Better than KFC...

Zack invited me over on Friday (we were out of school for Good Friday) to kill and eat a chicken. I figured this was an experience that I needed to gain during my time in China. For those of you that know me, I do not hunt and do not care for killing innocent animals. But in China, this is a custom, as many of our Chinese neighbors raise roosters/hens for a month and then eat them in celebration of a holiday.

This is our chicken. We kept him in a dog cage until slaughter time!

This was our killing instrument. I wanted to ring his neck, but Zack was in favor slitting his throat, as all the blood would drain out easier.

We tied the chicken upside down over the garbage can to keep the mess from spreading on his patio. Getting the chicken tied up was definitely the hardest part, as he was a valiant fighter. Once we got his feet tied down, we locked up his wings.

For my mother's and sister's sake, I will not post any pictures of the killing, skinning or removal of the organs. I have all of this on video camera that I can show to those willing souls this summer. I did not actually slit his throat, as I did not want to hit the wrong spot and make him suffer. I did pluck all his feathers, once he died. We dipped him in boiling water, which made the feathers easier to pull. I also was in charge of removing all of the organs. I made an incision just below his bootie hole. Then with gloves, I removed all of his insides. At this point, we realized it was not a him, as I began to remove eggs. Once he was cleaned out, I cut off his feet, wings and head. I then let Zack take over and carefully remove the breast meat, as I did not want to mess the most important part up. After all of this work, Zack (AKA Gordon Ramsey), turned our handiwork into Kung Pao chicken. Sarah and I both tried the fresh chicken for dinner. It was not bad, but I think I will let someone else handle this type of work in the future!