Chicken...it's what's for dinner.

So this was what all the hard work was for...a yummy roaster like this.

Fresh as can be and weighing at 6lbs 5oz.

We did this chicken right.

We brined it using a Taste of Home recipe.

It was good, not my favorite brine recipe to date.

Still it was so good!

I have also been asked what I think is better, free range chicken or organically feed.

It really depends on what you think.  Even though a chicken is organically feed, they still may have lived a sorry little 8 week life stuck in a cage with 5 other birds, their beak cut off so they don't peck each other.

Free range brings up an entirely different set of questions. There aren't well established standards for what is required to call a chicken a free range chicken.  From what I understand, if there is a door open to the coop they are in(keeping in mind commercial birds are kept in massive coops) they can call that bird a 'free range' chicken.  They just need to have access to the outside.  Because the commercial buildings can be so massive, many chickens don't make it outside but because they had the option, the grower can label them 'free range'.

It is a tough call and they can be really expensive.  I am the first person to admit, if I didn't raise my own chicken I would be buying Perdue from BJ's.  I have a family to feed on a budget.  I consider myself blessed that we have the land and the ability to raise a lot of our own food.  The TV show Modern Marvels did a really interesting show on the egg and it showed all of the different ways chickens are raised and housed for eggs...just some food for thought.

Thank you all for your supportive comments and questions...even from you non-meat eaters.  I am very appreciative of all of your comments and support.