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Most people don't eat the tail of the chicken?

post #1 of 29
10/30/09 at 11:45am
Thread Starter 
I was stunned today as I was watching the video "Chicken" on the traeger website over at Traeger Pellet Grills - Taste the Difference!

The guy doesn't mention the sot-l'y-laisse, ok that's fine I guess, but then he goes on to say "you can cut the tail of the chicken, because most people don't eat the tail of the chicken". REALLY?

Do you guys eat the "tail" of the chicken? In my family this was always considered a delicacy and we had to fight for who would get it. To this day I still think it's still the most delicious part of a chicken!!
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post #2 of 29
10/30/09 at 11:49am
You mean the Popes nose? :lol:
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post #3 of 29
10/30/09 at 11:49am
My husband and I still fight over it! :lol: All that fatty, crispy goodness. :lips:
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post #4 of 29
10/30/09 at 12:02pm
I usually use it for rendering or stock.

I've ordered turkey tails at a Polynesian place for lunch and rather enjoyed them.

But yes, it's rarely eaten directly in my house.
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post #5 of 29
10/30/09 at 12:04pm
You mean.... "the fleshy protuberance at the posterior end of a dressed fowl, esp. the tailpiece of a cooked chicken.
Also called parson's nose. Origin:
 1740–50"

Forgive me :lol:................yes when we were young, we fought for it and loved it ...Crispy !
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post #6 of 29
10/30/09 at 12:11pm
When I worked at Le Chambord in the early 80's we would roast off 2 cases of ducks every 3 days to mise them for service. All of us went crazy yanking off the popes nose. Hot, crispy and oozing with fat. :roll:
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post #7 of 29
10/30/09 at 12:13pm
In the UK, it's known as the parson's nose - and I tend to use if for stock - a bit fatty for my taste - but I am very, very picky about fatty meats!
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post #8 of 29
10/30/09 at 12:35pm
My father always swore it was the best part of the bird. But not me. Neither me nor Friend Wife care for it much, so it isn't eaten in our house.

Most people I know find it too fatty.
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post #9 of 29
10/30/09 at 1:09pm
Thread Starter 
Well you could remove the fat and just eat the two little muscles on either side... but depending on the chicken and the way it was cooked, it can be more or less fatty. If the chicken is roasted to crispy perfection and all the (or most of) the fat has been rendered it's delicious.
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post #10 of 29
10/30/09 at 1:28pm
You beat me to it. I look forward to frying turkeys at family gatherings just so that I can pilfer the tail before serving it.
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post #11 of 29
10/30/09 at 2:40pm
I render it for chicken fat and munch the crispies that are left over.
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post #12 of 29
10/31/09 at 2:26am
French Fries - it is the best part of the chicken - growing up in my parent's household, everyone else in the family thought it was awful, so I always got the Parson's Nose. Yum. Now I'm all growed up (ha!) no-one in my family likes it either. Ahh I am a lucky lucky person.

It's the best part of the chook followed a close second by the "oysters". When it's roast nice and crispy that is, otherwise, forget the Nose.
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post #13 of 29
10/31/09 at 4:00am

the priest's tidbit

In my family it was called "il bocconcino del prete" - the priest's tidbit. My parents were born in Tuscany, though they grew up in the states. They were rather conservatively catholic in many ways, but like most italians and even more most tuscans they were anti-clerical. So i presume it was considered a sign that this was not a particularly attractive part of the chicken, and there was always a sense of snickering when they said it. (Though in my family my father would eat it, but he would eat anything at all, even the cheese with the live worms and snakemeat and chocolate covered ants and anything else you might want to present him.)

In my husband's family, from central italy, they cut it off before cooking. (And they rarely wasted any part of any animal so it must have been considered particularly repulsive.) They never roasted chicken, though, and never cooked it in any way that it would be crispy, so maybe that explains it.
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post #14 of 29
10/31/09 at 7:23am
Well shoot! I never knew anything about it and I always spatchcock my birds, so it gets tossed. Next time it'll go on the smoker for a snack during the cook.

