Chicken Help Requested!

[thefourthvine]

Dear meat-cooking faction of my friends list,

I would like to make some chicken. I want it to be a mix of white and dark meat, something that I can easily convert into small pieces, and fairly tender (not dry, not very chewy). It does not need much of a sauce, because most of it will go into the freezer for Earthling Chicken Salad. (Chicken pieces + diced fresh tomatoes + olive oil + choice of flavoring.) Ideally, it should keep all the fat it came with.

What do I need to buy? (Keep in mind that I am buying this for Tiny Alice Waters, and thus should probably go for higher-quality chicken, if there is a variation in quality amongst chickens; also, for reasons of personal moral qualms, I am willing to pay more for more humanely-treated chicken, if that exists.) Where should I buy it? What do I need to do? How can I make chicken happen?

Please keep in mind that although I am a good home cook, I have never made meat. I was a vegetarian long before I learned to cook, so meat has always been a total blind spot in my kitchen vision, if that makes sense. If there is a ritual anointing that anyone would know to do? I don't know it. If there's some safe-handling thing that is so insanely obvious that no one ever mentions it? I won't do it unless you tell me to do it. You know those exercises you had to do in school where you had to pretend the teacher was an alien (generally not much of a feat of imagination, there) and explain to her how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Please pretend I am an alien, because I am. I have never visited Planet Meat before. I need a very thorough travel guide.

I have a crockpot, and if a crockpot can produce this kind of food, I would prefer to use it, since mine has three crocks and one can just become the Meat Crock. But if there is an easy, non-crockpot method for producing chicken, I would also enjoy hearing about it. (Please nothing that requires setting fires. I would prefer to emerge from this with all my parts basically intact.)

I would really appreciate your help. (And Tiny Alice Waters would, too.)

<3,
TFV

Comments

[resonant]

I can't help you with what to buy; we get frozen whole free-range Montessori-educated chickens from our CSA.

As for how to cook: It's really insanely easy to do "poached" chicken in a crockpot -- I guess strictly speaking it's braised rather than poached, since there's little or no liquid, but it's almost exactly like chicken that's been poached the conventional way:

Take a whole chicken, rinse it and pat it dry, and sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Optional: squeeze a lemon over the chicken and then put the lemon halves and some cloves of garlic in the cavity. (You took the giblets out of the cavity first, right? Send the liver to me; Northerners can't appreciate it. Also send me all your turnip greens.)

Cook it on Low for 6 to 7 hours -- it's done when a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh registers 180.

The skin will be flabby and pointless, so you'll want to take it off and throw it away; you could do that before you cooked it, but it's a lot easier afterwards.

Throw away the lemon halves, obviously; you can either toss the garlic or peel it and mash it and toss the mash into the broth. There'll be more broth than you expect. It's good with the chicken over rice.

[miriad]

I like to crockpot whole chicken with onions and garlic stuffed inside. A can of chicken broth and some potatoes make it an excellent meal.

Rinse the chicken, inside and out. Spinkle with salt and pepper. Cut an onion and mince some garlic- stuff inside the chicken. Pour broth in the crockpot, set chicken inside, cook on low from 8-10 hours. Meat will fall off the bone, very tender and flavorful.

[devohoneybee]

You can get organic, free-range chicken (not loaded with chemicals, not raised in cages). I also prefer kosher meat if you can find it -- whether it's actually true in practice, the INTENT of kosher (or halal) meat is to bring a sacred intention and respect to the act of taking an animal's life for food. With kosher food (and halal too? I don't know), the meat is salted and soaked to remove as much of the blood as possible. To me, it just tastes better as a result. Bear in mind you'll want to add less salt, accordingly.

Safe handling for chicken is a definite issue, as chicken can have salmonella. You don't want anything that touches the uncooked meat getting anywhere that it can be ingested. After handling it and getting it into the cooking pot, wash hands, implements, and surfaces it came in contact with thoroughly. Some people use a separate cutting board for poultry, but if you wash everything very well, that's not necessary. Once the meat is cooked, it's not an issue.

