The Gentile Chicken

There are some things in life that I take for granted. Peanut oil happens to be one of them.  But man, not anymore.  Uh,uh,uh…

     This week I’ve been working up the courage to cut up a chicken. I’m not practically fond of chicken, it tends to gross me out and I usually only eat chicken that I have cooked because I know all those nasty veins have been removed and the icky yellow chicken fat has been trimmed and the slimy film has been washed off.

     Buuuutt….I’m doing this Bon Appetit throwdown thing and this months cover recipe calls for, and I quote, a chicken (not kosher), cut into 10 pieces, backbone and wing tips removed, so I’m going to buck up and stick a knife in one.  Can anybody explain to me why I can’t use a “kosher” chicken? I mean, I didn’t even know there was such a thing and I had no idea  that chickens follow different religious practices, but now I want to know why you’re only supposed to fry the Gentile and not the Jewish ones.  

     And I’m supposed to remove their wing tips? Huh? I didn’t even know they wore them. 

     I can see this is going to be a lot harder than I thought. Where's that fussy dessert when I need it?

Does "All Natural" mean "Not Kosher" in chicken talk?

I made out my grocery list…two islands and six grocery stores later I have managed to round up the ten ingredients, the last one being peanut oil, which I swear on a stack of Bibles that I will never take for granted again.  At home I buy peanut oil by the gallon, like five gallons at a time around Thanksgiving. But these are the islands mon and instant gratification can not be found at the marina market.  When I did get it ran down at store #6, the bottles were little and they were expensive. I bought three of them at $6.99 a pop and am hoping that it will be enough to fry my bird, which by the way cost less than one bottle of oil. 

12 measly ounces in that bottle

The Big Guy mentioned that when he was a kid he used to see his grandma cut up a chicken every Sunday so I told him that that more than qualified him to be the chicken cutter-upper in this family. He’s trying to get out it. Says it wouldn’t be kosher if I didn’t cut up my own chicken. Humpf, we'll see.

The Gentile chicken that's about to land in the peanut pool.