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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
The meat info dump
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
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.
Re: The meat info dump