Your step by step guide of how to kill and prepare a chicken- Paraguayan style

A little history behind this post before I get into the good stuff- Since last March I had been asking my host mom to teach me how to kill a chicken. I don’t think they ever took me seriously because they would just laugh and say otra dia which literally means another day.. but here its said so loosely that it pretty much means never. So when I saw my other host mom doing it this past month I told me I wanted to learn and do it one day. Well she also said otra dia.. but I was persistent and we so we planned the big day. 

Chicken can be bought in the grocery story here and it is actually really good chicken. The main chicken factory and producer is near my house and my neighbors actually work there. It is the only meat I have bought by myself and cooked in my house. So why feel the need to kill a backyard chicken? You might be wondering... well here in Paraguay the “home-made chicken/ backyard chicken / pollo casero” which is what they call it when you kill it yourself is considered to be tastier, better and plus you feel like a champion after the whole process. So yes I can buy my chicken and kill my chicken. And after this post you will be able to kill a chicken if you ever so desire!

Step 1- Catching the chicken. I arrived at the house and the 2 guys were already in a bag awaiting their doom... but apparently it is difficult to catch a chicken and get it in the bag. My suggestion have someone help you with that part.. those things are faster then they look. 

Taking the chicken out of the bag 

Step 2- The deed or the actual killing part. Grab its two legs with one hand and its neck with the other. Pull down towards your leg with the neck part with your thumb pressing into the neck bone. This was the hardest part for me because you are breaking the neck and I was shy and didn’t pull hard enough at first..and I mean its bone that you are breaking so thats not the easiest task! Once the neck is broken the little guy’s body will still move for about 20 seconds then it will die. See photos below, notice my facial expressions- there is a whole lot going on there. 

When you struggle the bird flaps and moves around..
this I was unaware of.. hence my facial expression

Taking direction from my host mom

The finished product in one arm and Pauli in the other! 

Step 3- De- feathering. Dip the whole chicken in boiling hot water. My host mom had a huge pot over an open fire so it was very easy and very hot. Once the chicken is dunked in the water you can pluck its feathers and they come out so easily. The large feathers at his bottom you will need to pluck one by one first, but then after he’s all yours. I was incredible shocked at how easy it was to take his feathers off. 

Step 4- Remove all remaining feathers. This involves lightly putting the recently de- feathered chicken over the open flame. This is to secure all feathers and little hairs burn off over the fire and there is nothing remaining. Its very quick and you don’t want to burn the chicken just the small left over hairs. 

Step 5- Cleaning the chicken. As basic as it sounds. Clean and scrub that chicken with fresh clean water. There shouldn’t be any blood unless you punctured his skin when breaking the neck which I did with one of them.. but hey you just killed a chicken with you hands, whats a little blood gonna do?

Cleaning the bird 

With the finished de-feathered and cleaned bird! 

Step 6- Cutting up the meat- I didn’t actually do this part because I would have had no clue what to cut, so I watched. But basically you cut off the legs and the wings and the breast and other parts. Then you take out the heart and the stomach and other lovely insides of the chicken. In some parts of Paraguay you eat every part including the head..but I asked for us to leave that out of our meal. So we saved it for my host sister. I helped cut the stomach out and take the lining out to prepare to eat it. Apparently its the best part but I wasn’t up for a taste testing. And then when it was all cut up it looked like you had just gone to the grocery store to get some chicken to cook. It was a pretty amazing site. 

Step 7- Cook the bird! We started with some oil, salt, oregano, cumin and some bay leaves. Then placed the chicken in with it, this was all done over an open fire. Then after about an hour of cooking we made home made gnoochi out of potatoes we also made a little red sauce from tomatoes, peppers and onions. Once the gnocchi were cooked in boiling water for 10 minutes we added it all the the pot with the chicken and let that cook together for another half hour. Then it was time to feast. 

My Paraguay bestie to the left, Vania in the middle and
 Tisa on the right working hard making the Gnocchi!

Step 8- Eat your heart out! And that we did. It was one of the best meals I’ve had in this country because I killed the chicken that morning and you could taste the freshness and the satisfaction in every bite.. really it was so good. It was only dead for a matter of 20 minutes before cooking it.. now what more can you saw about farm to table? Also this was all done in a matter of hours! Fun fact- home made chickens like this one have darker meat, it almost looks like beef but it taste like chicken. And why is this? Because its natural and this is what their meat naturally looks like without any preservatives, hormones or chemicals! 

My lovely mentees that came and spent a week with me and were
active in the chicken killing process and the eating process! 

And the cooks enjoying the feast! 

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I had a hard time at first when I arrived in Paraguay with all the meat they consume. I thought “wow there goes any attempted at being a vegetarian” but then I got to thinking... my reasonings in the states for eating less meat was because of the chemical process that our meat in the states goes through.. it is basically not even meat by the time everything is added or taken out of it. I’ve seen enough documentaries to know how corrupt the industry is. But then I move to Paraguay and yes its a whole lot of meat all the time, but its so fresh, so clean and I feel so much better about being a meat consumer. I mean that chicken we ate for lunch I know was all chicken.. not that crap you see these days on the self! Ok that was my rant, its over now!!! 

I hope you enjoyed the blog post, as strange as it seems this is how people prepare things down here and not just with chickens. I have seem my fair share of pig slaughters.. those are a bit more messy. It is also common for a cow, duck, goat and the occasional turkey slaughter. My host family killed a pig about a month ago and we are still eating off of it and it is deliciousssss!