9/6/23: The day I cleaned chicken for the very first time in my 40+ years of life. Overall, I will never view a whole chicken that I bought at the market the same anymore. It’s not a fun job cleaning chicken. The chicken in this pictorial is a rooster.

I visited my friend’s farm yesterday. He has eleven white roosters he needs and wants to get rid of because they crow so loudly every morning. He just needed to keep one rooster. He asked if I wanted them roosters.

I never killed a chicken before and was too scared so I asked him to do that for me before I take one home to experiment with.
I also learned how my farmer friend killed the chicken. I remembered how mom would take me to the chicken farm back in Bixby, Oklahoma to buy live chicken to take home. Mom would just hold the chicken in her lap and slit its throat to let the blood runs out in a bowl. The tool my friend used is called a “kill cone”. He placed the chicken with its head down through the hole at the bottom of the cone. He then slit the chicken’s throat to let the chicken blood drain out for two minutes while in an upside down position so “the blood can rush to the brain and make the chicken pass out or fall into a deep sleep before it dies.” It’s a proper way to kill a chicken.

Cleaning the rooster took me an hour long. I remember mom would boil a big pot of water and dunk the chicken rotating on all sides for a few seconds. This makes plucking the feathers much easier. My farmer friend said water should be around 150F. Water that’s too hot can cook and rip the the skin apart. Oh well, it’s my first time and so I just make sure the water is boiling.
I then removed place the chicken in the sink, put my latex gloves on, and start stripping the feathers off. I don’t know how to clean chicken feet so I chopped it off instead. I used a large cutting board, a large KIWI butcher or cleaver knife. KIWI is the brand of knives sold at the Asian markets I have seed growing up. It’s inexpensive, durable, and lasts for years.

This white rooster was fat looking with feathers on but turned out looking bony. I am feeling proud of myself learning how to actually clean a chicken for the first time in my life at this age. 😂 It’s not anywhere professionally nicely done and quick as my mom cleans the chicken, but mission is accomplished for me.

My Vietnamese homecook friends suggested making chicken broth out of it or a Vietnamese chicken salad.