Ways To Cook Chicken
The Many Ways To Cook Chicken
Attempting to list the ways to cook chicken, brings to mind several scenes in Forrest Gump, where Forrest's friend Bubba spells out all the different way in which shrimp can be prepared. He could have substituted chicken for shrimp, although the movie would have suffered a great deal in the process. Going out on a shrimp boat makes for a much more interesting story line than does heading out to the chicken coop.
Among the ways to cook chicken, the most basic are roasting, frying, and grilling. But there are many more, including stewing. The chicken many of us had at Grandma's house on Sunday was most often oven roasted. But if one was raised in one of the Southern states, it could just as easily have been pan-fried. In more recent times, grilled chicken has become one of the more common ways to cook chicken, whether grilled at home, in a restaurant, or in a delicatessen.
Chickens are often raised for meat production with a specific means of cooking in mind, although we are free to cook a chicken any way we want once we bring the bird home. For example, young chickens weighing only a couple of pounds are called broilers. When weighing more than 2 pounds but less than 3 pounds they are called fryers. A larger chicken, but one that is under 8 months old, will often be sold as a roaster, while chickens over 10 months old, are usually a little tougher as far as the quality of their need is concerned, and are referred to as stewing chickens, and are often destined for the stock pot.
Roast Chicken - To roast a chicken, it can be stuffed with a bread or rice-based dressing, placed in a preheated oven, and roasted at 350 degrees. The roasting time is typically 20 minutes for each pound of chicken. A chicken does not have to be roasted with stuffing, but is usually much more flavorful when prepared that way.
Broiled Chicken - When broiling a chicken it is often quartered, and the meet kept a few inches, usually 5 or 6, from a source of fairly high heat. Chickens are normally broiled in a pan, and often basted with a mix of butter, lemon juice, and herbs or spices while broiling. Although the heat is higher than that used in roasting, broiling still takes some time, with the individual chicken parts being constantly turned so that all sides are have the same golden brown color. A variation of broiled chicken is broiled marinated chicken, where before placing in the broiler, the chicken is marinated for one or more hours. The marinade can be wine to which herbs have been added, or Teriyaki sauce, as two examples.
Pan-Fried Chicken - Also called Sautéed chicken, pan-fried chicken is a staple in many households. The chicken is quartered, often rolled in bread crumbs and placed in a pan to which butter or fat has been added, the pan having been heated to the point of fragrance. The chicken is cooked until brown, at which point the heat is reduced, and the chicken continues to cook for another 30 minutes, or until done. Once the chicken is removed from the pan, the remaining liquid is often used as the basis for gravy. A variation of pan-fried chicken is Oven-Fried Chicken. Here the chicken is initially cooked in the frying pan as before, but is then removed, placed in a baking pan, and put in the oven to finish cooking. There are many variations of oven-fried chicken, as a wide range of different sauces can be poured over the chicken once it has been placed in the baking pan.
Braised Chicken - While pan-fried chicken is done exclusively in the frying pan, and over-fried chicken makes use of a baking pan in addition to the frying pan, braised chicken is prepared by initially frying the meat in a frying pan, then placing it in a baking dish. A baking dish allows a number of items, including whole fruit to be added during the baking process, or, one can add vegetable, herbs, or just about anything which might appeal to the taste buds.
We've only scratched the surface. Simmer chicken meat to prepare chicken fricassee, prepare chicken as a casserole dish, or combine with tomatoes and mushrooms yielding a delicious chicken cacciatore, or prepare a dish of chicken curry. Then, there are the different chicken soups, and a wide number of recipes for grilling chicken. Like Bubba, we could go on and on.