Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

My stomach can't tolerate much beef so I've started cooking and dehydrating chicken as part of my food storage. One problem I hadn't anticipated, though, is the amount of grease in the chicken--it's all over the bottom of my dehydrator after the chicken is done drying. Any suggestions on how to de-grease the chicken better before dehydration? I'm primarily boiling the chicken, so maybe if I cut it into smaller pieces as it's cooking so more of the fat could be boiled out?

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

I havent dehydrated chicken myself, so this will jsut be some anecdotal ideas.

If you are boiling the chicken, defat the broth before pulling the chicken out. This is, taking as much fat off the top of the water as you can. That way when you pull the chicken out, you arent pulling it out through a layer of fat.

Defat the chicken as much as you can. Cut it up into smaller pieces and cut every single piece of visible fat you see off of it. Commericial chicken fat doesnt have much flavor anyways, and its not good for long term storage.

If youre boiling chicken anyways, why not add some carrots, celery, shallots, onions, etc and some salt into the water. When you are done cooking the chicken, defat like above, dehydrate your chicken and now you have a pot of flavored chicken broth that you can put in mason jars and can.

I have no idea of if any of this will work, but its just some ideas on what i would try if I were experiencing this problem. Im sure a much more savy prepper will come along and tell me how wrong all my ideas are ;)

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

I often smoke chicken leg quarters

First I slow bake the chicken for 5-6 hours in the oven at 160 degrees on racks~~~~most of the fat melts off an the chicken is cooked~~~~~then I smoke for 3-4 hours without haveing to worry about keeping the temperature up in my home made smoker to make sure the chicken is well cooked regardless of the outside temperature.

Should work if you do that before putting in your dehydrator

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

Just go to Petco.

http://www.petco.com/Assets/product_...734888454C.jpg

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

skin it first if you havent already?

also you may consider a switch to rabbit it has less fat by far and is a much
cleaner meat anyway ie less chance of the nasty bugs/germs that are common in chicken.

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

where might your average suburban prepper find rabbit at a reasonable price though?


(For now, I live in a townhouse which maens I dont even have a back yard to put a couple 'pet' rabbits in. Working on getting outta here though)

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

Have been doing beer can smoked chicken in my pit for
years. Once done, remove the skin and there is very little
to no fat left on the meat.

Mater of fact, the skin turns paper thin and black, all the fat
melts off the bird and ends up in the bottom of the smoker.

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

the skin contains nutrients too, but also, like you say, fat.

in a word, i say,

GRAVITY.

cook it in a steamer or something so that the fat can flow down to the bottom of the pan. you will end up with low-fat cooked chicken.

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

craiglist normally has people selling meat rabbits at least my local one does.
quick trip out of the city would probably find you all you need withing a half hour or so although you may have to do the cleaning yourself.

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

I dont mind cleaning myself. Wouldnt bother me a bit.

I just live in 100 miles of urban sprawl. Im sure theres some places to get it though, just thought maybe there was an easier way you knew about. :biggrin:

Have any good recipes?

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

The chicken I'm buying is boneless/skinless thighs for $1.47 a pound by the case at Sam's Club. I'm not sure where I could get it any cheaper than that.

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

im afraid im not much of a cook i normally eat just fried with a little salt,pepper and garlic. add in some baked beans and potatoes and you have a good camp stew.throw in the leftovers in a soup etc etc

but any recipee that calls for chicken you can use rabbit for

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

Isn't "rabbit starvation" a problem if rabbit is your main source of meat, since rabbit is so low-fat? But right now I'm not in a position to raise my own meat, just stock up on it. Which is why I'm trying to figure out how to proceed with dehydrating chicken.

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

Thigh meat has a lot more fat that breast. In fact, it is loaded. That is probably the main source of your problem. If you're looking to reduce the fat, buy breast meat.

Why not can the meat instead of dehydrate it?

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

Well, the breast meat is more expensive. I don't mind trying to boil out the fat if I'm paying less for the meat.

I'm dehydrating it instead of canning it because 1) there's probably a lot less risk of food poisoning from dehydration than improper canning, 2) the shelf life of dehydrated chicken is probably a lot longer than if I can it, and 3) I can fit a whole lot more dehydrated chicken in mason jars than I can canned chicken. I've got space constraints, but even if I didn't, I'd still probably opt for whatever takes up less space in case I need the space for other preps down the road.

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

The first two points there arent necessarily true. There is still a high risk of food spoiling or devoloping botulism (Depending on how you store it) if it is dehydrated. Proper canning of chicken isnt hard, you just need a pressure canner. They CAN get expensive, but you dont have to get the top of the line if you are doing small batches.

I would also venture to say that dehydrated meats have a SHORTER shelf life than that of canned. In my experiences it has always been so at least.

You can definitly fit a ton more dehydrated product into the same sized space over canned though and that really is one MAJOR benefit to dehydarting. I started dehydrating veggies to pack away and i got about 5 lbs of mixed veggies in a single quart mason jar. If i had wet canned that, it would have taken about 5 qt jars and weighed a ton!

Tech guy started a really good thread HERE on food dehydrating and packing. Check it out, its got a ton of info in there of all types.

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

Visit your local farmer's market. We sell out of rabbit every single week and typically have a waiting list. Ours are not sold at a reasonable price, though -- free market capitalism works and these yuppies are willing to pay high dollars to eat locally grown foods -- but rabbit is definitely out there and available.

Craig's list is definitely an option, too. Just be careful that you don't talk to someone about their fuzzy pet and cooking in the same breath. I have made that mistake before. People comment that they are so cute and ask what we do with them. When I say "eat them", they are aghast. Oh, well...

Rabbit recipes abound on the internet...but like the previous poster wrote -- you can substitute it for chicken in most recipes.

If you are butchering your own rabbits, make sure to knock them in the head first -- very important or they stiffen up. (I made that mistake the first time -- just slit their throats like I do the chickens and the meat was a whole lot tougher.) I'm sure you can find good butchering instructions online. Easiest thing ever to butcher, IMO.

The irony, of course, is that on butchering day when we are all done we end up with rabbit feet hanging from the rafters of the barn -- "lucky rabbit's feet" -- just not so lucky for the rabbit, I suppose.

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

OK, I just got to thinking, because there's a little residual fat in the chicken I've been dehydrating, should I pack it in salt to keep it from becoming rancid, or will the fact that the chicken is extremely dry and is sealed in mason jars be good enough to keep the fat from turning rancid?

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

Hey belle,

Im just now seeing the post :sleep:. THanks for the tips and advice.

We've got crap for farmers markets around, but Ill certainly take a look. Might be able to pick up some goats milk while im there (the non ultra pasturized kind)!

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

I have a fabulous recipe for rabbit stew. Too bad it is at home. If I can remember I will post it here. Dropping this post for the subscription to the thread that might remind me if it keeps running.

Re: Trying to de-grease chicken for dehydration, long-term storage
 

BUMP


Anyone wanna tackle this question?