Cooking is hard, agreed. And whenever things are hard, we tend to make mistakes. Though our mistakes make us wise, they may put us in a bad mood as well, especially if we commit one while cooking our favourite chicken recipe. In this blog post, we will tell you the common mistakes that most of us make while cooking chicken. Don’t be disheartened though, we won’t just highlight the mistakes, but also provide a remedy for them. So without further ado, let’s begin…
Mistake #1 – Washing chicken before cooking
Raw chicken isn’t sterile and therefore may contain many germs. No amount of washing, soaking or rinsing will kill the bacteria in it. In fact if you wash it, you’ll splash or splatter the dangerous germs all over your kitchen, contaminating your sink, work surface and utensils, along with any other food that might be in the way.
Solution: Using paper towels, just pat the chicken dry. You needn’t worry about the pathogens as the high heat that’s needed to cook the chicken well also kills the germs.
Mistake #2 – Using fancy olive oil to fry chicken
Fried chicken consumes a lot of oil. And since many health conscious people use extra virgin olive oil these days – they are wasting a lot of money. Expensive extra-virgin oil often smoke and burn when they get too hot, leaving a bitter taste.
Solution: Prefer using light olive oil or vegetable oil; not only will the chicken taste great but also be light on your pocket.
Mistake #3 – Using boneless, chicken breast in everything
We never recommend using boneless chicken in recipes that require long hours of cooking. Since they are very lean, they end up turning stringy and dry.
Solution: For recipes that require long duration of heating or frying, avoid chicken breasts.
Mistake #4 – Slicing roast chicken straightaway
While the chicken is being cooked, the juices travel away from the centre and toward the skin. Once it’s ready the juices will need some time to redistribute and settle back into the meat or they’ll accumulate on your cutting board and leave the chicken completely dry.
Solution: Before carving, place the chicken on a board, gently cover with foil to maintain warmth, and allow to rest for 15 minutes.
Mistake #5 – Stirring fried chicken and veggies at the same time
This is a very common mistake – very common! Putting cold chicken along with the veggies will bring down the overall pan temperature. So when the chicken heats up, its juices will get all over the vegetables and the ingredients will steam — not stir fry. The result is a complete mess: chicken that’s chewy and mushy vegetables having muddled flavor.
Solution: Stir fry the chicken first until just cooked then remove and set aside. Reheat the wok or pan until very hot, and continue with the veggies and sauce.
Mistake #6 – Heating roast chicken more than once
Reheating already-cooked chicken leads to more dryness. Multiple reheating sessions means that you are destroying its flavour, perhaps in advertently.
Solution: Reheat only the portion you plan on eating at once.
Conclusion
These are the 6 common mistakes that many people make while cooking chicken. Hopefully, now you won’t be repeating the same mistakes as effective solutions have also been mentioned above after each mistake. Don’t forget to invite us the next time you try a delicious chicken recipe!