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Offline Hub

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BASIC CHICKEN PART ONE
« Reply #-1 on: November 13, 2015, 09:24:01 AM »
BASIC CHICKEN FOR THE BEGINNER

Part One:  About the Bird (before the cooking starts)

By

Gordon Hubbell, Ph.B
I know I have a lot of fans of my “Basic” recipe series and I’ve had a lot of fun with the posts and replies they’ve generated.  I’ve thought many times about an article for chicken (because I’ve covered most of the pork and beef chunks already) but there is a huge difference brought on by the variety available in this meat.   I’ve started a few approach articles, but I’ve never felt comfortable enough to publish them.  Now, I’m okay with it, but beware, it gets wordy because there is so much “room” when cooking chicken.  This is the first of two articles.  The next one has the basic recipes.

Reminder:  My “Basic” recipes are designed for cooks who either have never cooked the meat in question or who haven’t had much luck with it (the beef brisket one being a very worthy example).  They are not competition recipes but they are influenced by my competition experience and what discerning folks like barbeque judges like to eat.  They are also influenced by my home cooking experience and what is real and doable for most folks.  Thus, they are a “hybrid” of my experience and have been carefully calculated to give a result that will be successful, but that can be tweaked by everyone once they are at a basic comfort level with the meat.  “Tweaking” basic recipes is fun!

Some things about chicken it is handy to know:

•   Cooking a whole chicken is different than cooking chicken pieces because various parts of the bird cook up differently in the same environment for the same time.  Part of a whole chicken can be overdone while another portion remains underdone. 

•   Each of the common chicken pieces, when cooking a cut-up bird, has a different tendency and reaction to the commonly applied barbeque cooking methods.  Thus, one cannot usually expect to do a batch of different pieces the same way for the same time and have them all turn out equally well.

•   Chicken meat is hyper-accepting of flavors – smoke, rubs, sauces, brines, marinades, injections, etc. -- and can be easily overpowered by any of them and lose its own inherent goodness of flavor in the process.  “It tastes like chicken” is often used to describe other meats (e.g. alligator or frog legs) because much of the meat is mild and the flavor is subtle and delicate.

•   “Barbequed” chicken has lots of definitions and regional variations.  The method used (grilling vs. smoking, for instance) is an opportunity, not a right or wrong.  One must follow one’s taste buds and this can lead in lots of delicious directions.

•   Chicken skin is possibly the hardest part of the bird to fix well.  You can remove it if you are calorie conscious, but it has lots of flavor.  Certain cooking methods can turn it to rubber or worse.

•   Chicken cooking is complete when the meat at the deepest part of the piece or bird reaches 165 degrees.  If you do not have a thermometer, examine the juices that run when you cut a piece.  If they are clear, you’re okay.  Some pieces, like thighs, are very forgiving of overcooking but others (breast meat) tend to turn dry and tough rather quickly.

•   Chicken can be a salmonella breeding ground.  Avoiding this problem is easy, though.  Cook it properly, wash up thoroughly to prevent cross-contamination, and don’t let it sit around at room temperature for extended periods.   

TREATING THE BIRD

Rubs, brines, marinades and injections are all used to enhance the flavor and/or improve the tenderness and texture of chicken.  Here are a few highlights to help you understand what is going on with each method of treatment.  I’ve deliberately left sauce off of this list because sauce is put on either just a few minutes before the bird comes off the heat or afterward and I’ll cover sauce in the next article, “Part Two:  Let’s Cook Chicken”.

Rubs

There are lots of tasty commercial rubs and it is fairly easy to whip up your own from ingredients readily available in the average kitchen.  Salts and sugars make up most of the volume but much of the flavor comes from herbs and spices.  Rubs are typically sprinkled on from a shaker bottle instead of “rubbed” in by hand as actual rubbing tends to smear and be a less even way to apply.

