Cooking chicken

[Allisonfaye]

Every time I find a new recipe for chicken it says to cook the chicken for like 10 minutes on each side or something along those lines. My husband usually cooks it on the grill and he thinks we will be poisoned if we cook it according to the recipe but frequently, he does overcook the chicken. Do you follow the guidelines on the recipe or cook it longer? These recipes come from reputable chefs so I am sure they are not killing people regularly.

 

[Lorelei]

Get a meat thermometer to be safe, but I tend to slightly overcook too, always have but it depends on the cooking method how long. Depends on the type of cut too, a breast which is thicker in the middle may take longer than a flat pancake one, a thigh longer than a drumstick etc. Look for clear juices and no pink with the flesh, I maul my chicken to make sure it is cooked too!

 

[Mara]

we usually cook it longer than recipes say to because it seems to never quite be done at that point. i used to get these stuffed chicken breast things from whole foods and the meat guy said oh cook it like 25 minutes at 375. so i did and it was so raw inside. i had to basically double cooking time and up it to 400. so i think a lot of times people underestimate how long chicken takes to be done. we tend to err on the side of a little overdone BUT i find the more we cook it, the better we are getting at figuring out when it''s done. i find that when the juices on whatever you are cooking start to pop up to the surface, typically it is about 99% there. if you take it off the heat and let it ''rest'' for a few minutes before cutting it should cook the rest of the way and be juicy for cutting. i also find that if i have a really thick breast it will just take forever to cook and the outside gets tough, so i either pound it flatter OR just cut it down the middle in half thickness wise and make two thinner breasts. that works for us most of the time and then it just cooks that much faster.

oh and the other thing we found is that we were waiting til every tiny last bit of pink was entirely gone from the center but then we realized that it was okay to have the barest hint of pink ... i noticed that every time we went to a restaurant it was served that way and then was like DOH. so now we do that at home and it has worked out fine as well. not PINK but really more just the barest tinge of the lightest pink. and the center should be ''textured'' rather than soft and shiny looking to be cooked.

hope this helps. we have done lots of chicken experiments to figure it out too. hehe.

 

[Erin]

I''m way too scared to cook chicken so I never have before.
Guess you just gotta do it again and again to feel comfortable.
I need to take that leap...

 

[lumpkin]

Date: 7/9/2007 3:44:24 PM
Author: Lorelei
Get a meat thermometer to be safe, but I tend to slightly overcook too, always have but it depends on the cooking method how long. Depends on the type of cut too, a breast which is thicker in the middle may take longer than a flat pancake one, a thigh longer than a drumstick etc. Look for clear juices and no pink with the flesh, I maul my chicken to make sure it is cooked too!

I do that, too! I usually have to cook my chicken more, too. But lately I started just buying a rotisserie chicken at the deli counter. I was amazed to find that they are no more expensive (and sometimes less) than a whole uncooked chicken, plus they are all juicy and tasty from the herbs and the rotisserie oven (which we don''t have). The only draw back is we have to make a special trip to get it right before we eat.

I also like to get chicken strips to stir fry. Those hardly take any time at all to cook, maybe 10 minutes? I cook those until they are all white, no pink.

 

[Skippy123]

Ugh we always over cook it because 2 times I have gotten sick from it being pink. I wish chicken wasn''t so hard when it comes to cooking. Yum, rubby chicken for us

 

[Love in Bloom]

The meat thermometer idea is a good one. I think 165-170 degrees F is the ''safe temp'' for chicken. I''m glad I''m not the only one afraid of undercooked meats. Raw beef and chicken kind of make me sick just looking at them. I usually cook chicken waaaay too long. Even after taking the internal temp I still cook it until it looks dead.

 

[VegasAngel]

I''m pretty good about not overcooking chicken but thats because I check it out every few minutes. I also like throwing it in a cooking bag whenever I can. You can cook it longer without drying it out.

 

[divergrrl]

My dad taught me tricks for cooking chicken, and one of them is a digital meat thermometer. Mine is from Sharper Image. (gift from dad).

On the grill, I cook my chicken at med-high heat & I turn every few minutes. With each turn, I give it a spritz of 0 calorie olive oil spray to keep it moist. Also you need to bring all meat up to room temperature before cooking (this I learned from my friend who is the GM at a top 10 steakhouse in the US). No, you won''t get sick...don''t leave it out all day, but while you are prepping dinner, just leave it on the counter to take the chill off.

What you look for (short of a thermometer) is when the chicken has a "firm" touch when you press down on it, not soft & giving. I''ve gotten so good at knowing by pressing on it with a spatula or tongs that I no longer have to cut it to see if juices run clear.

Of course you can always cut it to see if the juices run clear.

On the grill I find that constant turning & olive oil spritzing keep the chicken moist & delish (thanks dad!) and in the oven, a regular breast (not stuffed) cooks in about 25 minutes at 375.

but for fool proof, go thermometer---I forget what the temp reading should be...165 or 175...

HTH

 

[ellaila]

I''m SO paranoid about undercooked chicken too! I have a joke that I only know how to cook chicken nuggets and not whole pieces of chicken b/c by the time I''m done cutting it to see if it''s cooked inside, all the pieces are bite-sized! We very rarely eat whole chicken breasts when I''m cooking -- ha ha

 

[Picos]

I''m not worried about under cooking chicken; I feel it before putting it on the plate. If I can''t tell, I''ll stick the thermometer in it.

As for not drying it out, I brine chicken & turkey.