The Chicken AND thread

Cafe Society
1

I’ve decided to devote myself to cooking chicken.

I’ll start. I don’t cook, so please bear with me.

This is a recipie from Parade magazine, as best I can remember.

Get:

Some chicken.
Rosemary
Onion
Garlic
Parsley
Marinara
Olive oil
Water

Sautee the onion and garlic and rosemary, and spoon it over the chicken, which should be in a baking dish. Add about 1/2 cup of water to the baking dish (and bake at whatever temp works – I’m horrible at this). Add the Marinara sauce as it’s baking and baste the chicken with the water/marinara sauce-sauce that ends up happening.

2

“Scarborough Chicken”. Just think Simon & Garfunkel. Chicken, with parsley, sage, rosemary, & thyme. With a bit of oil, on the stovetop. On a bed of rice, with your favorite “grilled” vegetables. Cook the veggies in the left over drippings from the chicken. They just taste better that way.
Barbecued. Place the chicken pieces in a large ziplock bag with a liberal amount of barbecue sauce and let it sit overnight. Throw it on the grill, close the hood, and leave it. The first rule of barbecued chicken is that it takes three times longer to cook than you think it will.

3

Another rosemary chicken recipe.

Whole Chicken
Butter
Sea Salt
Fresh rosemary

Take your chicken and rub it down with the butter and then sprinkle the salt all over it. Loosen the skin a bit and stick a couple of stalks of rosemary between the chicken and the skin. put it in a covered dish, and put it in the oven for whatever time and temp you usually cook a chicken for. I think I usually put it in for 350 for about an hour, but I don’t remember.

4

A couple of “bachelor cooking” (i.e., dead easy) chicken recipes:

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
An onion, chopped
Orange juice

In a big skillet, saute the onion till it starts browning. While the onion is cooking, slice the chicken into strips or chunks. Dump the chicken in with the onion and let it cook a bit, till it’s not obviously pink. Spread everything out level in the pan and dump in the OJ till it reaches the top of the chicken. Let it reduce to a sauce-like consistency. Serve over rice.

==========

A pound or two of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
About 4 oz. each brown mustard (maybe something like a brown dijon) and orange marmalade–maybe a little more than 4 oz

Preheat the oven to 350F. Mix the mustard and marmalade. Dump a little of the mixture into a 9x9 inch baking dish so it covers the bottom. Put the whole chicken breasts in the dish and spoon the rest of the mustard/marmalade over the chicken, making sure you coat all the chicken. Cover the pan with foil and bake for about 40 mins, then remove the foil and bake for about another 20 minutes. If you have leftovers, it makes great chicken salad.

5

Do you, ummm… take it out of the bag first?

6

Some of my favorite chicken recipes, in something resembling order of difficulty:

Pour a bottle of Italian salad dressing over chicken. Bake.

Mix together 1/2 cup Dijon mustard and 3/4 teaspoon curry powder. Smear over chicken. Bake.

Puree together a cup of basil (or other mild herb, or a mix) and 1/4 cup olive oil. Smear half over chicken; bake until halfway done, smear other half over chicken, bake until done. You can make more of the herb mixture and serve it with the chicken, to be drizzled on at the table, impressing your guests.

Sprinkle chicken with paprika, onion powder and garlic powder. Bake until about 10 minutes from done, about 45 minutes at 350, less at higher temperatures. Then pour off the drippings, and coat chicken with a mixture of 1/3 cup apricot jam, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 3 tablespoons ketchup, and 2 teaspoons brown sugar over chicken. Bake until done.

Mix together 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup honey, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and several shakes of garlic powder. Pour over chicken, and bake. Serve over rice.

Probably one of the best things I make, and it takes 20 minutes from beginning to end, including chopping, so don’t be put off by the length of the directions: Slice up 1 fennel (aka anise) bulb (about 1 pound; don’t cut up the stalks or the leafy part, as they’re pretty woody), and cut 2 chicken cutlets into stir-fry sized strips. Cook chicken in 1 tablespoon oil in a skillet, stirring constantly, until no longer pink, even when you cut open a piece. Stir in the sliced fennel, 3/4 cup orange juice, 1 teaspoon five-spice powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to boiling, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 4-5 minutes, or until fennel is crisp-tender; stir occasionally. While this is simmering, core and slice two medium pears (Bosc ones are good). In a separate cup, mix together 1/4 cup orange juice and 1 tablespoon cornstarch. After the stuff in the skillet has simmered for 5 minutes, add this OJ/cornstarch to it and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar (or 1.5 teaspoons of plain white vinegar, I guess, although you can get rice wine vinegar, along with all of the other ingredients here, at my local Pathmark) and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the pear slices; cook, stirring gently, until the pears are heated through, a minute or two depending on how thickly you cut them.

