SC - OP: Chicken soup request

[Laura C. Minnick]

Oh, the memories...

Anahita's post about her first chicken soup reminded me of the first
time my mom dealt with a chicken that didn't come wrapped in plastic. I
must have been 11 or 12- so this is roughly 25 years ago. Our neighbors
across the road had chickens, geese, pigs, goats, and cow, and they used
them all like real farm folk do. Well, chicken killing time came and Dee
asked my mom if she wanted a chicken. Trying to be very Mother Earth at
that time but really a suburban SoCal girl (and I have 40lbs of TMEN
back issues in storage to prove it) mom said yes. I'm sure she thought,
she'd be getting the nice naked, pink carcass, minus the plastic wrap.
What Dee brought over was a chicken, minus it's head, slit open with the
digestive stuff taken out. Feathers, feet, everything else still there.
She gave mom some loose instructions about how to pluck it (involving
scalding it, I think) and left. Mom was horrified. She didn't have a pot
big enough, and tried pouring boiling water over it in the sink. The
feathers did not budge. The kitchen began to smell. Then the rest of the
house smelled too. Of wet feathers and chicken. It was awful. After a
couple of hours of wrestling with this chicken, all slimy, with feathers
everywhere and everyone whining about the smell (my dad just left- he
hates chicken anyway and this did not improve his opinion) she finally
gave up and smuggled the chicken into the dumpster. I'm sure the garbage
man appreciated it...

I'm worse. For day to day, I prefer the chicken in the ziploc bags,
breasts seperately frozen so you can pullout as many as you want...

To this day the smell of boiling chicken makes me nauseous...

'Lainie
the chicken wimp