3 More Ways to Cook that Lovely Piece of Chicken
When we talk about chicken, images of McDonald’s breaded sandwiches may easily come to mind. This is expected, especially now that frying is undoubtedly one of the most common ways to cook chicken. And this is true whether you are in the Philippines or the United States.
Of course, deep fried chicken is tasty, but it takes variety your meals from getting bored. Spice things up a bit with these tips on how you can break the monotony and make chicken exciting again.
Chicken Barbecue, anyone?
Frying is common among to many culinary traditions because it’s easy. You just have to remember a few simple steps: heat up oil, coat the chicken (made even easier with ready-made mixes available in supermarkets), cook the chicken slices in the boiling oil, and that’s it; it’s eating time. But there’s actually a much simpler way of cooking poultry: barbecuing or grilling.
All you need to have is an electric or outdoor charcoal grill and you’re good to go. You can grill the chicken as is, or you can marinate it in some powdered herbs and spices to add more flavor to it. Grilling chicken or any other type of meat is perhaps the most primitive way of cooking, but it results in a healthier final meal.
How about Braised Chicken Breast?
Braising sounds fancy but it’s actually a very simple cooking technique. This process involves two major steps only. The first is frying or, more specifically, searing. The main purpose of this step is not really to cook the chicken just yet, it’s just to make the skin brown for a more palatable look.
Once seared, the chicken is then slowly simmered in a special type of sauce. This is where the fun part begins. You can pretty much experiment with the type of sauce that you’re going to simmer the chicken in. A common Italian way is simmering the piece of meat in a sauce created from red wine and mushrooms. This creates a dish called chicken cacciatore.
Roasted Chicken can never go wrong, can it?
Deep frying and grilling are dry cooking methods because they do not rely on moisture. Another dry method of cooking is roasting. This type of preparation is perfect for outdoor cooking such as when you are having picnics or just simple meetups with your more adventurous peers.
All you have to prepare is a pit of burning coal and a piece of wood or metal that you can use to hoist the chicken above the burning coal. To make the dish a lot tastier, you can add some spicy touches to it. You can stuff the chicken with lemongrass and chopped onions and garlic.
We all have a favorite way of preparing chicken, or any other type of meat for that matter. We also have this tendency of sticking only to it. However, repeated exposure to anything make it bland and totally not appetizing. Truly, it never hurts to try something new once in a while.
