by Lana Soto of Little Bitty Life

Pretty much everyone loves chicken.  Who can resist?!  But how imagine much more delicious chicken is when you raise it in your own backyard!  Well, this year we found out.  For the first time ever in our 5 years of marriage, we ventured into backyard farming and tried our hand at raising our own chickens for meat.  The process itself is really neat.  You get to watch your chicks grow into big chickens, and you get to know exactly what quality of food, water, and general care is going into your birds.  We have so much still to learn about the whole process, but this year we certainly learned a LOT.  One thing we had to learn in particular with backyard chicken meat is how to prepare it in a way that is tasty and tender.  I remember talking with a friend of mine who tried processing their own backyard chickens.

She said to me, “I just felt like we had a whole freezer of meat that went to waste.  We just never could figure out how to prepare it where it tasted good.”

We ran into the same problem ourselves on our first try of preparing the chicken meat when we baked it.  We quickly found out the meat tasted rather gamey and tough when it was baked.  The next time we cooked it, we decided to try grilling it BBQ-style – and BINGO!  We have found a method that satisfies even the pickiest eaters (that’s me).  It is all really rather simple and straightforward.  Here are the ingredients we used:

– Your favorite BBQ sauce and Tony Chachere’s.  Mix these ingredients together and then marinate the chicken in this mixture for 3-4 hours before grilling for best results.  I think the BBQ sauce really helps lock in moisture and infuses the chicken with flavor.  (We don’t leave the skin of chicken on when grilling, so it can be tricky sometimes to get the meat to stay moist.)

– Fire up the grill.  To get the chicken to cook longer and slower, grill other items (like your vegetables) before the chicken so the grill will have cooled down some.  (Of note, we are using a charcoal grill that reduces in heat as it is used, not a gas grill with a thermostat.)

– When you are ready, place your chicken on the grill.  Use a meat thermometer to ensure the internal meat reaches at least 165 degrees.  When you are sure the meat has reached an adequate temperature, take your chicken off the grill.  You don’t want to overcook it because it can easily become dry and tough.

– ENJOY.  We especially love to have our home-raised chicken with other goodies from the garden, as you can see!

 

Lana Soto is a newbie farmer/gardener on 3 acres in backwoods Northwest Arkansas.  She works from home as a medical transcriptionist in order to be able to look after their chickens, geese, cats, dogs, pony, and small vegetable garden. She and her husband have dreams of supporting a family on a self-sufficient homestead with more acreage.  Lana loves to share stories about her animal and gardening adventures on her blog, Little Bitty Life.  She can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

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