Rubs may be applied just before cooking or, sometimes, hours before, but their effects have to be tested or you may be surprised.  Rubs with a high salt content, for instance, have a drying and crusting effect.  Sugar based rubs do the same, but with a little less impact.  Until you know exactly how a rub works out (particularly on the skin) it is best to apply it no more than a few minutes before cooking.  Additionally, sugary rubs are much more prone to turn dark (even black) during the cook.  Testing several different rubs on the same type of chicken pieces, all cooked the same way and for the same time is the only way to know exactly what you’ll get.

Here’s a really good rub for chicken (and pork) that came from Oklahoma Joe’s in Kansas City.  This is savory with a good balance of salty and sweet.   

1/4 cup kosher salt

1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons white granulated sugar

2 tablespoons garlic powder

2 tablespoons onion powder

2 tablespoons Spanish paprika

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon celery salt

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

1 teaspoon dried thyme

One final word about rubs – they have a lot of impact because they don’t cook away and because they cling to the surface of the meat.  Use them sparingly at first (a light coating).  Half the fun of experimenting with rubs is testing them and learning how much to use because you get to eat your experiments!

Brines

A brine is a “bath” that, if it works as desired, improves both tenderness and moisture.  Brining a bird, or parts of it, is a longer term proposition.  It takes at least a few hours for a brine to do its magic on the meat and it may even take a lot more.  Recipes and methods vary.

Commercial brines are available and usually only require the addition of water and the selection of the proper container.  Brining is always done under refrigeration. 

Usually, cooking immediately follows the brining process according to most recipes and approaches.  The goal is to cook the meat while it is benefitting most from the moisture infusion and the tenderizing effect of the brine.  Wipe off brine, leaving only a little moisture on the skin, if you’re going to use a rub following brining.  Marinating or injecting a brined bird is rather redundant since the pre-cook moisture is already pretty much maximized. 

In my opinion, caged or enclosure raised birds don’t benefit much from brining.  Their meat is already naturally tender.  The white meat (particularly the breasts) may be more moist and juicy from the brining, however.  Often, commercially processed chicken is already injected or infused with moisturizers and tenderizers.  Free-range birds and some “organic” ones are more likely to need the tenderness-inducing qualities of a brine bath as well as moisture.  The best way to test the benefits of a brine are to try cooking the same bird or parts from the same source, the same way except for the brining.  Results may or may not vary.

Here’s a recipe for a very basic brine – easy to adjust for volume desired – a gallon or two will work unless all you have are large containers.  You can add spices, fruit, and lots of other flavorings to it if you wish, but brines are not that effective as flavoring agents.  Like injections, they are best for moisture and tenderness.  Flavorings may or may not come through in the finished goods and there are better, more controllable ways to affect flavor.

1 Gallon water
½ Cup Kosher salt
½ Cup light brown sugar

It is easier to mix this brine in hot or even boiling water, but allow it to cool to at least room temperature before plopping in the bird and heading for the fridge.  For a whole chicken, brine for at least eight hours.  For pieces, brine for at least four.

Marinades

Both marinades and brines immerse the chicken in liquid, but marinades are primarily for flavor, not as much for tenderness or moisture (although they can have an impact there, too).  In commercial marinades you’ll often find vinegars, oils, and (often) lots of salt, sugar and spices.  Home recipes for marinades will often kick in some tasty wine or even some whiskey (particularly bourbon).  A chicken that has been marinated properly will show the effects!  It won’t just “taste like chicken” but will have extra input from the marinade ingredients.

Most marinades will need at least several hours to work their magic but it isn’t unusual to marinate overnight or even to start the process a day before the cook.  Basically, the longer the marinating, the more intense the flavor effect will be.

My favorite marinating method is to use a large plastic freezer bag.  For chicken pieces a gallon-sized one will hold quite a few and the two-gallon ones will hold most whole birds.  For thorough coverage, turn the bags every few hours in the refrigerator to keep the liquid coating the bird.

Recipe?  You can look up lots of good chicken marinades online, but one of the real classics is in the salad dressing section at your grocery store.   Any standard Italian dressing (I like Wish-Bone™) will do.  The low- and no-fat ones don’t work well – get the real thing. 

