- a whole fryer (the smaller, the better)
- LOTS of table salt
- a number of 2-gallon Ziploc bags.
1. Take the insides out of the cavity.
2. Wash the chicken. (Then wash your hands very well--chickens can carry bacteria!)
3. Fill cavity with salt.
4. Fill the bottom of the Ziploc bag with salt, then put in the chicken and fill the bag with salt. You may want to double-bag the chicken to help reduce any odor. Try to squeeze out as much air as you can before you zip the bags closed. (Wash your hands again.)
5. Put the bag away for two weeks (or until the salt becomes moist). At this point, remove the chicken and change the salt inside the cavity and surrounding the chicken. You may wish to use a new bag as well. The chicken may smell at this point, so work fast. Wash your hands thoroughly when you are finished with the salt change.
6. Keep checking the salt and change whenever very moist. The entire process of changing the salt to dry out the chicken could take up to 6 weeks (or longer) to dry thoroughly. When it is dry, it should not smell.
7. Once the chicken is dry, remove it from the bag and carefully wash off the salt. Pat it dry. Then coat it inside with your favorite cooking oil or even baby oil. Then sprinkle it with sweet- smelling spices, such as cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, whatever.
8. Cut up strips of white linen (or cloth--gauze is perfectly fine and already in strips), dip them in glue (the Egyptians used resin which is a sticky tree sap) and wrap them around mummy. (If you want to get fancy, you can find some photos of Egyptian animal mummies and try to do a more geometric wrapping as the Egyptians often did.)
9. Let your chicken mummy dry.
