How to Buy a Chicken

Warning: this post is not for those with a weak stomach

      While you can purchase packaged meats analogous to those found at any American grocery store here in Casa, it is much more cost-efficient to purchase whole chickens at the local markets. We typically buy whole chickens several times a month. Actually…Nicole usually wanders through the clothing area while Dave buys the chickens. This post is evidence of why Nicole usually refuses to participate in the purchasing of a whole chicken…

• Step 1: Meander through the clothing department of the Hay Hassani market until you hear the sound of squawking chickens who are undoubtedly watching their dear chicken friends die via an knife to the neck. The rancid smell of old chicken poop and blood will soon follow… and that’s how you’ll know you’ve reached your destination. Walk carefully around the pools of blood, through clouds of floating chicken feathers, and approach any of the dozen chicken stands that are lined up side-by-side.
  
• Step 2: Carefully scrutinize over the selection of live, caged chickens and select the one that best suits your dinner desires. Assuming you are not fluent in Moroccan Arabic/French, simply point and grunt in the general direction of your poultry selection until the chicken salesman grabs a hold of your chicken and sets it on the scale to be weighed.

• Step 3: After weighing the live chicken and settling on a respectable price, the chicken salesman quickly slits the jugular of your chicken in accordance to Halal requirements: guidelines outlined in the Qu’ran. The still-stirring body is then placed upside-down into a bucket in order to allow the blood to drain.

• Step 4: The chicken is placed into a pot of boiling oil/water [which is likely not changed very habitually]. This opens up the chicken pores and facilitates the process of removing the feathers.
  
• Step 5: Holding the chicken by its feet, the chicken salesman transfers the chicken from the water/oil to an archaic poultry feather removal machine. As outdated as it appears, however, it is reasonably effective.

• Step 6: The chicken salesman slaps your featherless chicken on the counter in front of you and proceeds to cut off its feet, head, and neck. Then he guts the interior of the chicken, making certain to return the heart, gizzard, and lungs for your culinary enjoyment.

• Step 7: The chicken, still lukewarm, is placed in a cheap plastic bag in order to aid in its transport back to your house. On your way out of the market place, be sure to grab some vegetables and herbs.
  
• Step 8: Make Moroccan tagine…

-David & Nicole