Injections

Properly done, injecting the breast portions of a chicken will almost guarantee good moisture.  They can add a little flavor, too but as with other meats, moisture is the real goal.  Most of us have had dry, stringy chicken breast meat.   Overcooking is the real cause of this, but an injected breast chunk will hang in there longer on an extended cook.  Injections are the best way to balance the effects of the heat across the different parts and get more even results.

To inject you’ll need a cooking syringe.  They are available for a few bucks at big box stores or for lots of money from cooking specialty stores (I have a stainless steel one that has lasted for five years).  Use most of the injection liquid for the breasts and a little for the wings and legs.  Thighs need much less but leg meat can get a moisture boost from it.  Inject both shallow and deep, using a lot of small injections as opposed to a few large ones.  Some of the injection will leak back out – that’s normal.

Again, it is redundant to inject a brined or marinated bird, but you can if you want.  Rubs are best applied after injecting, using the sprinkle method, not actually rubbing them in. 

Here’s a basic chicken injection I’ve used for years with great results:

1/3 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
½ Stick Unsalted butter
1 Teaspoon garlic powder
1 Teaspoon onion powder
1 Teaspoon table salt

Heat oil and butter together until butter is totally melted.  Stir in dry ingredients until totally dissolved.  Allow to cool to warm room temperature before injecting. 


COOKING METHODS   

I’m going to limit this to the two most popular methods used to “barbeque” a chicken or its parts:  Grilling and smoking.  There are other ways and, in competition we encounter use of both plus some baking and even braising.   You can also broil, boil, stew, microwave, and even fry “barbequed” chicken but I’m not going there.  Most of us have a grill or a smoker or maybe both on the back porch or deck and those are the machines that turn out the best groceries.

Grilling

Heat under the meat.  That’s it.  Now, what differs is the fuel used and exactly how.  I’d venture a guess that most home-cooked barbequed chicken is grilled.  You can grill up some chicken bits relatively quickly and the cost is much easier to face than steak.  With just a little care you can take your grilled chicken from ordinary to spectacular using some treatments discussed above plus some good grilling techniques.

You can even grill a whole chicken.  The method is known as a “spatchcock” and involves slicing the bird in two down the center and splaying it out for grilling (giving it two “sides”).  Videos about how to do it abound on the Internet.  Most of us will buy just the pieces we want at the grocery meat counter, however. 

Most grilled chicken mistakes involve using too much heat and not allowing enough time.  Medium heat works best and rushing it won’t guarantee much except char on the outside.  Chicken needs to move from refrigerated storage to the cooking grids then climb the temperature scale on up to the 165 degree mark inside the thickest part of the meat.  If you use too high a heat, you’ll get super-done meat on the outside and meat on the inside that may not be cooked thoroughly.  Medium heat, on the other hand, allows more even heating but takes more time.  You’ll also get more grilled flavor because the juices and fat dropping into the fire or onto the heat bars or rocks (on a gas grill) do so for a longer time and there is more “sizzle” going on.  Grilling chicken is an activity not an afterthought.  Don’t leave the grill untended for more than a minute or two.

One way to determine if your heat level is right is to monitor how long it takes for a piece of raw chicken to start turning light brown.  It should take several minutes per side.  If you’re getting dark brown or heavy grill marks in a few minutes, your heat is excessive.  If possible, set up your grill so that there is a cooler “stay warm” zone that will still do a little cooking but won’t further advance darkening until the pieces have more time for the heat to move inside.  Use tongs to move things around as necessary.   

Another major grilling mistake is the creation of char.  Grill marks are one thing, but char is another.  Char is actually burned meat and skin, blackened by the use of too much heat or, all too frequently, burnt sugars in the sauce induced by applying it too early.  At best it tastes bad.  At worst it is a known carcinogen.  Skillfully grilled chicken will be some shade of golden brown and may or may not have grill marks depending on grid temperatures and type.  It will not have any significant amount of char on it.

