Red Chicken Stew Recipe: Another Way to Stop a Rooster from Crowing

I am helping the siblings write down a few of the old family recipes. While I am not old as dirt yet, some of the recipes are pretty old and varied with season and income. That required a bit of creativity at times. Since we have all prospered some, the recipes have evolved. The situation where the recipe was first remembered is something I think is important. This recipe is for red chicken stew.

When I was about eleven years old, it was all the rage for kids to get dyed chicks for Easter. It was wonderful for the kids and incredibly cruel for the chicks. I, of course, was enthralled by the chicks even when the colored down started to change to pin feathers. Since my friends and neighbors were not, I managed to acquire about dozen or so not so small chicks to be company with the one I was given.

With absolutely no clue what I was doing, I managed to raise the chicks to full grown chickens. After sometime, the neighbors must have mentioned something to my folks. This was probably two months or so after the cockerels in the flock started getting vocal.

We lived in town at that time and town folks like to do silly things like sleep in. One day after school, I noticed that of the 14 chickens in my flock, ten were missing. My dad told me that he had taken the pullets to Aunt Vera's who kept chickens to sell eggs. Aunt Vera really didn't need the young roosters since they were not very efficient egg producers.

I thought it was odd that the non-offensive birds were relocated while the causes of the problem were still hanging out in the coop I had built. When my mom came out to the vacant lot with a huge bowl I started getting a clue what was going on. I will save you the details, but red chicken stew was on the menu that night and the next actually, even after sending some to our neighbors.

Red Chicken Stew:

½ pound diced salt pork or thick sliced bacon

1 ½ cups diced white onion

1 cup sliced okra

1 cup diced bell pepper

3-16 oz. mason jars of canned tomatoes

6 oz. of store bought tomato paste

2 table spoons flour

Approx. 6 oz. of ketchup

Oregano, salt, pepper and a couple of bay leaves.

2 very fresh chickens quartered