Name: Chickens – a LOVE/HATE relationship.
Brand: thehandyheifer.com
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Chickens – a LOVE/HATE relationship.

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After writing my first post, I was brainstorming about what to write about next. I knew I wanted to include a recipe that I had just made and I immediately remembered this picture (above) of me at about 3-4 years old with our chickens. As you can tell the picture quality is poor because we didnt have the digital photography back then as we do now, however as you can see I was quite at home with those chickens.
We had a lot of chickens. My dad thought it was necessary to buy about 150 baby chicks every spring. They would arrive at the feed store in town (Paragould Ar about 10 miles from Lafe), in these big cardboard boxes with holes in them. We would bring them in the barn, into a room dad had made for them with a heat lamp, straw, food and water. Twice a day we would change out the water, feed them, clean the pen and get rid of the dead ones. Yes some died, that’s just part of it. Usually we lost 10 to 20 each time. At first, the chickens are little and so cute, then they start growing their feathers and then they are nothing but ugly. Y’all chickens are nasty. They poop a lot! So when confined they get dirty and stinky, and it wasn’t fun anymore after about 2 months. Of course after this allotted time we have what I always called “chicken killin day!” Yep you read that right, we butchered our chickens for meat and put them up in the freezer. It went down something like this: WARNING (this could be disturbing to some folks, so if you are the squeamish type, vegan, or work for peta, you might want to stop right here). The&nbsp;chickens were brought up from the barn, and mom would ring their necks. If you don’t know what that means, google it. &nbsp;She could do two at a time. I would try spinning that chicken round and round till my arm got tired, set it down and it would run off! So I opted for the hatchet and the chopping block. It took some skill to hold those chickens down and chop off their head. You had to hold their feet and wings together in one hand while holding the hatchet in the other. Once I was holding a large chicken and about the time I swung, she moved and I lost my grip on a wing and cut the juggler. Blood started spurting everywhere and got on my face and in my eye. So I have a partially severed flopping chicken, blood in my eye and in the spur of that moment I tried to swing my hatchet again and I connected alright, with my big toe! Sometime in fighting this chicken, I placed my foot on top of it to steady it and wasn’t aware that when I came back down with the hatchet, I missed the chicken, went straight through my Reebok tennis shoes and into my big toe! Ouch! Luckily it was a clean cut, no stitches, and I have a scar to prove it! Anyway, after beheading the chickens they flop around on the ground a lot, hence the saying “running around like a chicken with its head cut off! After they quit their flopping, we dip them in hot boiling water. This helps to remove the feathers aka “plucking the chicken”. Then we singe the chickens over a fire to remove any remaining down type feathers that are difficult to see. The wet feathers mixed with the singed feathers is a smell you’ll never forget! Yuck! After the chickens are plucked and singed, they are “dressed” so to speak, &nbsp;by removing the “innards” aka internal organs, and cutting them up. &nbsp;So therefore, I’ve always known how to cut up a whole chicken. Of course, we would spend all day doing this and mom would cook dinner, and guess what we would have…Fried Chicken! Talk about fresh. Even though it was always good, I never could get the smell out of my nose while trying to eat it on that particular day.
As the title infers, my relationship with chickens did not always look like a sweet little girl standing in the chicken coop gathering eggs. Most of the time quite the contrary, as the rooster and I did not get along. Ok the rooster didn’t get along with anybody. Ok I hated that damn rooster! Every time I stepped into that chicken pen without my mother, he would come after me. He got me good a few times, so I was on guard and he knew it! My mother would lecture me “Amy, you just get in there and don’t pay him no mind, and carry a stick with you and if he comes at ya, just knock him back!” Yeah right! Once, I went to get the eggs from the chicken house (that’s what we called it because it was a lot bigger than a coop) and here he come, all ruffled up and strutting his stuff, and this time I was ready with an axe&nbsp;handle! So he kept his distance at first, until I got closer to the house, then all of a sudden here he came at a full run! As soon as he got close I swung that axe handle, and he jumped up flapping his wings right on top of that handle. I swung it back and forth and he stayed on, finally he jumped up closer to me and I threw that handle down and bee-lined for the gate! So eventually after he got mom and dad too, then he made it to the dumplin pot! I liked him so much better in the pot.
So now you might ask, where is this going? Well the flu has been running rampant in Arkansas, and my daughter came down with it, so I decided there isn’t anything better to treat the flu than some good old chicken soup! So here ya go, my recipe for “Feel Better Chicken Soup”.
FeelBetterChickenSoup
1 whole chicken
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup baby carrots,&nbsp;chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 T. chopped garlic
4 T. butter
1 –&nbsp;10.5 oz can of cream of chicken soup
2 cups heavy whipping cream
3 cups water
2 cups of dry egg noodles
1/2 cup rice (any kind)
2 tsp. Italian seasoning blend
1 bay leaf
salt/pepper to taste
Place chicken in a large stockpot, add enough water to cover the chicken. Bring to boil, turn heat down to simmer and boil until meat is leaving the bone. Y’all if you have a pressure cooker or instapot, use it. Remove the chicken from pot and allow to cool. &nbsp;Save the broth. Remove meat from chicken, discard bones and skin. Shred the chicken or cut up in small pieces. I use half of the chicken meat, save the other half for something else or freeze. Strain the broth into a container to remove any other bits of bone and debris and set aside. You can use the same pot to start the soup.
Start with melting your butter in your pot over medium heat, add onion, carrots, and celery. Cover with lid and stir occasionally until softened somewhat, onions should be transparent. Add garlic and sauté for one minute. Then add your chicken meat and broth. Bring back to boil and add cream of chicken soup, water and whipping cream. Turn down heat and add noodles, rice, seasoning and bay leaf. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing sticks to bottom of pot. You should allow approximately 30 min or so for the rice to cook thoroughly. If you like a thinner soup just a little more water until desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Check rice to make sure it’s soft and remove bay leaf before serving.
I hope you enjoy this recipe, my daughter sure did! She felt better the very next day lol! If you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments and I will answer them as soon as possible. Thanks for following me on this new journey!
Gods Peace,
The Handy Heifer

After writing my first post, I was brainstorming about what to write about next. I knew I wanted to include a recipe that I had just made and I immediately remembered this picture (above) of me at about 3-4 years old with our chickens. As you can tell the picture quality is poor because we didnt have the digital photography back then as we do now, however as you can see I was quite at home with those chickens.
We had a lot of chickens. My dad thought it was necessary to buy about 150 baby chicks every spring. They would arrive at the feed store in town (Paragould Ar about 10 miles from...

Chickens – a LOVE/HATE relationship.

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