Smoking

A smoky background coordinates well with the natural flavor of chicken and some other spicing to create great barbeque, but smoking chicken well takes practice and attention to the details.  Improperly done, you’ll have smoky meat that just tastes like, well, smoky meat.  If smoke is all you want, that’s fine but with just a little more work you can have something that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Low and slow smoke infusion (cooking a bird or even chunks of it in smoke at 225 to 300 degrees) can do funny things.  The skin will very often turn to either rubber or something resembling slimy canvas.  Rubs may or may not result in unplanned coloration.  Moisture can be just plain unpredictable. 

The fact is that you can take a whole or part of a chicken, rub it with something, toss it in your smoker and come back a few hours later and have a delicious meal.  However, the odds are against it.  There are a couple of smoker types out there that let you get away with this (the Pit Barrel Cooker comes to mind) but most smokers need a little attention to the bird and the process to give you good groceries instead of dried out, over-smoked meat bits. 

Moisture helps, but it isn’t a guarantee.  If your smoker has a water pan go ahead and use it, but other treatments will give more consistent and manageable moisture results. 

Apple, oak, cherry, alder and other mild woods play better with chicken than stronger ones like hickory, pecan or mesquite. 

Heavy “white smoke” overpowers chicken and gives that awful creosote or “lighter fluid” tinge to it.  Thin, “blue” smoke applied over the course of the cook is better.  Know your smoker and how to adjust it for maximum blue smoke production.

Finally, there are two very popular smoked chicken treatments that really don’t contribute anything to the flavor or texture of the bird but that persist as “myths” perhaps because they sound good whether they work or not .  “Beer Can Chicken” is perhaps the most misunderstood.  Special wire racks that hold a can of beer or other liquid in such a way that it is supposed to infuse more moisture or add flavor to the chicken from inside are very doubtful.  Even at higher roasting temperatures, the liquid will not get hot enough to boil and produce enough steam to do the “interior penetration” benefit purported by their advertisers.  Raves about the moistness and flavor of this are much more likely to have been induced by careful timing and good use of temperature control and spicing than they are to have been caused by the can.  If you try it, you’ll find that when the bird is done, you’ll still have most of the beer (flat, hot, and totally undrinkable).

Another dubious treatment is adding wine, herbs, lemon slices, bay leaves and whatever other goodies to the water pan during the smoking process.  Fact is, the water pan will produce a little steam, and moisture is not a bad thing.  The bad news is that it’s a horrible waste of wine.  The flavoring effect is minimal to nonexistent, the alcohol just evaporates, and the “steam” comes from the water in the wine and the wine flavor just vanishes.  Alas, this is one of those sort of romantic things you’d like to see happen than just doesn’t work out in real life.  Rubs, along with proper use of marinades or brining will do a lot more for the bird’s flavor.

Now, let’s cook . . .

After all this prologue, it is high time to make good chicken happen.  Part Two:  Let’s Cook Chicken is easier now.   
 

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Offline Pam Gould

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Re: BASIC CHICKEN PART ONE
« on: November 13, 2015, 10:20:30 AM »
I like brining birds, but I make a concentrate of water, salt and sugar in a small pan until dissolved. Then I add it to my cold water and refrigerate or cover with enough ice till it is under 40 degrees, thank god for cold garages in the winter, it works for me.  Pam
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Offline HighOnSmoke

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Re: BASIC CHICKEN PART ONE
« Reply #1 on: November 13, 2015, 11:15:26 AM »
Excellent article Hub!
Mike

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Offline Big Dawg

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Re: BASIC CHICKEN PART ONE
« Reply #2 on: November 13, 2015, 05:03:18 PM »
Okay, let's light a fire ! ! !





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Offline ACW3

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Re: BASIC CHICKEN PART ONE
« Reply #3 on: November 13, 2015, 11:24:36 PM »
Great article, Hub.  Extremely informative.  I hope everyone who reads this post understands and appreciates the knowledge you have imparted.  I can personally attest to Hub's ability to cook chicken in competition.  He not only knows how to cook chicken, but his presentation skills are among the best, IMHO.

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