Learning to Cook Meat

[jrustdc]

Well, poultry, actually. I haven't made the jump to any other meat yet. But I can feel the pull....

Anyway, I made Tom Denham's Butter Chicken tonight and O.M.G. is it outstanding!!!! But the chicken I had was pretty small and there's a lot of sauce leftover but not much meat. I don't have any chicken cooked that I could toss in. What's the best way to cook it? Simmer it in some of the sauce? Cut it into pieces and pan fry (or whatever you call it with a little oil in a cast iron pan until it's done)? Poach it? Bake it?

Thanks for your advice!

Jen

[CAK911]

I'm learning how to cook meat, too. I do a lot of quick pan frying. It's sometimes a little messier, but it's fast. I find baking tends to dry out chicken, even when I'm being really careful. Other people probably have more skills than me on that, though.

[SpinSpin]

One of my favorite ways to poach boneless chicken breasts is to place the number of chicken breasts you want to poach--I usually do 4-5 depending on size, add a carrot, cut into a few pieces, a few stalks of celery, broken, a few crushed cloves of garlic, an onion cut into quarters, some peppercorns and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Clap a lid on the pot, and take off heat. Let sit for 1 hour--do not remove lid until time is up! Moist, flavorful chicken, and I use the broth as a 'starter' for when I make bone broth. Yumm!

I also bake chicken parts at 350 for 90 minutes on a bed of sliced onions, seasoned up with garlic powder, paprika, salt, pepper, you get the idea, and dotted with fat of your choice--I do butter, but on whole30, ghee works great! I usually use legs, thighs, wings.. my mom (who's recipe this is) would use the best of fryer packs.

Another standard for us, is to take a whole chicken, season it up with salt, pepper, garlic, paprika, place on a bed of sliced onions, if desired in a crock pot. Cover crock pot. Set at low and come back in no more than 6 hours for a large chicken, 5 for a small and perfect chicken. No crispy skin but lovely chicken for salads and just eating. And one plus, take the bones, toss in the broth that was left in the crock pot, add carrots, celery, garlic, parsley and a couple good glugs of cider vinegar and cover with water--bone broth with out too much effort!

[Barbara Durel]

I'm going to try poaching chicken per your recipe above. Thanks so much. I keep pushing my whole30 start date off because I can't cook and it just seems too overwhelming.

[jrustdc]

I poach chicken (and turkey) that way, and have done a roaster in my crock pot. Both excellent. I was trying to figure out the best way to cook the extra chicken to add to the leftovers, though. My friend, a former chef, said to cut it into small pieces, pan fry them partway, and then simmer them for about 10 minutes in the sauce. I did that last night and will report back after lunch as to how it worked!