Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Chicken Tenders


I think I may have made a vegetarian out of Jared.

So I was helping him pan up chicken for tomorrow's dinner, and I honestly wasn't expecting him to turn white at the first sight of blood followed by varying shades of green. Well leave it to me to take a bad situation and make it worse. I began entertaining him with all my chicken stories. I must say, I was proud of him. He finished the job without passing out, though the faces he made were classic.

When I lived in Africa, we raised our own chickens. A rooster crowing at 3 a.m. is a good excuse for a chicken dinner the following day and my brother and I often volunteered to see to the task. I don't mean to be morbid, but in Africa, there's not a lot to do. You quickly learn to create your own amusements. After chasing down the chicken of choice, we tied it upside-down by its feet and hung it from a tree. You know, if you don't tie down the wings, the thing will fly in circles upside down? We claimed this was to make the process of removing the feathers easier later. Then as humanly as possible, we would remove the head from the rest of the body. The next part is important. If you cut it down quickly enough, you've got about ten minutes to chase the headless bird around before it keels over. What can I say? I was ten, and I was bored.

That was about as far as I got with Jared before I knew he couldn't handle anymore. He swears he'll never eat chicken again.

Ah, the memories...

7 comments:

Rambling Rose said...

That's hilarious! I wish I could have seen his face.

I remember killing chickens. I wonder how long they would have flown in circles with their legs tied if we hadn't killed them?

Remember when the chickens found a nest of baby cobras and thought they were worms?

Remember when Koukoulou started crowing at 3 am after we killed the rooster? I wonder if parrot tastes like chicken... J/K

Remember the eggs Mom broke open to scramble for us for breakfast that had partly developed baby chicks in them? We had a fun biology lesson that day.

2Crazzie4U said...

I am sure he will eat a chicken again- someday. My Aunt saw her pet pig killed and hung. She became a Veggietarian that day.. Then she married my uncle- who can't live without eating meat. So, she ended up eating meat sometimes- but she claims she is still a veggietarian.

Oh the joy of being young and doing crazzie things- even with nothing around. I am glad that i am still young {when i am old- i'll look back on this day and know that i was right.. i was young at age 21..}.. I find crazzie things to do at work- and there really isn't much i can be crazzie about there. Lets just say, dirty gloves can be a blast!!

jaron said...

I knew chickens ran around with their heads cut off but ten minutes!!! I'm amazed. was it blind running or would it change directions if it was prodded? would it run around longer if you left more of its neck attached to the body? any information on these subjects would be appreciated.

Oh, I suppose I need to say that you shouldn't torture poor people like Jared when their really upset blah, blah, blah . . . . I would've done the same thing though.

Heather said...

Yes, a good chicken can last 10 minutes. I don't know anything about neck length...but they're fast. It's near impossible to catch a headless chicken. As for a direction, it's exactly like the expression "running around like a chicken with it's head chopped off"--just aimless, dizzy running. I've never seen one run into anything, and the rest of the chickens never seemed to mind that one amoung them was a head shorter.

Oh, and I told Jared I'd been reprimanded for torturing him. He thanks you for coming to his defense...

Valinda, good memories. Honestly, I'm surprised we never did kill off that parrot...

weedeater said...

Sounds like fun! Can we do that here in the United States or will we be charged with animal cruelty?

weedeater said...

Oh...almost forgot. I worked for one month at Kentucky Fried Chicken and that experience very nearly cured me of eating chicken. I'll eat it now, years later, but I won't cook a whole one, and fried chicken... well... pretty rare now. :)

Joy said...

I had the priveledge and honor of getting to hack off the head of a chicken on a youth missions trip.. it was the kewlest thing I could ever do and I was 16 at the time... I got to pluck the feathers and gut it out.. it was soo kewl.. I don't think its gross or anything and having it run around with its head off that was fun.. though I must admit that I the only other person that stayed all the rest of the youths got grossed out and left after the chopping of the head... most the girls cried or reacted with horror at it. I guess i'm just wierd that way.