Thwarted by poultry...

[thistlechaser]

I'm starting to think my local supermarket sells only the biggest birds in America.

Last week I wanted to do a simple whole chicken, and it was nearly too big for the crock pot.

This week (tomorrow, in fact) I wanted to do a turkey breast in the crock pot. The chicken had come out so well, I wanted to do the turkey the same way. I was prepping it tonight... and it's too big. I bought the smallest one in the store (just under six pounds), and it doesn't fit.

I went through the horror of trying to butcher it some to make it fit (UGH UGH UGH enough to put me back off eating meat again), but that didn't work, so I'm going to have to bake it in the oven instead.

But of course I have no baking rack, so we'll see how it goes.

I really wanted to do it in the crock pot because there's less chance I'd undercook it that way. (At least I have a meat thermometer, I just hope it's long enough to reach the thickest part...)

I'd ask why all the birds in the store were so darned big, but I know it's money -- Safeway would rather sell you a 6 pound bird than a 3 pound one.

I'm going to have to find a butcher or something to buy from for these projects... Fingers crossed that the breast cooks through, doesn't set my apartment on fire, and comes out at least okay enough to be worth eating. :/

Comments

[gconnor.livejournal.com]

If you can somehow fit it in, it should be fine. In future if it is too big, you could cook half, and cook the rest the same way the next night (or overnight). Good luck!

[evilgrayson.livejournal.com]

I know that over here, they often misjudge the size of birds people want. You can find a hundred and one extra large turkey crowns, but someone's already bought the small ones because not everyone has a huge family who're all going to be there - well, that and turkey doesn't really come in 'small'.

As gconnor says, you could hack it in half, freeze one lump and do stuff with the other.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Cutting it in half had been Plan B, until I realized it was full of bones. Going into this, I had assumed it would be boneless, which was quite wrong!

Thanks! I'm probably going to need it. :P

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That could be it too, maybe someone else got to all the small ones before me.

And yeah, I had thought about cutting it in half, but it was full of bones and such. I'm going to just put it into the oven and hope for the best.

[evilgrayson.livejournal.com]

Ah, if there's bones and stuff in, you might have a crown after all. The good news is that the breasts should just peel off the ribs without much trouble, when it's cooked.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That's good! Because carving it is a whole different story. :P