Chicken, I Hate Your Guts

And you stink too!

The other day, Alvin and I were talking about making rotisserie chicken in our toaster oven. This oven can fit a 9x13 pan, and also has a rotisserie stick to roast chicken.

I have made whole chickens in the states, so I thought, "how hard could it be?"

So I went to my friendly outdoor butcher who has a fridge and keeps whole chicken in it. But he said, "no fresh chickens today, sorry."

So I walked by this other butcher, and saw that he was selling whole chicken. But as I was asking him how much a chicken was, I started to gag on the smell. I have noticed that sometimes when I buy chicken here, it can have a rotten smell. Maybe it is because some butchers don't have a fridge and it is an outdoor market in the middle of the summer. But for some reason, I really wanted to eat rotisserie chicken, and so I bought it.

When I got home, I realized, preparing this chicken is going to be very difficult. First, the head and feet are still attached. It is really hard emotionally butchering a chicken when its head is still attached. I feel like I only like to eat meat when I haven't seen its face. So, I took my butcher knife, and quickly cut off the head. As first, I unconsciously covered my eyes so I wouldn't have to see the chicken's head, but then I realized that I wanted to keep my fingers intact, so looking while I cut would be good for all.

Next came the harder task, de-gutting the chicken. In the past, de-gutting is no problem because it includes sticking my hand into the cavity and taking out the already packaged innards, and then throwing it away. Here, it is the real thing. First, I looked into the chicken, and stuck my hand in. It was squishy and the smell of the chicken made me gag and I think I may have threw up in my mouth. But I couldn't do much about that because my hands were in a chicken. So finally, after putting the chicken in a bowl, I told myself I had to do it. No one else was going to come in and rescue me. So in one hand I held a paring knife to detach the organs from the cavity, and with the other hand I grabbed and discarded the organs. Eeew, I kept telling the chicken, "I hate your guts!"

When it was time to put the chicken in the oven, I realized that the chicken was too heavy. As a result, the rotisserie stick wasn't able to turn. Yikes, after a huge ordeal, I put it on a roast pan and just roasted it.

The chicken turned out pretty good and nobody got sick from it. I only served it to Alvin because I didn't want to send anyone to the hospital. I also made mashed potatoes and bok choy. That was easy compared to the chicken.

I think I will do whole chicken again, but next time I will buy a smaller chicken, buy it from butcher with a fridge, and kindly ask the butcher to get rid of the insides for me. Also, I might want to invest in some nose plugs.