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Hound Dog

Oct 10, 2009, 2:49 PM

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Free Range Chickens

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In our neighborhood in San Cristóbal de Las Casas there are several people who raise fighting cocks and actually that is quite common thereabouts. We had taken to buying chickens at a local man´s house sold as "free range" chickens in local jargon and I´ll tell you what:

If you cannot eat those inedible "free range" fighting cocks, don´t worry about it because after de-feathering, they make great and durable bowling balls.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Oct 10, 2009, 2:49 PM)

Carron

Oct 12, 2009, 1:08 PM

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Re: [Hound Dog] Free Range Chickens

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When we lived for three years in Copoya, Chiapas (a Zoque village up in the mountains south of Tuxtla) there were several little indigenous ladies who sold chickens out of their living rooms. When they had stock to sell, they would hang a yellow plastic grocery bag on a stick in front of their houses and my husband would walk down and order a couple. He would then have to sit in their house while they caught and plucked a scrawny hen or two. Took about 20 minutes (much faster then I could ever do it), during which time they usually gave him a warm coke to drink while he waited. They always asked if we needed the feet and heads or could they keep them??? I usually wanted the feet (terrific for soup) but gave them back the heads. It has been about 8 years but as I remember a dressed chicken cost about 20 pesos.

Simmered for hours with lots of seasonings, then shredded, they made great taco fillings. They were also served as tinga if the meat still clung to the bones.

If circumstances were different, I myself would choose to free range in Chiapas until I die. Hopefully with my head and feet still in tact.

(This post was edited by Carron on Oct 12, 2009, 1:10 PM)

Hound Dog

Oct 13, 2009, 1:47 PM

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Re: [Carron] Free Range Chickens

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Carron:

My darlin French wife tells me these tough-assed chickens make great coq au vin as the secret to success is lengthy stewing and the red wine and pehaps a bit of cognac. Down in South Alabama we just slaughtered that sucker and fried it in Crisco with some rice, cream gravy and collard greens and served up the whole thing with some sweet iced tea and corn bread. You see now why I married a French woman. Dawg did not just get off the turnip truck.

smokesilver

Oct 13, 2009, 5:37 PM

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Re: [Hound Dog] Free Range Chickens

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Either way sounds delicioso...

Carron

Oct 15, 2009, 8:25 AM

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Re: [Hound Dog] Free Range Chickens

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As I was growing up just outside New Orleans, my grandmother served your typical southern meal several times a week (substitute unsweetened tea). She always started around 11 AM with catching the chicken and wringing its neck. How easy she made it seem! We sat down to the table for "dinner" at 1:00 punctually. I to this day don't know how she managed it.

What do you think there is about Chiapas (the southernmost state in Mexico) which invariably attracts us cantankerous old Confederates like flies to chicken poop???

Hound Dog

Oct 15, 2009, 9:52 AM

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Re: [Carron] Free Range Chickens

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Carron remarks that Chiapas attracts cantankerous old confederates like (my words) flies to excrement and, by God, Carron may have a point there.

Part of the reason I moved to San Cristóbal de Las Casas besides the fact that my French wife was moving there whether or not I tagged along, was to get as far away from Tuscaloosa as possible and still be in North America (technically speaking). So, there we are, strolling down the Andador near the central plaza in our new town as far away as possible from that frat white boy culture when, I swear to God, we hear,

"Well, Ah decleah, if it ain´t ole Bob (AKA Dawg);how you doin´ Bawb, whut yáll doin´ down heah?"

Shades of Tuscaloosa circa 1963 without the sexual revolution and there was an old frat brother so into the 1950s South Alabama-back-patting-hail-fellow-well- met unctuous culture I thought Geotge Wallace had risen from the grave and come back to haunt me late in life and now this old frat brother is down there sucking up to Amigos de San Cristóbal and damn, I thought I was safe within 50 kilometers of the Guatemala border.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Oct 15, 2009, 10:13 AM)