A bit longer, but always sells well: Slice up 6 large onions and saute until golden. Combine 1/4 cup flour, salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder to taste in a plastic bag, and shake each piece of chicken in it until coated. Lay the chicken over the onions. Chop 6 large cloves garlic and scatter over all. Mix together 12 ounces of beer or ginger ale, 1 cup cranberry sauce (canned is fine), 1/2 cup ketchup, and the remains of the flour mixture, and pour over all. Bake at 350 for 1.5 hours. Serve over rice. The sauce alone is worth the price of admission.

7

Take one whole chicken and clean out the cavity. Rub skin lightly with mayonnaise or brush with olive oil, then sprinkle liberally with seasonings of choice. (I’m fond of Emeril’s Southwest Essence or Joe’s Stuff, myself.) Open a can of cheap beer, pour a bit out, and chuck some seasoning in. Punch a few extra holes in the top, then slide chicken cavity down over the beer can. The can and legs will form a tripod so chicken stands up. Stand chicken up on grill and cook with high indirect heat (350 or above) for two hours. Remove chicken and cover with foil for a few minutes, then carve and serve. Alternatively, you can skip the oil or mayo, and instead mix your seasonings with a bit of cornstarch to make it stick. Adding brown sugar to the mix is right tasty, too.

Another really good one is to take a whole chicken, use a pair of kitchen shears to cut out the backbone and keelbone, and lay it out flat, like butterflying a steak. Rub with mayo or brush with oil, then season to taste and roast at 375 for an hour and a half or so, or until done. Either of these methods yields incredibly moist, tender chicken.

Chicken pot pie is terribly simple, too. Boil up some chicken until falling off the bone. Leg quarters are usually best for this, and I usually add some Italian seasoning and garlic, as well as salt and pepper. Pull the chicken out and add mixed veggies and a dollop of butter to the broth. When chicken is cool, debone it and add it back to the broth. Let all that simmer together while you mix up some biscuit dough. You can either put some of the dough in as a bottom crust or not, as you like. Pour in the broth/chicken/veggie mixture, add the top crust, and bake at 350 until golden brown.

8

I did some absolutely heavenly chicken last week but can’t remember the recipe I used :smack:

It’s a Thai kinda thing, and entails marinating the meat in lime juice first, which almost “cooks” it and makes it so tender… Then fry with, um, ginger, lemongrass, er… coconut milk, sesame seeds, spring onion and a bit of nam pla (fish sauce). I think that is all.

9

For an easy (though expensive) life allways get boneless skinless chicken breasts.
Have a roll of aluminium foil.
Bake chikenbreast wrapeed tightly in foil, have a tablespoon of liquid, a teaspoon of oil and flavouting of your choice in each wrapped parcel, serve with cooked rice.

Possibilities
Liquid = Lemonjuice and some honey to sweeten, or orange juice, or soya sauce, or white wine, or marinara sauce, or anything else tasty.
Oil = Olive or Vegitable or butter
Flavours = Shredded fresh ginger, or mixed herbs, or sliced chilli, or proscutio ham, or cheese, or garlic, or …, or any combination that sounds good to you.

I’d have to look up a recipie for the best cooking times and heat, I think it would be about 25 minuites at 375. Once cooking time is over, open one package, and cut chicken breast at middle, check the meat is white all the way through, if it is still undercooked re-wrap it and add another 10 minutes cooking for all the packages.

For rice, get a rice cooker if you eat rice often, otherwise get an easy-cook package (uncle benns or similar).

10

Delicious Roasted Chicken

1 Whole roaster chicken
1 whole lemon
Sprigs fresh thyme
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Remove the giblets and neck from the chicken.

Rub the outside of the chicken with olive oil, then season with salt and pepper.

Throw some sprigs of thyme into the cavity of the chicken. Also season the inside with salt and pepper.

Wash the lemon, lightly scrubbing the rind. Using a fork, poke lots of holes all around the entire lemon. Stuff the lemon into the cavity of the chicken.

Throw the chicken into a roasting pan or baking dish, along with some extra thyme.

Roast the chicken at 375 degrees for about an hour, or until juices run clear when you poke into the meat near the thigh with a fork. Periodically spoon the juices and olive oil over the chicken as it roasts.

11

Ah, yes, I see that I did omit that vital step. Perhaps I was confusing barbecue chicken with chicken baked in parchment.

12

Ooo, ooo, ooo…I got one!

