With processed chickens, the whole weight will equate to about 52% boneless meat, 20% skin and 28% bones.
Game birds will be different but not dramatically so - except that they will have much less fat.
So, for instance, to get 12 lbs of bones you may need over 40 lbs of poultry.
Regardless, save the skins! Tremendous flavor there - even from store-bought critters. Of course with game that means you need to do a thorough plucking job... which can be a big hassle!
Normally your limiting factor for the number of "Servings" is one of two things: the weight of bones you have available, and the size of your largest stock pot (unless you split it into multiple pots).
So fiddle with the pot size below until you come up with a number that is both a) not bigger than your biggest pot and b) not more bones than you have on hand. All of the other ingredients will fall into line.
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quart pot
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Ingredients
- 7 lbs bones Use the knife to expose as much bone surface as you can.
- 2 lbs meat Take into account that the carcass parts including neck and back may have a good bit of meat.
- 25 lbs estimated total whole carcass weight How much dressed poultry you will need to come up with the bone weight specified above.
Ingredients
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Instructions
- At every step, recover and reserve obvious fat. There will be a lot for domestic poultry, hardly any for wild.
- Process to separate into 6 categories:
- skin
- boned drumstick and thigh meat
- wingtips and cracked bones
- Wings (if using in the stock, count as half bone, half meat)
- remaining carcass parts & necks
Save and package the boneless meat (breast & thigh) and optionally the wings for other uses. You may need to dip into the thigh meat to make up any shortage of meat weight in the ingredients list. - Remove & section wings, tossing the tips into the cracked bone pile. Optionally save and package the wings to make chicken wings (duh), or toss them their own pile which you will count as half bone and half meat by weight.
- Skin the bird, removing and tossing any obvious fat into the fat pile. SAVE THE SKIN! At some point you'll want to process it into the largest flat pieces you can handle (still reserving the smaller pieces), and harvesting the "low hanging fruit" globs of fat. No need to be a fantatic about it, most remaining skin fat will render and can be recovered when you roast the skin.
- First removing the wishbone, remove boneless breasts from the carcass and package/freeze for other uses. Dry-brining it before freezing may be convenient (google "dry brining" if you're not familiar with it).
- Remove the leg/thigh, taking a little care to capture the "oyster", a small chunk of meat forward of the joint and adjacent to the spine. Then separate leg from the thigh, leaning toward keeping more of the meat on the thigh. Bone out the thigh, toss the bone in the bone pile and package/store the meat for other use, though you may need to use some of it to achieve the meat ingredient weight.
- Bone out the drumsticks (it's a little fussy but not terrible) tossing meat into the meat pile, and bone/tendons into the bone pile. This is going to be your primary source of added meat for the stock.
- Cut out spine, separate into 2 or 3 pieces and toss in carcass pile. If the neck or heart came with the giblets - maybe even the gizzard - they go there too. Some folks even put in the liver - I just can't go there myself.
- Weigh the piles except skin & fat. If boned drumstick meat is not enough for the recipe, use boned thigh meat to make it up.
If still not enough dip into the breasts - starting with the tenders.
Make some mental adjustments to include how much estimated meat is on the back/spine and the neck. No need to be precise. - After patting the skin to remove significant surface moisture, roast in a foil lined pan at 400°F until golden to medium brown (about 20 min). Recover rendered fat from the pan. Set aside to cool. When ready to make the stock, rough dice or crumble the skin into your stockpot.
- Lightly crack each leg & thigh bone. A good tap with a butcher knife or cleaver does the trick. You don't need to cut them in pieces. It can be simpler to handle them through the roasting step if they stay slightly connected.
- Use all your cracked bones then remaining carcass bones to get to your bone weight. If using the wings count them as half meat half bone.
- Reserve all of the fat, including the fat recovered from the skin browning step. After your stock has been fully chilled, if there is a hardened fat-cap add it to this pile as well. Then you render it all into schmaltz — which has many uses. Google will tell you how to render it. Just start with a couple ounces of water on the bottom so the fat doesn't scorch before it starts to render.
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