I was making roasted chicken for dinner tonight. I am going to go out of town this weekend so I decided to roast two of them so DH and the kids will have one to snack on.

Anyway, I get the first one all cleaned and ready to season then I open the package for the second one and it just looked weird. I thought maybe a piece of bone or cartilage was sticking out. I went to grab it and what do you think it was??? It was a beak!!!!!! Yes, a beak attached to the whole head of a chicken!!!!!

OMG, I was so grossed out. I can handle pulling the gizzards and such out but I don't want to see the face of the chicken we are going to eat for dinner. That is the reason I buy my chicken at the grocery store.

I called Foster Farms and tell the lady what I found and she was not surprised! Can you believe that, not surprised at all. She said sometimes the people working in the warehouse try to be funny and somehow it slipped past the inspection. Now the head was not shoved inside the chicken it was sticking out...once I realized what I was looking at it was very obvious. That makes we wonder what else do these people do to the chickens when they are trying to be funny???

The lady offered to refund my money and I declined, I will just take it back to the store and get a refund. They are going to send my coupons in the mail but I don't think I will ever be able to buy a whole raw chicken again. It really freaked me out!

Has anything like this ever happened to any of you?

By Bobbie~moderatr on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 12:14 am:

I am so sorry but I bet you were a sight to see. LOL I have never had that happen. I have had to pull feathers and trim of tails before. I try not to think about the people that handle my food before I consume it. The thought makes me never want to eat again...

By My2cuties on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 12:23 am:

no, but I have been making hamburgers and look out the kitchen window at the cows and totally lose my appetite. It's all in our heads, as long as we don't think about the food being an animal we are okay...lol that is aweful that she even said they were playing a joke.

By Karen~moderator on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 07:24 am:

No, never had that happen, largely since I have not bought a whole chicken in over 15 years, I normally only buy boneless/skinless breasts. And it never WILL happen, because after reading this, I never will buy a whole chicken again.

PS - DH wants to know if it was *smiling* at you? I know, twisted sense of humor, that man.

That really *is* gross, Andi!!!!!!!!!

By Mrsheidi on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 08:39 am:

ICK ICK ICK...I would be grossed out too.
While taking gross anatomy in college, we were dissecting about 12 human bodies. We started with the legs, feet, then torso, etc. It was when we got to the face that I *really* had a weak stomach!!
It was then that I remembered our teacher asking us if one of our family members donated their body to science lately...you wouldn't have wanted to dissect your grandpa the whole time and then, at the end when the face is revealed (you keep it covered so it doesn't dry out), you realize it's the face of a close family member? Oh, heck no!!
Luckily, it never happened.

By Colette on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 09:09 am:

Oh my goodness! that is disgusting! I don't buy whole chickens either...or at least I didn't buy them often and now I'll never buy one.

What did you do with the one you already had ready to go in the oven?

By Happynerdmom on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 09:30 am:

LOL, Andi. When I lived in Singapore, I bought a whole chicken at the grocery, and the same thing happened to me. It looked *normal* from the outside of the package, but when you turned it over, there was the whole head, beak and all, staring at me! Then, inside the chicken were tucked both of its feet, claws and all! I screamed!! DH was not home, or I would have made him chop his head and hands off, but I had to do it myself. I was so proud of myself!! Anyway, all the chickens are sold like that there, so I quickly got used to it. Just that first one MAJORLY creeped me out! BTW, dd, who was about 5 at the time, thought it was the coolest thing ever. She was moving the beak, making it "talk!" Good times, good times, LOL!

By Bellajoe on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 09:41 am:

Oh that is gross. I don't want to see my food staring back at me either! It reminds me of A Christmas Story. The part where they are at the chinese restaurant and having goose for dinner! LOL "It's smiling at me"

By Andi on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 10:13 am:

Karen, your DH and mine would really get along well...DH sent me a text message on my cell phone after I told him what happened that said: "How's it going Chicken Lips?" MEN!

