April 4, 2012

Keepin' it real with Sass: How to know when your chicken is ready

I got this email and I felt it needed to be written about immediately. Here it goes:

Hey Sass

I've been reading your blog for a few months and I really like it: I just started cooking and it is helping me a lot. I kind of have a very stupid question though: Everytime I make chicken, it's never cooked! It looks ready, sometimes it even looks burnt, but the inside is always gooey and sometimes even has blood in it! How do I know if it is ready without cutting out a piece?

Thank you in advance,

Stephanie T.


Oh my.

Hey Steph! I could personally relate to this one, since I had the same problem when I started cooking. By the way, this is not a stupid question. I mean, the chicken can look super yummy on the outside but uncooked and weird on the inside. That's just how chicken is! And unlike beef, chicken is NOT GOOD when it is not fully cooked, it can also give you food poisoning. There is no such thing as "medium-rare" chicken. No. No...no.

Here are a few tricks!

BOIL IT!

-If you are baking your chicken or intend on grilling it on the BBQ or whatnot, BOIL IT before! With a knife or fork, poke the chicken after a few minutes. If there is blood still gushing out, it's not ready. If there isn't, you can bake it or put it on the grill. I like to boil it in chicken broth with some herbs like thyme.

If you don't feel like boiling it first...or just can't because you can't fry chicken after boiling it...anyways you get the point! Hehe.

-If baking it, make sure you don't cook it at a high temperature, 350 degrees Fahrenheit is usually fine. Cover your plate and cook it for about 30 minutes, poke it to verify if it is still bloody. If it isn't, uncover it and bake it (at a higher temperature if you want) until you get the desired crisp. If it is still bloody, cover it and cook it until it isn't.

-If you want to grill it...same thing! Cook it on LOW!! No one wants burnt and black chicken that is uncooked inside. Such a disspointment. You can put it in foil paper and cook it on the bbq until it's less bloody then grill it on high, or you can just cook it on low, with the BBQ top closed.  Don't forget to turn it often.

-If you want some gooood fried chicken that is actually fully cooked, put it in the oven for a bit after frying it. Not only you will get rid of a lot of the oil and fat, but you will also ensure that the inside is well cooked.

Hey. You can always have a "Testing Piece of Chicken". It's simply a little piece of chicken that will not be served (duh): You simply use it to evaluate if it is cooked, if the taste is good, if there is anything you should add etc. It helps! It's always better to test and taste your food instead impatiently waiting for everyone's reaction at the table.

I hope this helped!! Thank you for the question!

Check out this epic BBQ chicken recipe!

xoxo

Sass

First photo from http://ahungerartist.bobdelgrosso.com/2008/10/bloody-chicken-hypothesis.html

1 comment:

add this