Thanks for bring'n it up FF. :thumb:
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post #15 of 29
11/4/09 at 10:32pm
yes, my husband adores it, known here as the "parsons nose"
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post #16 of 29
11/5/09 at 7:55pm
your dad is the man!
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post #17 of 29
11/5/09 at 8:39pm
In Japanese yakitori places, I've ordered a skewer of the things many, many times. They split them to remove the bone, then skewer four or five halves on a stick, salt them, and grill them. Eat plain or with a small squeeze of lemon. Fabulous!

At least in Kyoto, they're called bonbochi, but I believe that may be a local or Kansai-regional term.

Now that I'm in the US, I treat it as a cook's snack. Who's to know? (Except my weight....)
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post #18 of 29
11/5/09 at 9:34pm
Ahhh, sizzling skewers of kushiyaki. Mmmm.

BDL
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post #19 of 29
11/5/09 at 10:01pm
You sure that's not tushi-yaki? :lol:
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post #20 of 29
11/23/09 at 5:08pm
Besides calling it the Parson's Nose, my English mother referred to it as "the last piece that went over the fence." My father and I always fought forit. Even now I sneak the crispy tail before the turley is carved, when no one is looking. BTW, as was mentioned, the oyster is definitely the best part of the bird.
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post #21 of 29
11/23/09 at 6:32pm
I've never had anything from a yakitori place that wasn't fabulous. Grilled stuff on a stick is, pretty much, always awesome.
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post #22 of 29
11/23/09 at 8:33pm
Oddly enough I was reminded of this thread a couple of hours ago, as I'm making some chicken stock. On the birds I spatchcock the tail is kept attached to the spine and just goes into the stockpot, like tonight. On birds I roast whole and crisp up, like the one last week, I consider the tail a tasty treat.

mjb.
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post #23 of 29
11/24/09 at 6:48am
wow, there are places in the world where you can get a whole bunch of tails grilled on a skewer?
Wonder if butchers collect them.....you've opened up a whole new world.
oysters & tails are darn good reasons to be in the kitchen roasting birds.....well and the second wing joint....
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post #24 of 29
11/24/09 at 5:02pm
Don't forget the very tip of the wing flat. That's the crispiest, most delicious part on a bird. It's all skin and a little fat. Oh man is that good.
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post #25 of 29
11/24/09 at 7:24pm
Clearly, there are people here with whom I would never share a poultry dinner! My family always wonders why I like to carve the turkey, but the secret's out: the tail (yes, we called it the tuchas in my family :D), the crispy bits on the wing ends, the bits around the end of the turkey leg..... :lips: If it's crispy and crunchy, it's mine.

Nobody in my husband's family would fight for any of it (too fatty, they sniff) except for my brother-in-law. We'll flip for it on Thursday. :roll:
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post #26 of 29
11/25/09 at 6:21am
extra skin please...so glad most of my family abhors it...
favorite meal has got to be after thanksgiving....bowl of mashedpotatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, loads of skin/bits of dark meat topped with gravy and warmed.
Wonder why we only have it during Thanksgiving week?
:p
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post #27 of 29
11/25/09 at 3:38pm
My in-laws would always laugh at me when we'd have roast chicken and I'd sit there chewing the wing tip, bones and all. They didn't know what they were missing :) I'm sure they thought I was a cave woman
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post #28 of 29
11/25/09 at 7:37pm
I was at my wife's aunt's house tonight getting everything ready for tomorrow's trip to the oven. I officially called the tails of the cornish hens that we just stuffed and barded.

The menu, by the way:
Whole turkey, Injected a la coq au vin
Turkey breast, injected with cayenne pepper, butter, and brown sugar(I have a theory)
8 Stuffed cornish hens
2 Hams, one butter/brown sugar, one honey/clove
Italian sausage stuffed bell peppers
Creamed corn
Grilled pork belly
Chanterelle and Morel soup
1 Apple pie
2 Pumpkin pies
1 Red velvet cake(Wife's request)
1 Cheese cake
1 Key lime pie(made from early season limes that I canned)
1 Rhubarb/strawberry/raspberry pie
1 Lemon custard pie
24 Small coffee creme brulees

I may just eat until I pass out and then wake up for a dinner of leftovers.:lol:
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post #29 of 29
11/26/09 at 6:27pm
my brother and I just diced up the tail of the roasted turkey. it was great. fatty, meaty with gristle and cartilage. excellent!
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