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Chicken recipes are the American table's most versatile staple: high in protein, relatively low in fat, with a mild taste that picks up and intensifies a host of preparations, from the simplest butter and herb combos to those many condiment stir fry concoctions.
To answer the public's demand for reduced-fat ground meats, poultry producers now offer both ground chicken and ground turkey. Each type of ground poultry has a different fat content, and since fat provides moisture and flavor, expect different results when cooking with different varieties. For example, lean ground turkey breast works well when cooked in a liquid (think along the lines of turkey meatballs in tomato sauce), but it is less successful when made into turkey burgers, where its lack of fat may make the burgers dry.
Ground chicken: Made from white and dark chicken meat with skin, its fat content is about ten percent. It is an excellent all-purpose ground poultry, but any recipe prepared with this product will have a slightly softer texture than the same dish prepared with ground turkey.
Chicken has long been a favorite all around the world and in this list of quick, easy and best chicken recipes with pictures you can find many simple chicken recipes like sweet And sour chicken wings, chicken fingers, golden chicken nuggets, chicken kabobs on the grill and many more...
The three moist cooking methods - boiling, poaching, and steaming - are, admittedly, not the main ones used for cooking poultry, but they are nonetheless irreplaceable. Boiling is generally used only for the preparation of stocks and broths,where a strong concentration is required. When tender, young poultry meat is to be eaten, the gentler cooking methods of poaching and steaming are more appropriate.
In poaching, the meat cooks slowly in liquid at the hottest possible temperature below boiling point, generally between 167°F and 194°F. It is important to start with cold liquid and to bring it just to the boiling point so that the scum rises to the surface and can be skimmed off. The amount and quality of the liquid also affect the taste of the meat, as during cooking a continual exchange takes place between them. When poaching poultry in water, the pot should be large enough for the bird to be completely covered by the liquid, but no larger, in order to keep the amount of liquid to a minimum. When the meat is poached in a stock, the volume of liquid can be higher, and therefore the pot can be larger if necessary.
In steaming, the meat is cooked in a perforated container over boiling water in a covered pot. This is a particularly gentle method. Steaming causes the least loss of nutrients and preserves the maximum characteristic taste.
The quality of a chicken can be defined in various ways. For the consumer, in addition to value for money, nutritional value, taste, texture, appearance, and aroma are also decisive. These criteria can be affected by a large number of factors during production and processing.
Breeding determines the body structure, including the tissue structure and the body proportions. Older and heavier animals have a higher carcass dressing percentage, a better ratio of meat to bone, a higher proportion of edible parts. Moreover, the ratio of essential to non-essential amino acids and that of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids is more favorable. The taste also improves, although only up to about the twelfth week of life.
Remove any bits and fat left inside the carcass. Rinse in cold running water and then pat dry, inside and out, with a lint-free towel (paper towel, especially cheap ones, can leave paper fibres on the meat). If stuffing the cavity, remember not to pack it in too tight because the mixture expands as it cooks.
Cooking time:
When roasting whole birds, the breast will cook faster than the legs. If you want to avoid this, try packing a stuffing between the breast skin and breast or cutting 2 to 3 lines into the leg muscles to allow heat to penetrate. And a stuffed bird will take a little longer than one without stuffing because it takes longer for the heat to penetrate to the centre. Allow 2 minutes resting time per kilogram before you carve the beast, and remove the wishbone for easy carving. Hang the wishbone out to dry for the kids to fight over; the smart child will have figured out that whoever keeps their little finger above their opponent's will always win.
Stewing and braising are both slow, moist-heat methods of cooking that are usually employed for relatively tough cuts of meat, including drumsticks, and for older poultry, for which they are ideal. They also provide a welcome alternative to the more common frying, roasting, and broiling used for the more tender cuts of poultry. In stewing, the poultry is not browned first, but is cooked slowly in a little liquid at a moderate temperature, so that the meat is scarcely colored. The meat then continues to stew in the liquid and the steam that is given off during cooking.
Braising is quite different. It always starts with vigorously browning the meat in a little fat, creating a roasted quality. Then the liquid is added and the heat reduced, so the browned crust softens in the moist heat, and the flavors of the meat and liquid are developed and exchanged. Braising uses less liquid than stewing and a slightly longer simmering time. It is parti-cularly good for enhancing the flavors and increasing the tenderness of drumsticks and meat of older animals. In both methods, the taste of the poultry can be be varied by adding vegetables, spices, herbs, and wine.
The amount of fat in poultry meat is affected not only by the feed the birds consume, but also by their age and sex, and the way they are reared. Little movement leads to excessive fat, while a lot of movement promotes the development of the musculature used for walking and clear differentiation in the color and texture of the breast and leg muscles
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