One of my FAVORITE dishes I had in Johannesburg was chicken piri-piri (also known as chicken pili-pili, chicken peri-peri, or chicken peli-peli.) Apparently, this dish originally comes from Portugal via Mozambique. I loved this stuff so much, I ate it every single day while down there.

There’a million different recipes for the piri-piri sauce and marinade, but I like to start with three basic ingredients:

Lemon juice (some people use cider vinegar or lime)
Olive oil
HOT red peppers (Thai birds-eye chiles work for me. You can also use serranos or cayenne. I wouldn’t use habanero, as the taste is quite different.)
Crushed garlic cloves
Salt

I use about equal 2 parts oil to one part acid (lemon juice, vinegar, etc.) and the rest to taste. It should be fairly fiery. Good starting point is about 1 cup olive oil to 1/2 cup lemon juice, 3-6 hot-as-hell chiles, 1 or 2 garlic cloves. Blend everything together in a food processor.

Now you have your sauce/marinade. Split a small chicken or cornish game hen. It should look something like this. Pour over the marinade (it’s good to reserve some) and let it soak in for at least 8 hours, preferably 24.

Preheat a charcoal grill. Drain the hens, but reserve the marinade. Place skin side (aka presentation side) down and grill until browned. Turn over and brush with reserved marinade. Continue basting and turning every five minutes for about 15 minutes, or until done.

(Remember, your marinade contains raw chicken, so make sure that every time you baste, you let the marinade cook through on the chicken.)

Serve with fresh piri-piri sauce (which you have reserved from the day before.)
This stuff is heaven.

13

[Ditech commercial] Rats, lost another one to Cafe Society![/Ditech]

Sigh…moving it, but while jotting down notes.

Veb

14

Veb, sorry…I hardly ever post in cafe society and I just had a brain lock – it obviously should have gone there.

WOW…I’m SO printing out this thread and trying the recipes!!!

Here is another one:

Chicken Cordon Bleu…Cookie Style

Get thin chicken cutlets
eggs
real parmesan cheese
ham
swiss cheese
flour

Put egg yolks, flour and shredded parm in three different bowls.

Douse the cutlets in yolks first, then flour, and then parmesan.

Huck into frying pan on low heat.

Cook chicken, flipping and whatnot for about 10 minutes.

Then, put cutlets in baking dish and place ham and swiss on top.

Cook in oven for about 10 minutes.

YUM.

Added bonus to this is sauteeing mushrooms in lea & perrins white wine sauce and slathering chicken in it.

15

I’ve found that bone-in chicken breasts are better for grilling. In fact for anything you grill till fully done I like the bone there so all the extra connective tissue is around to melt. Chicken breasts don’t have very much really, but every little bit helps, plus I think the bone distributes the heat or something.

If it’s a sweetish sauce it will likely burn if left alone. Along those lines, to contribute to the thread in an incredibly easy and fairly cheap recipe sweet sauce grilling method.
Get a bottle of sauce(Any barbecue sauce you like, Asian grilling sauce, Thai peanut sauce, Homemade, whatever But I love sweet sauces on grilled chicken).

Get some chicken(bone-in breasts, bone-in thighs, and drumsticks work best) remove or score the skin.

Put chicken and sauce in bag, and throw in fridge before work and get it out when you come home.

Get your grill upto just over medium heat.

Put the chicken on the grill. And set timer for 26 minutes.

Every two minutes baste the up-side and turn over. Any longer and the sugars in the sweet sauce will burn.(If you have more then 10 or so pieces, it’s pretty much a continuous process, once you get the last piece done the first one needs it again).

When timer goes off, Eat.

16

I just want to make sure I understand this so I don’t blow up my house.

You’re saying, dump some beer out of a can, put some seasoning in, cram it in the cavity (I’ve never roasted a chicken; I’m assuming it’s the same cavity that a turkey has, right?) and then put it on the grill so the can is actually touching the grill with the chicken’s butt (for lack of a chicken part knowledge)? For two hours? Won’t the can melt or something?

17

My printer’s already hummin’!
These aren’t so much recipes as throw-together guidelines. I buy large bags of frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts because they’re so handy to have around. Defrost a few the night before and I’m good to go. FWIW most times I end up pounding them thinner before cooking, since usually I don’t do long-cook stuff.