I like to make chicken two ways that eventually become chicken salad: in soup, and in the oven (I like to eat the dark meat from the soup and oven, and save the white meat for the salad, but that's a personal preference). For soup, I do my mother's Jewish Chicken Soup (see http://devohoneybee.dreamwidth.org/92986.html for recipe). For baking, I coat the washed chicken lightly in olive oil and seasonings (use what you like -- I like an Italian seasoning mix and garlic salt). I layer vegetables in the bottom of the pan -- quartered onion, leeks, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, golden beets, celery, peeled garlic cloves, pretty much anything that bakes well and tastes nice carmelized. A little olive oil, and about a quarter inch of water at the bottom. I bake at 450 for an hour covered, and up to another hour uncovered to get the skin crispy, turning to get both sides. Turn the vegetables occasionally and remove any as you go that are getting overdone. All of this is variable depending on size of chicken and your oven, so check to make sure things aren't burning, and add liquid as needed. With 2 hours of baking, things will be well done (I like the meat to fall off the bones, pretty much).

[twistedchick]

You can ask at the grocery store where the chickens come from. Farmers' markets often have local free-range chickens. Free range may simply mean they aren't caged, as opposed to getting out in the yard, but it's it's still better for them.

Wherever you get it, be sure to keep it in the coldest part of your fridge before you prepare it. Take it out of its wrapping, rinse it under cold water, and if you bought a whole bird there may be a packet inside the chest cavity. That is likely to contain the neck, heart, liver and gizzard. You can cook these, or you can put them aside in the freezer and when you get enough of them you can simmer them with a bay leaf and garlic in a lot of water for a couple of hours and make chicken stock.

Anyway. If you want to roast the bird, you don't have to stuff it formally like a turkey. You can put a whole lemon inside for flavor, or pieces of potato or onion, and put it in a roasting pan. Opinions differ as to whether you should cover the pan or not; I have a self-basting pan, with a lid designed to collect moisture that evaporates and drip it back on whatever's in the pan, so I generally use the lid. Since I'm trying to be lower-cholesterol, if I have less than a whole bird I take the skin off, rub the bird with olive oil and put on dried oregano, basil, sage, parsley or other herbs. Put a tablespoon or two of wine in the bottom of the pan, cut up some carrots or potatoes or sweet potatoes and put those in the pan, put the lid on and cook it in the oven at 300 degrees F for an hour. Put a knife into it to see if it's done; if the juice is pink, it's not done yet. If you have a whole bird, shake the drumstick to see if it's done; if it is, the drumstick will move easily.

If you roast it without a lid, you may have to go into the oven to baste it a couple of times, or (if you are not worried about fat) you could lay strips of bacon over the top and the legs of the bird and let those keep it from drying out if you think that might happen.

You can also steam a whole chicken in a pressure cooker -- for that, check the pressure cooker's directions.

[merrily]

I am pleased to be of (some, limited, possible) help! This is my go-to roast chicken recipe (from Cheap Healthy Good). Pros: easiest thing ever. Cons: No, you can't do this one in a crockpot.

Whether or not you use this recipe, to appease Tiny Alice Waters (and also to avoid thinking about chickens stuffed in tiny cages), I suggest you buy from a local butcher who sources free range, organically-fed birds. I've read that you already go to farmers markets -- you can prob. find a vendor there.

Mmm, chicken. I would like to eat some right now.

[mackiedockie]

Buying chicken? Look for free range, and/or organic, fewer injections and better fed. When you get home and ready to cook, rinse, drop in whatever pot, wash up places chicken has contacted after, (like hands.) There's no such thing as a safe, raw chicken.

An old student/comfort food dish for me started by simply dropping a chicken in a pot and burbling it until the legs pull away easily. Drop in rosemary, thyme, red chile bits, turmeric, any combination of spices you like as it burbles. When done (an hour or so, depending on how high you set the Burble Meter) pull out the chicken and put aside to cool (carefully!) Add lemon juice, salt, pepper, onion, leek, garlic, celery or whatever vegetables you like and make rice with the broth (skim the fat.) More veggies can be added near the end to provide crunch, if you like, or sauteed separately.

While the rice is cooking, strip the meat from the bones into shredded pieces, discarding the skin , gristle and bones. At the finish, dose the rice to taste with plain yogurt, season further to taste
(I like Tabasco or Louisiana sauce, but it works with tons of flavorings, from lemon to Thai curry to enchilada sauce.) Mix in chicken, serve up in bowls, and pretend you are back in college, watching reruns of Barney Miller and MASH.

It's really just chicken, rice, and whatever the heck you feel like adding on any given day, but the yogurt and lemon is a personal favorite.

[sinensis]

I don't have a crockpot, so I'm going to give you a non-crockpot variant. I like it as a basis for chicken salad, because the meat has a lot of flavor.

