Chicken Soup Weather

Raw apple cider vinegar for the chickens' water.

With the chill of late fall upon us, I'm itching to pull out the crock pot and have warm stock ready at any time of day. Heeding the advice of the Bragg family, I added some of their raw apple cider vinegar (ACV) to the water of those few chickens we keep in the kennel. According to the Braggs, some ACV in the water for five days before slaughter will made a tough, older free-range bird into one for which diners will ask for repeat helpings. I was willing to give this remedy to tough poultry a try.

With a few tablespoons of ACV added to the birds' fresh water each day, we figured that they would be table ready within a week, but then did not get around to slaughtering a hen for nearly two weeks. When the time came to sample the meat, I was pleasantly surprised at the moist and tender nature of it. Of course, we usually slaughter roosters, who are said to be tougher, so it may not be a fair comparison. But, this hen produced some tasty meat for chicken salad.

Chicken Salad

chopped chicken

chopped celery

chopped grapes

onion, chopped fine

plain yogurt

tumeric

fresh ground pepper