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thefourthvine) wrote2010-02-12 07:10 pm
thefourthvine) wrote2010-02-12 07:10 pm
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Chicken Help Requested!
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
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
no subject
I will also tell you how to roast a chicken, which is slightly more complicated but is tasty and smells amazing while it's cooking:
Buy a whole chicken. Take the giblet bag out (and, probably, throw it away, since I don't think you have a use for chicken organs.) Rinse the chicken off, pat it dry inside and out with paper towels (or a clean dishtowel that you won't use for anything else until it's washed), and put it in a roasting pan -- any metal or glass pan should work, as long as it has sides and the chicken fits without hanging over the sides.
Tuck the wing tips under the chicken, to keep them from burning. Tie the ends of the legs together with string or cotton thread. That's optional, but it will help keep the chicken juicy. Rub the chicken all over with olive oil.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. When it's ready, put the pan with the chicken in the oven. Immediately turn the oven down to 350 degrees. Let it cook for an hour to an hour and a half.
Optional, but good for crisping the skin and keeping the chicken juicy: every twenty minutes or so take a basting brush (cheap if you don't have one, they look like little paintbrushes, such as you would paint your house with), dip it in the oil/fat that collects at the bottom of the roasting pan, and "paint" that over the surface of the chicken, especially over the breast. Be careful not to burn yourself or drip chicken fat on the bottom of the oven, where it will smoke -- you may want to take the pan out of the oven to do this.
When the chicken is done, the legs should move easily and the juices should run clear if you stab it in the thigh, or use a meat thermometer. Take it out, let it cool in the pan, and when it's cool enough to handle, cut or tear the chicken off the bone.
The juices in the pan will congeal as they cool -- this is not a sign that something has gone horribly wrong, it's just the natural gelatin that's been released as the chicken cooks starting to set. This is also true of home-made chicken broth; if you make broth by simmering bone-in chicken and then stick the broth in the refrigerator, the next day you may have something that looks like jelly rather than a liquid. That is fine! It will turn back into a liquid if you reheat it.