Well we ate the one without the head and I put the one with the head in the freezer. Yes the lady at Foster Farms really said that they people on the line play jokes and it sometimes gets missed. Unbelievable! I didn't pull the head out so I don't know what else they stuffed in the body of the chicken, I wouldn't be surprised if the feet were there.

I am a boneless, skinless breast girl now! LOL

By Kernkate on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 10:21 am:

All I can say is EWWWWWW! I know if that happened to me I would be totally grossed out!
And I love whole chickens.
I hope the company will send a memo to their staff, in regards to it.

By Shellyg on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 12:33 pm:

Ewwww! I had a similar accident that happened to me as a kid. That is what made me a vegetarian. Gross!

By Bea on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 12:42 pm:

My vegitarian son would love this thread. I think I may have been shocked to find a head on a store-bought chicken, but not grossed out. To me, it's like the difference between buying a fillet of trout, or getting a fresh trout on your plate..... head and tail intact. Or eating a lobster tail and a whole lobster. I know I'm eating chicken. When I stuff a turkey, cook his neck and liver for the cat, and sew up his butt, I know it's a large bird. Maybe it's because I'm older, and can remember my parents buying meat that looked like the animal it was carved from.

By Amy~moderator on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 01:29 pm:

This whole thread is making me laugh. I would have totally grossed out too!

By Karen~moderator on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 02:03 pm:

It's really disgusting to think of what they *could* have done to chickens - what kind of joke is that?

On that note, you hear stories all the time of things people do to food in restaurants BEFORE it leaves the kitchen. It's enough to make me not want to eat out ever again.

By Kernkate on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 03:38 pm:

Bea, I can relate to what you are saying. My mom use to tell stories when her dad raised their own chickens. They raised and slottered them, and that was their many meals. So I guess a chicken head to them was nothing.
I would really be shocked now adays to see something like this come out of a company. They say there are meat inspectors, kinda makes you wonder??
Poor Andi just had to be the unfortunate one to have it happen to her

By Dawnk777 on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 06:35 pm:

I have bought plenty of whole chickens and never had that happen. I wouldn't stop me from buying a whole chicken, since we make it for dinner and then I make soup from the carcass. It's just too good to eat!

By Tunnia on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 10:04 am:

LOL, I actually would have found it amusing and would have shown the kids, but then I grew up on a farm and participated in slaughtering the chickens. I'm sorry you were so grossed out though. A lot of people don't actually like to think of where their meat came from. It doesn't bother me because I grew up in an environment where we knew exactly where the meat on our table came from and 9 times out of 10 the the animal we were eating had a name. Can you imagine sitting down to dinner knowing that Sparky was on the menu?

By Karen~moderator on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 12:31 pm:

LOL Stacy! Many years ago, Pam (Bubbels) had a chicken named Chelsea. I remember her mom cooked something and used Chelsea's eggs in it - potato salad or something - and Pam wouldn't eat it because it was CHELSEA's egss in it! LOL

By Juli4 on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 02:19 pm:

I could see someone wanting to make someone laugh if it was a conveyor belt like thing. It would break up the work day and if I worked there I would probably find it really funny. Although finding it at my house wouldn't as amusing. We would probably take a pic adn show it to our family though. It would be funny afterwards. It will make for an interesting story sometime.

By Mrsheidi on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 03:19 pm:

At least we're in a country where eating cats is not common! "Here Kitty Kitty!"

By Kay on Sunday, August 14, 2005 - 08:22 pm:

When I worked in marketing, I was invited to take a tour of a turkey processing plant. They warned me to wear old tennis shoes.

Enough said....

To this day, I will not buy turkey!

By Feona on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 07:34 am:

My uncle was a butcher. I went down to the downstair fridge once and there was a whole pig in there. With a head. Hair on the skin

He was going to cut it up and freeze it to save money.