Look for chicken breasts and thighs that are bone-in, with their skin. You'll end up pulling the meat off the bones and (possibly) throwing away the skin, but it makes the chicken juicier and tastier to cook it intact. You'll want something that is labeled "free-range" and "organic". Raw chicken requires a little care in handling--wash your hands and any counter surfaces or utensils that the chicken touches after you are done preparing it.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Put the chicken in a single layer on a baking sheet with a rim, or in a shallow baking pan. If there's a lot of moisture on the chicken, pat it off with a paper towel. Rub the skin with a little olive oil and sprinkle on some salt; if the earthling likes pepper, you can use that, too. Put it in the oven.

Depending on your oven, and the size of the chicken pieces, it will take approximately thirty to forty-five minutes to cook. It's a good idea to have an instant-read meat thermometer on hand--stick the point into the thickest part of one of the chicken breasts and one of the thighs, but be sure not to stick it in so far that you touch the bone (it will give you an incorrect reading.) You are looking for a temperature in the neighborhood of 165 degrees--don't let it go much higher than that when you are oven roasting. The thighs may take a bit longer to cook than the breasts--if you are cooking a lot at once, you might find it easier to do it in two separate pans. The juice that runs from the chicken when you poke it should be pale and clear, not pink. Once you do this a few times, you'll get used to judging how done the chicken is, and the thermometer will be more of a back-up. Raw chicken is soft--cooked chicken feels springy to the touch.

When you take the chicken out of the oven, move it to the plate or cutting board that you're going to cut it up on, and cover it with a loose piece of aluminum foil for five or ten minutes. This serves two purposes--the juice of the chicken will retreat back into the meat (if you start cutting into it right away, a lot more of that juice will run out and get wasted, which will result in drier chicken), and the internal temperature will continue to rise a bit, insuring that it's cooked. If you want to cut it up after that, you can, or you can put it in the fridge and let it cool before cutting it.

Its easiest to pull the meat off the bones in large chunks with your fingers and then use a knife to cut the pieces into earthling-sized bites. The skin probably won't be crisp--you might try giving him a piece to see if he likes it, and if he does, you can cut it up with the chicken. If you really want to go the distance, you can pull the skin off and put it back in the oven to get crispier. And if he does like the skin, he might also like some more herbs or lemon juice rubbed/sprinkled onto the skin before cooking--in this cooking process, that kind of thing adds more flavor to the skin than the meat.

I would also suggest that you leave the meat you want to freeze in the larger pieces you pull from the bones, and cut it up after defrosting.

It's an easy thing to cook; bon appetit to the earthling!

(if you want another variation, here's a pretty detailed set of instructions for roasting chicken breasts.)

[sinensis]

you can pull the skin off and put it back in the oven to get crispier

Taking your instructions about being an Alien on Meat Planet to heart, I realize that this is not quite clear--I mean that you can put the skin back in the oven, after you've removed it (use the pan you cooked the chicken in) and let it cook a while longer. It will spit and spatter--the skin has a lot of fat.

[blueraccoon]

I have two main methods for cooking chicken - one I learned from Mark Bittman and one I learned from my mom. Neither require crockpots, or open flames.

1. Really Easy Roast Chicken. Set oven to 450. Let it preheat. Set a large skillet (cast iron, steel, something ovenproof) in the oven for 15-20 min to let *it* heat. While oven and skillet are heating, take chicken. Rub well with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Add in lemon juice or garlic if you like.

Open oven. Very carefully drop chicken into skillet so the legs and thighs are in contact with the hot metal. Use oven mitts so you don't kill yourself getting skillet back in the oven and closing door.

Leave for anywhere from 35-45 min depending on how calibrated your oven is - when a thermometer in the thigh is about 170 I think you are done (but I may be off by a few degrees). My general test is whether the juices are clear. If they are, yay. If not, keep cooking.

Option 2, which will also make you chicken stock (which is a wonderful thing you should always have available):

1. Take chicken. Take out giblets. Put chicken in big stockpot. Add chopped carrots, celery, onions if you like them (I prefer not to), salt (be generous), pepper, a bay leaf or two, any other spices you want - I tend to throw in dill because I love it. Fill pot with cold water and put on stove. Turn on burner to high.

