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How do you cook chicken?

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Health & Wellbeing
How do you cook chicken so that the texture comes out all nice and moist throughout and the so that the meat separates really easily rather then clumps together as one big lump of solid meat?

When we go to certain restaurants the flesh comes off the bone really easily and the flavour is throughout the chicken but when cooking at home such as a chicken curry the flavour never seem to penetrate into the chicken... Must be more to it then just marinating? Does cooking faster or slower help?

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Do you mean a whole chicken or breasts and stuff?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Do you mean a whole chicken? or chicken breasts?
    If the latter i normally boil them from frozen for about 15 minutes, seems to cook it just nice
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Glittery wrote: »
    Do you mean a whole chicken or breasts and stuff?


    I mean like in a curry or cook-in sauce kinda thing.

    Like so often you use that but the flavours never go into the meat itself they just stay in the sauce and the actual chicken is very plain tasting.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I usually chop it up and fry it in some olive oil or something if its for a sauce like that.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I read this on a website

    One way to ensure juicy, moist chicken is to brine it before cooking. To brine chicken, place thawed chicken breasts in a solution of salt and water for about 1 hour in the refrigerator. The cells will absorb water through osmosis.

    http://busycooks.about.com/od/chickenrecipes/a/howtocookchixbr.htm
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    This looks interesting

    http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/document/howto/ND01_ISBriningbasics.pdf
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Cook it slowly for a while.. it goes more tender the longer you cook it.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    use smaller pieces?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Brining sounds :sour:

    My friend is Indian and her Granny makes the best curries and Im pretty sure she boils her chicken first. Never done it myself though, boiled chicken sounds a bit yuck.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    KFC uses a pressure cooker

    http://www.kfc.com/about/pressure.asp

    (BTW don't try it with you own pressure cooker - they're not designed for cooking with hot oils)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The slower you cook it, the more flavour you get in it, and the more tender the pieces of meat are. Blanching the chicken can quite often help, but I can never be arsed.

    If you want real flavour, though, use your own sauces and avoid shop-bought stuff at all costs. Get your meat fresh from a butcher, too, as the meat tends to be better quality and much fresher than the stuff in the supermarket.
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    SkiveSkive Posts: 15,286 Skive's The Limit
    Curry houses generally boil the chicken first unless it's tikka or tandoori (where it's marinated and cooked slowly in a clay oven).
    Weekender Offender 
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Skive wrote: »
    Curry houses generally boil the chicken first unless it's tikka or tandoori (where it's marinated and cooked slowly in a clay oven).


    The clay oven thing can't be right

    Clay Ovens cook things fast not slow

    A guy I worked with bought one for his wife - they get close to 500C - a lot hotter then a standard oven.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandoor

    http://fxcuisine.com/default.asp?Display=10

    Cooking time should be less then 20 minutes

    Skewers more like 8 to 10 minutes

    Cooking in a clay "pot" (rather then a clay oven) does take ages though - like about 2 hours
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I read how to cook chicken here
    http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Cook-Chicken
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Cut the chicken into small mouthful chunks and leave to marinate on the cook-in sauce for a few hours, preferably overnight in the refrigerator.
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    SkiveSkive Posts: 15,286 Skive's The Limit
    You'll find that chicken from the curry house is boiled before they stick it in whatever dish they serve up. That's make sit soft, but the process stinks and it looks foul ;)
    Weekender Offender 
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Stir fry it?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Grill it. In a pan, in the oven, nothing tastes anywhere near as good as the grill. And screw if its 20 below and snowing, put on some flip flops and start up that grill :D charcole only though, after having tasted charcole grilling, gas blows :p
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