Using Chicken or Hen in My Recipes?

The difference is the age of the chicken.
I'd buy chicks every now and then to replace the hens that were no longer laying. Hens will lay for several years, but will be incredibly tough near the end of their lives. Commerical egg operations will keep a laying hen for no longer than 3 years and usually no more than 2 years. I'd let my chickens roam around my farm and yard and you wouldn't believe the difference in eggs between my chickens and those in the average commercial operation.

A cornish game he is an 8-week old chicken. (Just like veal comes from a calf.)
A fryer is a 12 to 13 week old chicken.
A roasting/stewing chicken is 15 to 16 weeks old.
A laying hen is used to lay eggs for two to three years. Then it is processed into the chicken you find in chicken soup.

Dice the hen. Use it in recipes calling for diced chicken. When I have a recipe that calls for a stewing hen, I use an extra large fryer instead. Its the same meat, just more tender and usually cheaper. If you don't have a use for all of the diced hen, put the extra in snack baggies or sandwich baggies that have a good seal and freeze it for later. Take it out and use it one baggie at a time.

Good luck to you and yours

If you're getting your meat from a super market, just about every chicken you can get there is about 8 weeks old presumably from some massive chicken farm. The organic ones come from somewhere else (I just don't know much about from where).
I have neighbors who have some hens for egg laying (there is no rooster). I asked them if they plan to eat the chickens eventually and they said by the time they are too old to lay eggs (several years old - I forget how old exactly), they are pretty tough and not too good to eat (although you can always boil them for chicken soup stock).

Thanks for asking this question, I didn't know the difference either. I just usually buy the frozen thicken leg quarters and boil them, de-bone them and then cook the bones a bit then strain the broth and freeze it for chicken and noodles later on. I use the meat in various dishes until it is all gone and never had considered using a different...version? of the chicken. Now I have more knowledge.

"Chicken" is usually very young and therefor tender. Hen is a bigger, older bird. Yes it is tougher, but it may well have lots more flavor. I buy a "stewing hen" when I can to make chicken soup or chicken and dumplings. They benefit from long slow cooking in liquid. DON'T throw it out. Make yummy chicken and dumplings. Put your chicken in a big pot with a cut up onion and some celery and carrots if you like. Season with thyme, bay leaf, salt, pepper, sage, etc. Simmer a couple of hours. (I usually do this with a whole chicken, take it out and cool it, then remove skin and bones and cut into bite sized pieces, then return to pot.) Then you can either make dumplings from any basic recipe book or use a biscuit recipe or even canned biscuit dough dropped on top, cover, and simmer about 10 to 15 minutes.
How long did you cook it? It would probably be fine if you just did something like the above recipe, cooking a shorter time. A hen takes a lot longer to get tender.

Hens are used for stewing. They have a tendency to be tough and need longer and slower cooking. I would toss the one in the freezer and stick to chickens in the future unless the recipe calls for a hen. The recipe should also indicate that longer cooking time is needed. Happy cooking.

L.

I have not found a difference, you may because of the size needed to have cooked the larger one longer.

I always buy a "broiler" for baking or stewing if I am using the whole chicken. I also use leg quarters for my dumplings and stew. Dark meat holds up better and it makes a richer broth (well, because of fat.) Hens are old. No one wants to eat old things because they are tough. In my house we call those crock pot animals. It is the same for beef and pork. The older the animal, the tougher the meat (really it has more gristle interspersed in the muscle.) cb