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



## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

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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## duckfat (Aug 7, 2008)

You mean the Popes nose? :lol:


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## suzanne (May 26, 2001)

My husband and I still fight over it! :lol: All that fatty, crispy goodness. :lips:


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

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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## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

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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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

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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## ishbel (Jan 5, 2007)

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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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

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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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

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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## chefray (Sep 29, 2009)

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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## maryb (Mar 21, 2008)

I render it for chicken fat and munch the crispies that are left over.


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## dc sunshine (Feb 26, 2007)

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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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

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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## bigal (Sep 3, 2009)

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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## jerkseasoning (Oct 19, 2009)

yes, my husband adores it, known here as the "parsons nose"


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## chalkdust (Feb 18, 2009)

your dad is the man!


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

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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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Ahhh, sizzling skewers of kushiyaki. Mmmm.

BDL


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

You sure that's not _tushi-yaki_? :lol:


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## ndesign33 (Nov 23, 2009)

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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## chefray (Sep 29, 2009)

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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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

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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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

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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## chefray (Sep 29, 2009)

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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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

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 ), 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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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

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?


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## dc sunshine (Feb 26, 2007)

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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## chefray (Sep 29, 2009)

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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## chalkdust (Feb 18, 2009)

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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