Guide to Cooking Chicken

Every cuisine of the world has a different recipe of chicken; some require roasting, grilling, stewing or frying. Though the recipes may be different, but few basic considerations are common to all types of chicken cooking.
It is very important to know that chicken should be consumed within two days of buying it and if not used, then, it should be stored in a freezer as frozen chicken is safe to use. A storage bag should be used to freeze the chicken. In its raw form, chicken must be handled carefully as it may contain bacteria which may contaminate other items. Earlier it was thought that rinsing chicken before cooking was important to get rid of the bacteria but it is no longer true. Rinsing with water may spread the bacteria to other surfaces. Usually, cooking kills all the bacteria. Before cooking, soaking the chicken in salted water for an hour makes it soft and tender. If the chicken is frozen, then it may require even longer soaking time. This method is called brining and the ensuing chicken is juicier and tender. As chicken dries out very quickly while cooking, through brining, it absorbs a lot of moisture. Some packaged chicken are already brined and they do not require brining.
To prevent excessive drying the surface of the chicken needs to be ‘sealed’, that is, it is brushed with a coat of oil or marinade sauce. If chicken is to be cooked using dry heat methods like roasting, sautéing, baking, grilling, deep frying and any other method which require high heat for a very short period of time, then thighs or breasts should be pounded to an even thickness so that they are properly cooked. Dry heat methods have a cooking time of 8-10 minutes. As moist heat methods like steaming, poaching are slow cooking methods and take longer time, normally around 15 minutes; the chicken is evenly cooked, even in the center.

A very important part of cooking chicken is to know when it is done. Chicken has very low fat so it becomes dry very fast. Chicken can never be eaten undercooked and over cooked chicken becomes very dry. The surest way to check if it is done or not is to pierce the thickest part of the chicken and the color should not be pink. If it is pink, it means the chicken is not fully done. You can also use a cooking thermometer to check the temperature of the chicken in its centre. Ideally, 160° F- 170° F internal temperature cooks the chicken rightly. For children or those people who are more prone to catch infection, high temperature chicken cooking is preferred as it kills all the bacteria. Even after the flame is turned off, the chicken continues to cook and in the centre the temperature will rise by 5° to 10° more. During this time the juices mix with the chicken well and that’s why a nicely done chicken will be juicier.

Chicken always requires good seasoning otherwise it may not taste good. For an Indian style curry, you may require spices, onions and tomatoes which are fried and then precooked chicken is added to this curry.

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