People tend to think of chicken as an "easy" choice of meat, but the truth is that getting
it right is actually pretty tough.
You may even be surprised at just how many of these poultry-based mistakes you're making
in the kitchen, and that chicken deserves better.
"Who loves chicken?
You do!”
“We do!:
“Delicious chicken … swing on through!"
Just like with any kind of meat or fish, the first job when preparing chicken is choosing
a high-quality cut or bird.
People put a lot of thought into how their beef looks, and chicken really shouldn't be
any different.
There are a few key ways you can tell whether chicken is any good or not.
Firstly, the meat ought to be bright pink all over, including in the crevice areas,
such as the thighs and wings.
If that chicken is going gray, it's going bad.
The flesh should be firm but not stiff, and springy to the touch.
Equally, chicken that has developed an odor should be avoided like the plague.
Finally, there should be absolutely no blood visible on the meat.
Follow those rules and you'll be going home with a potentially tasty chicken.
There's nothing like a good, tender chicken breast to make a good meal, is there?
After all, it's the cut of the bird with the most meat, it's easy to cook, and it's super
tasty.
What's not to love?
Well, it might give you the most meat but the breast isn't actually the easiest to cook,
and it's not the best, either.
Too many people gravitate towards it because it appears to be the choicest cut, causing
them to overlook some far more interesting parts of the bird.
That includes the most underrated chicken part of all: the thigh.
The advantages of cooking with chicken thighs are numerous.
They're even easier to cook than breasts, which are very easy to over-do.
They have a fantastic texture, season easily, and often just taste a whole lot better than
the other parts of the chicken.
Find a good recipe and you might never go back to breasts.
"I will have a chicken breast hold the chicken.
“
By and large, the points we've hit so far have dealt with ensuring the meat you're using
is high-quality and suitable, and results in deliciousness rather than disappointment.
Now here's an altogether more serious element of the cooking process.
Put short: never wash raw chicken.
According to the USDA, running raw chicken under the tap will likely increase your risk
of food poisoning.
This is because the water droplets which splash onto the chicken from the tap can travel over
a foot and half in any direction, and that means that raw chicken water is splattering
all over cooking equipment, clothing, and kitchen surfaces.
And given that it doesn't take much to cause you to come down with a case of food poisoning
misery that can last up to five days you'll need to just trust the cooking process to
kill bacteria.
So, just stop rinsing.
Ideally, you want to cook chicken fresh and avoiding freezing it at all.
Sometimes, however, that's not an option, and so you're forced to stick it in the freezer
and defrost it later.
If that's the case, make sure you don't thaw it on the counter, or you're just asking for
trouble.
According to the USDA, raw and cooked meat must be kept at a safe temperature during
the thawing process.
As soon as it begins to defrost and hits temperatures of 40 degrees and above, bacteria that might
have been present in the meat can start to multiply.
This will also happen if you let it sit at room temperature for more than two hours,
or if you thaw it in hot water.
If you've got to defrost chicken, the best way to do it is to let it slowly thaw in the
refrigerator, where it'll stay at a cool enough temperature to stop all that nasty bacteria
from spreading.
You can also defrost it in cold water or in the microwave, as long as you get cooking
from the very moment it's defrosted.
If you don't remember anything else, remember that there's never any good reason to remove
the skin, especially if you're using chicken thighs.
That's because the chicken skin has a number of uses during cooking.
It acts as a kind of sponge full of tasty juices, and if you leave it on, they'll be
released to the meat during the cooking process.
It also protects that same meat from the heat, and allows the meat to cook at a slower pace
and retain its moisture.
If you take the skin off before cooking, there's a good chance that what you find on the other
end is a dry, tasteless chicken.
If you really, really don't like the skin, just remove it after cooking instead.
You'll find a use for it.
"Silence of the Lambs Hello Clarice, it’s good to see you again."
Brining or marinating your chicken before cooking can be a game-changer, and once you
find your go-to method for chicken prep, you'll never go back.
If you have some time, consider wet brining.
That involves making a solution of salt, sugar, water, herbs, spices and aromatics, which
is then boiled, stirred, then cooled to kill any bacteria.
Then, submerge the entire bird or cuts, leaving them to brine for up to two days in the refrigerator.
Dry brining is a similar technique in which the salt, sugar and seasonings are rubbed
straight onto the meat, allowing for a quicker turnaround since they'll soak in after just
a few hours.
Don't have that much time?
Try marinating, and the good thing here is that even a quick soak in marinade for just
15 to 20 minutes will make a huge difference in the final product.
In fact, you don't want to let it sit for too long, as it'll get stringy and mushy.
No one wants that.
"They'll be people watching around the globe jealous of this chicken."
The golden rule is this: never marinate chicken for more than 24 hours.
And the other golden rule is this: get creative, and have fun with flavors.
This is a must-do on the preparation checklist if you've got chicken breasts in mind for
your recipe.
