May & June 2008
By Peggy Guntis
Hi everyone, hope you are all well and ready to cook something new. I had such a fun and enlightening experience this month; I took a Cooking Class! You’d think that after all these years of cooking for my family day after day that I wouldn’t choose to spend some of my free evening time and money learning the tricks of preparing poultry but I had a fantastic time. Would you believe that in a period of about three hours 17 of us heard the comprehensive lecture, prepared eleven delicious chicken entrees and then sat at candlelit tables and ate them all! I would love to share with you some of the recipes and hints I received at my class.
I discovered that one of the trickiest things is to first pick the right type of poultry for the results you would like to attain— rock Cornish hens, poussin, broiler/fryers, roasters, capons, or hens/stewing; then to choose the right part for its best use— whole, breast, leg and thigh, wings or ground and then cooking it to the safe degree.
Poultry should be cooked thoroughly. Use an instant-read thermometer to get the fastest and easiest reading. Don’t let the thermometer touch the bone. Never use marinade from raw poultry as a sauce unless you boil the marinade rapidly for at least 5 minutes before you make the sauce. The temperature your chicken parts should be to be considered done: ground, 170 degrees; whole (measure in the thigh), 180 degrees; thigh or drumstick, 180 degrees and the breast, 170 degrees.
Now - POACHED CHICKEN. If you want to use cut-up chicken or chicken parts in one of your favorite recipes, you want to poach it first to get the flavor into the chicken. That’s something I never thought of! To poach it, place the chicken parts (preferably with bones) in a saucepan or Dutch oven. Add enough COLD water to just cover. Add any of the following ingredients, depending upon what you are using the chicken for:
Onion - always add
Garlic - always add
Celery - always add
Carrots - always add
Kosher salt - optional
Fresh ground black pepper - optional
Chili Pepper flakes - optional
Italian parsley - optional
Ginger slices - several slices (choose those with smooth shiny skin and peel) - optional
Dried Chilies - optional
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