2 hours minimum...