Chicken

A couple weeks ago I bought a whole chicken from Safeway. It was on sale and I figured that it would be useful for making several different dishes. Life got busy so Mr. Chicken went from the fridge into the freezer. Our freezer has recently become over populated. For some reason we have three half gallon containers of ice cream, three boxes of Magnum minis, and a box of Snickers ice cream bars. Yeah...we like ice cream.

In order to make room for our seven boxes of ice cream, I was forced to take Mr. Chicken out of the freezer to defrost. Today it was time to butcher Mr. Chicken. I haven't really done any chicken-butchering for a while, so I was unprepared for what would follow. I must have forgotten that a whole chicken look a lot like...a chicken. It was pretty disturbing. It wasn't pretty like boneless skinless chicken breasts that come neatly arranged in a plastic wrapped tray. It had wings and legs and looked like a real animal. I guess that I forgot that meat comes from real animals. Becoming a vegetarian crossed my mind for two second, then I got back to cutting. I had to break bones, cut through cartilage and tear skin. It's not a pretty sight. I was surprised that I was actually doing it. I think that as a meat-eater it's good to remind yourself every now that in order to have meat to eat, some pretty gruesome things must be done to animals, whether living or dead. Chicken doesn't just come on pretty platters. That being said, I think I will avoid buying whole chicken for a while.