Allow contents of pot to boil and skim away the froth on top. When froth is skimmed away, turn heat to low and allow to simmer. Bonus: This makes your house smell fantastically amazing (or so say I, a devout meat eater). I generally let it go about two hours, but you can do it in one if you're pressed for time.

When done, remove solids, strain liquid (i use a mesh strainer but cheesecloth would work too) and chill for 24 hours - this will allow the fat to solidify on top and be easily gotten rid of (or used if you like schmaltz). You now have really yummy chicken stock for use in any kind of recipe. And the chicken will be tender and poached and perfect for shredding and throwing in whatever recipe you like.

Note: You can make the chicken using option 1, take the meat off the bones, and use the carcass for option 2.

[kathmandu]

"If there's some safe-handling thing that is so insanely obvious..."

Our meat-production system is so contaminated now that safe handling is insanely rigorous. Raw chicken juices should not EVER touch ANYTHING else. This means that any chicken recipe breaks down into a three-step process.

1) Get out the cooking pot, mixing bowl, cutting board, spices/sauce/broth, and whatever else you'll need.

2) Get the chicken out of the fridge.
A) Handling the chicken entirely with implements, move the chicken into the pot, then put the implements in the sink to wash.
OR
B) Turn the water on, use your hands to transfer the chicken to the pot, then wash your hands thoroughly BEFORE TOUCHING ANYTHING ELSE.

3) Proceed to apply heat, being careful that any time you touch the chicken with something to test for doneness, that something goes straight into the sink and is not used again until it's washed.

Really, raw meat is a biohazard. If you can make a deal with your sister wherein she gives you cooked chicken and you give her equivalent favors, that would probably be a lot more efficient.

[livrelibre]

I'm useless at cooking and for that very reason I just got Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. He's got some really simple looking chicken receipes at http://www.howtocookeverything.tv/recipe.php%3Fnid=41.html and http://www.markbittman.com/recipes/roast-chicken-parts-with-olive-oil-or-butter. I've gotten so far as the looking stage and they seem like they should be easy.

The meat info dump

[giglet]

Quantity question: Will Earthling turn up his nose at this if you freeze a bunch of the chicken? You will have way more chicken meat than even a very enthusiastic child can eat. Maybe you should start with breast and a thigh, which will give you white and dark meat. (In theory, you could also start with a boneless, skinless breast and thigh, although that reduces some of the fat and some of the calcium that you could get from cooking them with bone-in and skin-on.

A breast and thigh is still more meat than I expect the Earthling would eat easily in a day.

If you go for a whole chicken, I second many of the comments made by others. To recap:

Rinse the chicken, remove the bag of innards from the cavity, pop it in the crockpot on low for between 4 and 8 hours. Adding salt/pepper/seasonings is good (but perhaps not necessary for beginners).

Sometimes, butchers put a sort of disposable sponge underneath the chicken to absorb any blood. Remove before putting the chicken in the crock.

You may not enjoy the smell of cooking chicken. (Some folks don't.) If so, a crockpot on a well-secured porch may help your house remain bearable during the cooking process.

Wash anything that touched raw meat before it can contact other food or things (like utensils) that will touch other food. This includes hands, counter, sink, cutting boards. (Exception is the inside of the crockpot, because it'll cook any germs at the same time you cook the chicken.)

When the cooking is over, let the meat rest for about 15 minutes to half an hour. For one thing, it's really hot. For another, it'll be easier to chop (rather than shred) if you let it sit and cool off for a bit.

Remove the skin and toss it. Some bits of the skin will stick (around the legs and wings). That's okay. You can tackle them later.

With the chicken resting on it's back, the breast bone will run down the center line of the chicken. On either side of the breast bone are big chunks of white meat (the breasts). To remove the breasts, slide a knife down one side of the breast bone, through meat, until it hits bone. (Be careful, it may be slippery!) Using your fingers or the knife, grab the edge of meat that you've just cut, getting your fingertips down near the bone if you can. Pull away from the breastbone. You will either get a big chunk of white meat, or a bunch of shredded little pieces of white meat. Repeat on the other side.

After you've removed the breasts, remove the legs and wings. The legs have two parts: the drumstick and the thigh. The thigh is easy: there's one bone, surrounded by dark meat, and the skin comes off easily. The drumstick is more challenging: in addition to the main bone, there's a little thin bone that runs alongside it, and the skin is harder to take off.

There is more meat on the chicken, around the back and a little on the wings. But that's harder for a beginner.

