We ordered 25 barred rock chickens from a hatchery, these are laying chickens and we ordered only females. We shall see about that, seems like a rooster always sneaks in, kind of like the man from the titanic who dressed up in woman's clothes in order to board a life boat....
We also have 25 Cornish Cross-Rocks, these are a hybrid and they are what you get when you buy chicken at Target or Dillon's or any grocery store. They have been bred to be large and they covert food to meat very efficiently. There is some controversy over whether we should even attempt to raise these chickens for meat, but since ours will be raised humanely, outside in open pastures, under sunshine and atop of green grass we deemed it the best. These are the chickens people expect when they order them, so we shall do it, but do it the way God intended.
So we also have one extra barred rock and they always add a "rare" chick. She is a silver gray color so we can tell her from the others and her name is Pippin. She will be a pet more than anything.
They are friends!Okay that is the first chicken story....although I will admit they are so much cuter.....
At school today we are doing home style Spaghetti with meat sauce and french bread and romaine salad
we also made a Hearty Chicken and Pasta Soup adapted from a Pioneer Woman recipe. (If you don't know already I am a Ree Drumond aka The Pioneer Woman Groupie.) We needed to make about 2 1/2 gallons of soup for today.
Here is the home version of the recipe:
Hearty Chicken and Pasta Soup
1/2 c of olive oil divided 1/4 c each
4 bone in skin on chicken breast
4 carrots, diced (the carrots that have a stalk top and narrow bottom, no baby carrots here)
4 ribs of celery, diced
1/2 c diced onion
2 boxes of good chicken stock ( I love Kitchen Basics the best)
2 cups of a short pasta
1 t. of kosher salt and a bunch of fresh cracked pepper
2 t. of dried thyme
1/4 c of dried parsley or 1/2 c of chopped fresh
Heat a large heavy bottomed soup pot, let it get really hot, then add 1/4 c of olive oil, now add your chicken skin side down...let this brown really well. When you can move the chicken it is done, this takes a little time, but adds so much to the soup.
Remove the chicken and add the rest of the olive oil. Add the vegetables and cook them for about 5 minutes on high heat. Then add everything into the pot, including the chicken on the bone with the skin intact. Bring this to a boil for about 30 minutes.
Remove the chicken and shred the meat off of it, return the meat to the pot, discard the bones and skin; they have done their work.
Add the pasta and the seasoning. Bring back up to a boil for about 10 minutes, check the pasta, when it is tender the soup is done.
I like to add lots of fresh cracked pepper to my bowl, but season how you enjoy it!
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