Cooking an Old Rooster

Not many people know this, but every single packaged chicken in chain grocery stores is a female.  Most male chickens are aborted upon hatching because they don’t lay eggs and fight each other all the time and accordingly are not economical to keep.  Before modern agriculture when most rural folks kept chickens, they ate their roosters.  The classic French dish, chicken coq au vin, is made by slow cooking an old tough rooster in wine.  On a recent visit to a new Vietnamese grocery store I found a rooster.  It costs 3 times more than most grocery store chickens, but I wanted to try making the classic French dish authentically, so I sprung for it.

Asian supermarkets sell birds with the head and feet attached.  The cock’s comb is edible according to some vintage cookbooks, but it looks like cartilage to me.  I gave it to the cats.

First I butchered the rooster into 10 pieces.  (I wrapped up the feet and put them in the freezer for future stock-making.)  Next, I dredged the chicken in seasoned flour and browned the pieces in bacon grease.  I placed the pieces in a casserole dish and sautéed mushrooms and onions in the pan I browned the chicken in.  I smothered the chicken with the onions and mushrooms and deglazed the other pan with red wine.  I used an inexpensive Merlot.  I poured the wine on the chicken and vegetables.  I happened to have parsley so I sprinkled chopped parsley over this.  I covered the casserole dish and put it inside the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  If I had to do it over again, I would go with 300 degrees for 2 hours.  The first temperature and time would be perfect for a grocery store broiling hen, but it didn’t tenderize the rooster as much as I would’ve liked.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed eating the rooster.  The flesh had a better texture than most grocery store chickens.  Almost all grocery store chickens are embalmed with a salt water solution, and in my opinion this gives the flesh a weird texture.  I’ve given up even looking for non-embalmed chickens.  Producers inject salt water in chickens because modern breeds have such large breasts, the white meat will dry out without the solution.  This dish is traditionally served with pearl onions, but I just used a regular chopped onion.  The wine gravy is delicious and really pairs well with the meat.

The finished product. Tastes like chicken.

 

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