Once you are done chopping the meat, eat within the hour (or sooner if it's warm) or cover and put the bits in the fridge.

I don't know about your neighbors, but I love it when my neighbors offer me a chicken carcass and juices from the crockpot. They are useful for carnivore things like chicken soup.

Wash everything that's touched cooked meat.

You may want to store any waste (skin, etc.) in a bag in the freezer until trash day, to reduce the chance of unpleasant smells as it decomposes.

Good luck!

Re: The meat info dump

[rydra_wong]

Maybe you should start with breast and a thigh, which will give you white and dark meat. (In theory, you could also start with a boneless, skinless breast and thigh, although that reduces some of the fat and some of the calcium that you could get from cooking them with bone-in and skin-on

You can get packs of diced chicken (in the UK, at least) -- obviously no skin, but it makes preparation much less daunting as you can just tip them into a pan to be stir-fried or stewed or whatever.

[basingstoke]

I'm in a similar boat re: cooking meat for the first time just now. My best friend is a probe thermometer. Probe goes in meat, meat goes in oven, probe goes ding at a predetermined safe temperature.

Safest and easiest method is probably just to boil it, though. I was boiling for soup before I dared to bake. It's done when it falls apart.

I second the kosher butcher. You can get really small pieces from a butcher also, since baby is the only one eating the chicken. If you go to the hippie organic store, they tend to sell whole chickens, at least around here.

[basingstoke]

Also, I was just reminded of this by my own trash can. Oog. Meat trash (the wrapping, the tray or anything else from the raw meat, any scraps of skin or fat you cut off) REEKS like NOTHING your vegetarian life has prepared you for. It's worse than poo or vom; it's far worse than baby diapers. So if you have the ability to instantly throw away meat trash (outside dumpster, trash chute) then DO IT.

I just had to tie a bandana over my face and stuff a trash bag btwn my back door and screen door because I'm snowed in and can't get to the outside trash can. Horrible.

[reginagiraffe]

And beef debris (if you ever get that far) is *far worse* than chicken.

[minxy]

You've got the gist of it here from everyone. Chicken is a go-to meat because it's hard to get wrong.

If you want maximum flavor, you probably also want the expensive, free-range, organic chicken. Bones during cooking add flavor and nutrients, the skin has the fat, but usually doesn't go into chicken salad; if you cook the chicken with the skin on (and bones) you can retain moisture and flavor and some of the fat even if you strip the skin (and discard the bones) later.

Minimum prep, in my opinion, is chicken parts: wings, legs, and breasts. They take less and more time to cook, in that order. Minimum prep when the chicken is raw is good for minimizing cleaning up afterward.

All you really need to do to chicken is salt and pepper it, and throw it in a 350 degree oven for an hour and a half or so. A moist, tender meat will result from cooking it slowly, in the skin, and until the skin is golden brown (not too much farther. The juices of the breast, when you cut 1 inch into it, should run clear.)

If you want extra-delicious, rub a little butter over the skin and cook the chicken on a bed of (seasoned) root vegetables, onions, cabbage and garlic. Sunchokes, I would like to say, are incredibly delicious in that mixture.

Wash down anything that touches the chicken with soap and water. Discard the trash in a dumpster as soon as you can, but it will attract critters if you leave it accessible outside.

Chicken freezes best raw, but cooked chicken might be okay in the bigger pieces.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Boneless will probably be easier to work with, though I'm not sure dark meat comes in a boneless variety. However, cooked chicken comes right off the bone, so I expect (having never used a crockpot) you could cook the chicken in a crockpot (with some liquid?) and then shred it from the bone with your fingers (easy to do when I'm making matzoh ball soup...). If you don't use a lot of liquid, most of the fat, etc should stay on the chicken and you can freeze the shredded bits and pull out as needed.

Do you have any kind of local butcher? That might be your best bet for finding good chicken and they could give you some advice in that regard. Alternately, Whole Foods would be an option. I would buy a whole chicken (fryer/whatever the store calls it) which looks like a chicken with no head, feet, or feathers. It will probably come with "giblets" (heart, liver, kidneys, neck) in a bag which you can either toss or boil for broth. You should be able to stick the chicken, whole, in a crockpot with some water or broth and cook all day (again, I'm not sure about crockpot settings, but the internet should know). Then once it cools you can rip it apart with fingers, remove bones and cartilage and skin, and rip the cooked meat into smaller bits and freeze like that.

