what is this goo in my chicken???

[curly_kate]

I just cut up one of the chickens that we processed on Saturday, and found this clear goo between the skin and the flesh of the chicken. It is one that we thought we might have over-scalded, as the skin was more yellow than others. The goo has absolutely no smell at all. Any ideas? Please tell me we didn't ruin the chicken!! I rinsed it all off, and now the chicken parts are resting in some salt water (brined chicken is DELICIOUS!!) in the fridge.

 

[Wildsky]

I just cut up one of the chickens that we processed on Saturday, and found this clear goo between the skin and the flesh of the chicken. It is one that we thought we might have over-scalded, as the skin was more yellow than others. The goo has absolutely no smell at all. Any ideas? Please tell me we didn't ruin the chicken!! I rinsed it all off, and now the chicken parts are resting in some salt water (brined chicken is DELICIOUS!!) in the fridge.

Fat perhaps?

 

[Blackbird]

I have found that this is completely normal on a healthy bird!
I have no scientific comments to add but I know for a fact that it is normal.

 

[patandchickens]

You mean the clear (or almost-clear) stuff that you can often stretch out into a thin almost soapbubble-like membrane several inches (plus) across? A bit sticky-yet-slippery feeling between your fingers?

That's normal.

I don't know what it is exactly, I have always sort of imagined it to be collaginous connective stuff but could perfectly well be wrong


Pat

 

[curly_kate]

That's exactly it. I'm glad to know it's not harmful because I already ate the chicken. It was good, but the dark meat was a LOT darker than I'm used to, so it was different. But still good, and definitely very cool to eat a bird that we butchered ourselves.

 

[journey11]

I've noticed that with mine sometimes, when water gets in under the skin when you're washing the finished bird. Clear, bubbly, gooey...just some kind of reaction in the body tissues. It's no big deal.

 

[freemotion]

Fascia. It is a type of tissue that wraps everything in the body and is usually ignored by anatomy texts....it wraps each muscle cell, for example, and each bundle of cells, and each muscle, and all those wrappings come together to form the tendon that attaches to the bone. There are two layers of fascia just under the skin, the superficial fascia and the deep fascia (deep to the superficial layer, not really deep in the common sense of the word) that cover the body like a....um....leotard or body stocking. Mostly we are not even aware it is there, it is so thin and light. Sounds like some water or fluids got caught in the layers.

 

[Beekissed]

I don't soak my birds in water and just put them on ice. I've found this layer is more soft and evident if the birds are exposed to or soaked in water rather than laid on ice.