Many of the issues that come with cooking chicken breast can be mitigated, if not avoided
altogether, with a good bit of heavy tenderizing prior to cooking.
Pounding and tenderizing the chicken helps spread out the thickness and allows the meat
to cook more evenly and quickly.
The process also makes the resulting chicken juicer and tastier, which is especially helpful
considering chicken breast can often be neither of those things.
The method is simple.
All you have to do is wrap up the chicken in plastic wrap or put it in a plastic storage
bag, grab a heavy object such as a ladle or sauce pan, and start hitting it.
“Hahahaa!”
Start from the thick part of the cut and slowly work your way to the thinner bits, until the
whole thing is finally thin and flat.
Once that's done, you're ready to season and cook.
Easy!
This is probably the most downright criminal mistake people can make while cooking chicken,
but we'd hazard a guess that it's probably a fairly common one, too.
Please, don't forget to season your chicken.
Meat that only has salt and/or pepper added to it is bad enough, but serving up something
without even that is just sinful.
Here are some golden rules for seasoning chicken.
Salt is the big dog, but you've got to get it right.
Try to use kosher or sea salt to keep sodium levels down while getting maximum flavor.
Make sure the other seasonings you're using are suitable for chicken: good starting points
include basil, rosemary, garlic, mustard, paprika, thyme, parsley, celery seed, cumin
and cayenne, but don't be afraid to play around.
You never know what will work, and a failed experiment is still going to be far more satisfying
than a tasteless, unseasoned husk of a bird.
The word "dry" might seem like exact opposite of what you want to hear, but the truth is
that drying out your meat after brining is a must-do for any poultry cook worth their
salt.
According to James Wilschke, the executive chef of Filifera in Hollywood,
"People want to get really crispy meat, and the general rule of cooking is moisture is
the enemy of caramelization.
When you want to get meat crispy, you want the skin as dry as possible."
You should air dry the meat out of its packaging in the fridge for up to four hours, although
it could take up to a day or two if you're making something like fried chicken.
Then, take it out, pat it down with a paper towel, and you're good to go.
This might go against the instincts of anyone who's particularly safety-conscious when it
comes to handling and preparing raw meat, but it's actually a good idea to let your
chicken sit out for a little while before you cook it.
Tempering chicken has a few key benefits: it'll help your chicken hit that key temperature
more quickly, helps the chicken cook more evenly all the way through, and makes the
end result juicer.
And that's never a bad thing, is it?
As long as you're careful, this process isn't going to cause you any harm, either.
Don't allow it to sit out anywhere it can come into contact with other food, wash your
hands, and don't let it sit out for longer than two hours and you'll be just fine.
No surprise here, but it's always worth saying just in case: always make sure your chicken
is cooked to a hot enough temperature, otherwise you're just asking for a world of pain to
come crashing down on top of you.
The USDA states that the ideal temperature for chicken to be cooked at is 165 degrees.This
temperature will effectively destroy salmonella bacteria, which has the highest heat resistance
of the pathogens that regularly grow on raw poultry.
Certain cuts require higher temperatures, albeit for quality reasons more than safety
ones.
For example, whole muscle breast meat should be cooked at 170 degrees, while whole muscle
thigh meat should be cooked as high as 180 degrees.
The best way to ascertain whether your chicken has cooked through enough is to get a food
thermometer.
Stick it into the meat, make sure it's hit that golden number, and keep cooking if it
hasn't.
It's a good habit to take on.
This is another common mistake made during the actual process of cooking.
If you're pan-frying, pan-searing or sauteing chicken, you ought to make sure the pan is
never overcrowded.
This is because one of the main things which gives chicken its flavor is browning, a reaction
which happens when the food comes into contact with very high temperatures.
"You need some heat in that pan - remember, no color no flavor.
. no color no…”
“Flavor!"
Unfortunately, if the pan is too crowded the moisture that comes off the chicken will have
no room to spread and evaporate, and it'll turn into steam or water instead.
Instead of browning, the chicken will end up steaming and you'll have poached chicken.
This is all easily avoidable, and just make sure there's plenty of room for the chicken
in the pan.
The pieces shouldn't be overlapping or smashed up against each other, and it's an easy fix
for something that's a big deal.
Getting it wrong can completely ruin your dish.
This is the last thing you should do before serving up your chicken, especially if it's
a roast.
Resting involves allowing the chicken to sit out for anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes
once it's cooked.
The reasons for doing this are twofold: firstly, cutting into chicken straight away can cause
liquid to pool out and the meat will end up dry.
Allowing it to sit for a while will help the chicken absorb the moisture back into the
meat.
Secondly, meat tends to continue to cook even after you've taken it out of the oven, and
it's always good to let it continue to do so.
It's even built into many recipes that suggest taking meat out of the oven just before it's
done cooking for this reason.
Take the chicken out, keep it in foil to make sure it stays warm, and keep yourself otherwise
occupied for a while.
It'll all be worth it in the end.
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