Chicken looks very different cooked vs. raw - raw is pink and vaguely slimy looking, while cooked is drier looking and, um, not pink or slimy? So you can easily tell while shredding if it's cooked. If it's not, just boil it in water a bit.

Mostly if you leave the skin on and chicken whole while crockpotting it you won't lose much fat and the meat won't get as dry.

I....have no idea if that helps.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Oh, and safe handling-wise, anything that touches raw chicken should be carefully cleaned with soap and hot water. I've known people who pour boiling water on anything that touched raw meat, but it's never seemed necessary personally.

[marag.livejournal.com]

Honestly, my favoritest thing in the world is to buy a cut-up chicken (i.e., somebody else cut off the legs, breasts, wings, etc., and put them in a nice tidy package).

Then I just pull it out, cut off any loose bits of skin hanging around, spray it with some oil, sprinkle on salt and pepper, put it on a broiler pan, and bake it at about 450 for 30-45 minutes. (You want to put it with meat side down for about half the time, then flip it over about halfway through.)

For some variation, you could brush on a mixture of brown sugar, fish sauce, and coriander near the end of cooking time. Or just about any bottled sauce.

As for safe handling tips, be sure to wash the knife, cutting board, and your hands with hot, soapy water before you use them for anything else.

[alias_sqbr]

I don't own a crockpot, but from my experience of oven poaching chicken and what recipes I've seen you can just chuck a whole chicken in a crockpot with some soup/stock stuff (salt, pepper, onion, carrot etc) and have it come out nice.

You can also poach or oven roast bits of chicken (pieces, breasts, thighs etc) Google "poach chicken" or "roast chicken". Those are the easiest methods I've found.

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-9842-Commercial-Waterproof-Thermometer/dp/B00009WE45 A digital thermometer is totally worth the 14 bucks if you're getting into the world of meat. So much easier just to check if the middle's done this way rather than wonder or cut, etc.

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

Also, I love foodgawker for inspiration. http://foodgawker.com/?cat=9&s=chicken something here should catch your fancy.

I am not much of a cook

[zillah975]

But here are my thoughts:

You could poach it. That's probably the easiest way to get chicken that can be easily put into salads and stuff.

When I cook chicken, typically I'm doing the boneless skinless chicken breast thing, so I have very little experience with cooking chicken with fat. However, when I cook chicken, I typically mix some spices into olive oil (usually tumeric and a little curry and salt, but you can use whatever sounds good, I think) and then smear the olive oil onto the chicken breasts and cook them in a glass baking dish at about 425 for around 30 minutes. The olive oil helps keep the chicken from getting dry.

Cook it just until it's no longer pink inside.

On the safe-handling thing, here are my tips:

If you buy it fresh, cook it within a day or so of buying it. If you buy it frozen, thaw in the refrigerator, not on the counter, and cook it when it's thawed.

If you're going to cut it up before cooking (I recommend buying pieces, not a whole chicken, because I'm afraid of cutting them up), use a different cutting board than you cut your veggies on if you can. Either way, be sure to wash the cutting board thoroughly in hot soapy water afterwards. Basically, keep chicken juices away from other things and clean up thoroughly whatever the chicken gets close to.

Rinse the chicken before using it, including rinsing under the skin. Rinse the chicken! I'm not sure everyone does this, but I wouldn't think of cooking chicken without rinsing it.

[mtgat]

Let us talk. Chicken is surprisingly easy.

First, buy a whole one (I buy about five pounds for a family of four, with leftovers for two-three days of all of us eating or a week with just me). If you can find one that meets your ethical standards at the local Whole Foods, TJ's, or co-op, go for it. If it is frozen, defrost it in the fridge for 1-2 days and, if necessary, remove the bits from the chest cavity after defrosting. (Sometimes there are necks and giblets stuffed in there. You can make gravy, make stuffing, cook them up and feed any carnivorous pets, or just toss them. If you toss, do it on Trash Day, 'cause they'll smell.) cadhla has a gorgeous recipe for roasting a whole chicken that involves ginger ale. You can also marinate it while it defrosts in something salad dressing like. (Discard the marinade when you're done. NOT EVERYONE DOES THIS. THEN THEY DIE.)

Preheat your oven to about 350-375 F. Rinse the chicken and pat it dry. If you're going to use the skin for food, toss a sprinkle of salt and pepper on it, option on a little garlic and onion powder. If you're feeling *really* adventurous, now is the time to slide in pats of butter(like substance) between the skin and the meat. It can make it extra juicy. Your call.

