Cooking with a Stew Hen....

There comes a time when we have to retire some of our older eggs layers and this fall was that time.   We had a lot of interest from our customers who wanted them for stock birds as the flavour from these older birds is delicious.  They have spent over two years running around a paddock eating grass, grubs, excess vegetables and scratch.  

These birds are slightly lighter in size but are darker in meat.

Rather than just making stock we decided to have a go at making a chicken ragu.  I am not going to lie it is a lengthy process but well worth it.

Michael jointed the chicken and then I marinated the chicken in half a bottle of red wine, fresh rosemary and garlic.  This stage can be done for an hour or over night, all depends on your time and patience.





Once marinated the chicken pieces were removed and browned in oil in a dutch oven.  Once the chicken was browned I used the excess fat in the pot to brown three cloves of sliced garlic and to cook a tin of anchovies.

The chicken was returned to the pot along with the remainder of the marinade and two jars of home canned tomatoes.   All of this was brought to the boil on the stove top. Then the lid was popped on the pot and placed into the wood stove oven on 350F and left to cook for 3.5 hours.



Once cooked the chicken was falling away from the bone but we left it with the pot lid on and placed it on the counter top over night so all the juices could soak into the meat even more.
Next morning I pulled all the meat away from the bones.  We were pleasantly surprised how much meat we got and also how tender it was.

All the skin and bones can go into another pot and stock can be made with this if you wish.  I added the meat back to the sauce and cooked on a gentle simmer for another hour. Finally it was ready to serve for dinner on a bed of spaghetti squash.   Other sides could be Spaghetti or mashed potato or what ever takes your fancy.