Double Parmesan Spinach Chicken Breasts
Pound chicken fairly flat; set aside. Preheat oven to 325-350. Defrost and drain a pkg. of frozen chopped spinach; mix with a beaten egg, salt and pepper, a clove crushed garlic, a dollop or two of cottage cheese and lashings of freshly grated Parmesan. Set aside. Make basic medium white sauce–butter, flour, milk–stir till smooth and thick, salt and pepper (add a dash of cayenne), then stir in fresh parmesan.
Spray baking dish with oil or Pam. Plop a Tbsp. or so of spinach mixture on a chicken breast, fold over and “pin” loosely with toothpicks. Brown lightly in a skillet, flipping once to get each side browned. Shove into baking dish when done. Spread parmesan sauce over everything and bake for about half hour/45 minutes until done.

Quick Chicken Breasts With Whatever’s Handy
Basically this consists of pounding the chicken fairly flat, dusting them with flour seasoned with something appropriate, quick sauteeing them, revmove them from the pan & keep 'em warm while you deglaze the pan with a complementary liquid for a sauce. Most of 'em take about 15 minutes, max.

  • season flour with S&P thyme, finely minced rosemary, etc.; deglaze pan with white wine (or chicken stock), plop in some rinsed capers, stir a few minutes until thickened, then dump over chicken.
  • season flour with ground nutmeg, S&P, and cinnnamon if you like it. (I substitute a titch of cayenne.) Delgaze pan with apple juice, and/or orange juice. Plop in a little apple jelly, orange marmelade, or pepper jelly. Good w/ rice.
  • season flour with thyme, S&P; after removing chicken plop in some fresh sliced mushrooms (and a pat of butter) saute until soft; deglaze pan with beef stock (plop in a glug of brandy if you have it) and cook until reduced by half. Remove from heat and stir in some plain yogurt or sour cream. Great w/ noodles.
  • season flour with S&P, chili powder and ground cumin; deglaze pan w/ a can of mild Rotel tomatoes (w/ juice), or a can of spicy V-8. (If using the V-8 you can bobbit in some sliced zucchini first or whatever veg you like.) Top w/ grated cheese.
  • season flour w/ S&P, minced rosemary, oregano or Italian seasoning; deglaze pan with a small jar of roasted red peppers with garlic (chop 'em up a bit first if they aren’t already; don’t rinse, use the juices). Throw in a glug of white wine for kicks. Great over hot pasta.
    Etc. Etc. Etc. Fast, tasty, easy improvisational cooking. Even if an attempt comes out lousy it’s still usually miles better than prefab stuff.
18

Does your aluminum bakeware melt when you bake something for two hours? Of course your can won’t melt.

Yes, you pour out some beer add some seasoning and extra holes in the top, the shove it up the chicken’s ass. The can and the legs will form a tripod to support the chicken, and you can either grill it or toss it in the oven. The beer boils up and bastes the chicken from the inside out, making it incredibly tender and juicy. There’s actually an entire book of beer-can chicken recipes, called something imaginative like Beer Can Chicken.

19

Why the “of course” CrazyCatLady, and why the hostility? There’s nothing “of course” about it, as you’d know if you ever put an aluminum can on a grill or camp fire. The thickness and grade aren’t remotely the same as aluminum bakeware. I wouldn’t assume for one second how thin aluminum beer cans stand up to prolonged baking.
Sat on Cookie’s request for clarification was perfectly reasonable, and civilly asked. If you can’t respond in kind, don’t bother.

Veb

20

Here’s an impressive one for car-camping or a fun converstaion piece during a backyard barbecue:

Chicken in a cardboard box

Whole chicken,
dry rub (whatever you want to make. I usually whip up some fresh rosemary, black pepper, salt, tarragon, lemon zest, etc. Grind well. You can also use a spicy premade rub like Tony Chachere’s or the like),
heavy duty aluminum foil,
a few metal coat hangers,
charcoal,
and one (1) largish cardboard box (oh, say, like a computer monitor box.)

-Line box with aluminum foil.
-Straighten coathangers and punch them through the box so that they form a lattice-type rack.
-Light charcoal and heat in a charcoal chimney.
-Gut and skin the chicken, and thoroughly coat inside and out with dry rub.
-Place chicken in box so that orifice side is down.
-Slow cook with charcoal. Each briquet is good for about 50-60 degrees of heat, so use enough to get it to, oh, 250-275 degrees. This will cook the chicken nice and slowly, so it remains juicy, and the spices cook right into the meat.

Serve with risotto or whatever else. This makes absolutely delicious chicken, but it gets a bunch of mileage from the novelty as well. “Dude, are you cooking that inside a computer box? Hobo chic!”

Back when I was a Boy Scout and had cooking contests at Camporees, we’d trot this technique out along with Dutch-oven peach cobbler (you filthy minded freaks keep quiet!) and cruise to an easy victory virtually every time.