If you have a nice covered baking pan, put it in, put on the lid, and cook for about two hours, until the internal temp measured with a meat thermometer in the thigh reaches over 180 F (I go to 190), or until the meat is falling off the bone. If you lack that, you can use a 9x13 baking pan, though covering the pan and the chicken with aluminum foil will help lessen the mess and keep in the juices.

When it's done, let it cool and denude the bones. (It may have a blood pocket or two; these are cooked and only look gross. If you buy kosher chicken, it shouldn't be a problem. You're more concerned with if it's pink beside the bones. If you cook until fall-off-the-bone is reached, it shouldn't be an issue.)

I am no good with crockpotting a full chicken, but I'm positive it can be done with similar prep and a much longer cooking time.

Good luck!

[imkalena.livejournal.com]

Plus if she buys kosher chicken, it'll be the most delicious thing ever, because of the brining. :) Keeps it moist and tender.

[marthawells.livejournal.com]

Food Network has tons of chicken recipes (http://www.foodnetwork.com/topics/poultry/index.html). And they tell you the level of difficulty, time it takes, etc. And they should have crock pot recipes, too.

I always try to buy organic, cage free chicken, which you should be able to get at most Whole Foods.

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

I've discovered that pretty much any chicken parts, white, dark or a mix, in a crock pot with a liquid (chicken, vegetable or any other stock, plus general spices (salt, pepper, maybe sage and/or onion, or what is packaged as "poultry seasoning") will come out succulent and delicious. If you put in more stock you will get something like stew - even more and it will be virtually chicken soup. I've never had it fail.

Also? Everyone's notes about hygiene with chicken are very important, as is the need to cook it until it is no longer pink or red near the bone. And I would choose chicken on the bone, rather than boneless, for taste.

[sanj.livejournal.com]

Check with ellen_fremedon, because this is her thing, not mine -- but she does this thing where she takes a whole chicken, washes it off, and puts it in the crockpot. Maybe with some salt, pepper, and lime. The juice in the chicken and the steam in the cooker poach it and it produces meat that is very soft and perfect for chicken salad.

Just get the best little organic chicken you can and stick it in there. Tiny Alice Waters should approve.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Couple of teaspoons of lemon juice and some honey works nicely too.

[misspamela.livejournal.com]

Crockpot a whole chicken! It's super easy, you keep all the fat, and the chicken just kind of falls apart without any weird...butchering. (Says I, who was vegetarian for 12 years until last year.) It will be incredibly tender. You just need to buy a whole chicken, pull the bag of giblets out of the inside, salt and pepper the crap out of it, and cook it in the crockpot for 8 hours on low. If you want garlic, lemon, herbs, whatever, you can add that. If not, it's still delicious!

Hello!

[missmollyetc.livejournal.com]

First off, poultry of any kind should be kept separate from all other cooking ingredients during preparation. Wash knives after use if you're going to then cut vegetables, and make sure to wash your hands before you touch anything else, if you've touched the poulty.

Secondly, chicken thighs are a good source of light/dark meat and have quite a bit of fat to them so you don't have to add as much oil or fat to the cooking process. You can get them boneless, or with the bones still in. Generally, I get them without the bones simply because it cuts down on processing time.

Cook until it's no longer pink inside, usually I'd say four-five minutes on each side. If you cut into the chicken before it's all the way cooked the juices will escape and it will no longer be as juicy (this does not stop me from doing it when I cook chicken, but oh well!) If you don't want to pierce the chicken, you can test the done-ness of the meat by pressing on the chicken from time to time in the cooking process; the more firm the chicken, the more cooked it is.

Poaching a chicken will work, but it will lose a lot of its flavor because you're basically making chicken stock. All the flavor goes into the cooking water. Generally, I recommend baking chicken, it doesn't require a lot of thought and comes out well.

Before cooking, put a thin coat of olive oil in the bottom of an oven-safe dish, so that the chicken doesn't stick to the bottom of the dish.

Put the chicken in the oven-safe dish

Add spices if you want (Salt, pepper, etc.)

Heat oven to 350 degrees, and cook chicken until done (usually about half an hour to an hour depending on how many chicken pieces there are.)


If you want to cook it in a crock pot, that recipe works rather well too, I think. I've never used a crock pot before, so I can't be certain.