Posts Tagged ‘cooking’
The Chicken Enthuses Guide To Frying Techniques
November 30th, 2010 | 
Author: You hear a lot about frying these days; mainly that it is not a healthy way to cook. Actually, a lot depends on your technique. Of course, if you fry at a low temperature, your food may soak up more oil and become greasy and saturated. No one could say that results in a tasty meal. Bone up on your techniques and you can turn out healthy fried foods.
When you stir fry, you are using a mere couple of tablespoons of oil heated to a very high temperature. The food is cut into bite size pieces, so they cook quickly. Stir-fry recipes are known to be healthy. They usually contain a lot of different vegetables, a bit of meat and a tasty sauce. Stir-fries can be made with any type of meat. To get the best results, you should use an authentic steel wok that has been seasoned properly. Nonstick woks do not heat up enough and you cannot move your food up the sides to get away from the heat.
Another method of frying is sautéing. It uses very little oil; just enough to let the food slide easily around the pan. You cut up your meat or vegetables and move them around the pan with a spatula or by shaking the pan until the food is done. This keeps the food’s texture and flavor intact. You can use a special sauté pan that has a flat bottom and shallow sides.
Pan-frying is the method of choice for larger pieces of meat. Pork chops, chicken, steak, or fish fillets are often pan fried with just enough oil to keep the food from sticking. You must turn the food frequently so it cooks thoroughly on all sides. Bacon and sausage are two types of meat often cooked this way that create their own oils.
One method you could use for your favorite fried chicken recipe is shallow frying. This method uses a lot more oil. You want to fill the pan with enough oil to reach halfway up the sides of the food you are frying. It is often used to cook chicken, fish, or pork chops. The food must be turned at least once so both sides are cooked adequately.
A dish like chicken fried steak could be cooked with shallow frying or pan-frying. Since the beef is breaded before cooking, it forms a crust like fried chicken, giving it the name of chicken fried steak. It is often served with pan gravy made from the drippings.
Another technique that often replaces true frying uses your oven. This is used primarily for an oven fried chicken recipe or for fish. Since you do not use as much oil, the meat does not have the opportunity to soak up as many calories. Oven frying is often preferred for people watching their cholesterol and caloric intake.
Deep-frying has earned a tarnished reputation. While everyone loves deep fried foods, they are generally thought of as unhealthy. Often, all it takes is using the right oil at the right temperature to get food that does not soak up a lot of calories. Heat the oil up first, then cook in batches so the temperature does not drop too much.
The Wonderful World Of Preparing Chicken For The Grill
Grilled chicken is a favorite meal, especially during the summer. It can be tricky at times, but once you have perfected your grilling technique, there is nothing quite so good as delicious barbecued chicken. With or without sauce, it gives the chicken a wonderful smoky flavor. First, you must prepare the chicken for the grill. Choose whether you want to cook several of the same pieces (breasts, thighs, or drumsticks) or you want to grill all the different sized pieces. Cut up the pieces if you are working with a whole chicken.
Take your kitchen shears and trim off all the loose skin and large pieces of fat. Doing this will reduce the chance of flare ups that will scorch your chicken. After you have finished with the trimming, rinse the chicken well with running water. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel.
Seasoning comes next. How you season will depend on the grilled chicken recipes you follow. Some people keep it simple with just salt and pepper. Others want everything in their spice cupboard. A good compromise is a dry rub. It is made of herbs and spices with a little brown sugar thrown in. Apply it liberally to your chicken pieces. Get as much on the actual meat as possible, as the skin may act as a barrier.
You can cook your chicken right away or you can let it sit for a bit with a rub. The flavors will work their way into the chicken. Always be sure to keep your chicken at the right temperature if you let it sit for safety.
Many healthy grilled chicken recipes suggest you should remove the skin completely, but this can create some dry grilled chicken. Trimming off the excess as well as the fat should be enough. The skin can always be removed after cooking if you do not want to eat it.
To make spicy grilled chicken recipes, just add some peppers or other spicy seasonings in your rub. Chili powder and other spicy ingredients can add some heat to the rub. Taste a little while you mix it up to make sure you do not overdo it if you have diners who are sensitive to spice.
Now it is time to prepare the grill. Make sure the grill is clean; both on the grid and down below where the fire is. Flare ups can ruin your chicken. You will want to preheat your grill before you place the chicken on it. If you are cooking various pieces of different sizes, build the heat on one side and leave the other side cooler. This will give you a spot to put those smaller pieces that would otherwise cook faster than the large ones.
Now that everything is prepared, you will be able to cook some delicious grilled chicken. Keep an eye on the chicken frequently to prevent scorching and burning of the outside while the meat is still cooking. Do not be afraid to move them back and forth between the hot and cool sides of your grill.
The Wonderful World Of Handling Chicken Safely
Chicken is the most frequently consumed meat in the United States. Therefore, it is imperative that everyone know how to handle chicken safely to avoid illness. With all the recalls in the food industry lately, you do not want to add to the problem by improperly handling your chicken.
Bacteria love to grow on raw chicken. While the chicken is between 40 and 140 degrees F, it is the most vulnerable to harmful bacterial growth. Keep your uncooked chicken frozen or refrigerated until you are ready to begin cooking. Freezing does not kill the bacteria, but it stops their growth. Cooking the chicken thoroughly destroys the harmful bacteria.
How long do you cook chicken? Do you know? For a chicken to be thoroughly cooked, the internal temperature must reach a minimum of 165 degrees F. Use a meat thermometer in the innermost area of the wing and thigh and the thickest portion of the breast to check your temperature. Always check all three places. What this means is if you have a 5 pound whole chicken in the oven at 350 degrees F, you need to roast it for 2 to 2-1/4 hours for it to be fully done.
If you prefer cooking at a higher temperature, it obviously will shorten the cooking time. Grilling also makes a difference since it works with a very high heat. Do not worry about knowing how long does chicken need to cook; rely on your thermometer. It will tell you when to take the chicken out and serve it.
If you want to marinate the chicken, place it in a plastic bag or dish with the marinade and close it up. Set it in the fridge for up to 2 days. Extra marinade can be used on the chicken during cooking if you boil it first to destroy any bacteria that has accumulated. If you like stuffed chicken, do not stuff the bird until just before you slide it into the oven. Stuffing your chicken ahead of time is asking for trouble.
It is fine to partially cook a chicken before immediately transferring it to the grill to finish cooking. You should not partially cook chicken and then let it sit in the refrigerator until later. The bacteria are not destroyed in partially cooked chicken, giving it the opportunity for further growth.
When you do not freeze raw chicken right away, you may wonder how long does chicken keep in the refrigerator? The answer is 1 or 2 days. Frozen chicken should be thawed in the refrigerator. As long as it has never left the refrigerator, you can even refreeze it if you will not get the chance to use it within 1 or 2 days after thawing.
If you find yourself needing to cook a chicken before it has thawed, use the stove or the oven. Do not toss it in the slow cooker or the microwave. It will take about 50% more time to cook a frozen chicken than it does a thawed one, so make sure you allow yourself enough time.
GreekFoodTv? Octopus Healthy Cooking Recipes
www.dianekochilas.com Well-known Greek food expert and award-winning author DIANE KOCHILAS and photographer VASSILIS STENOS own and operate the THE GLORIOUS GREEK KITCHEN COOKING SCHOOL and DV FOOD ARTS CONSULTING. We run cooking classes and organize culinary tours in Greece for recreational and professional cooks. We produce specialty books and other food-and-wine-related literature for a wide variety of clients and independently for the tourist and other markets. Diane consults on Greek cuisine for restaurants, retail outlets and producers of fine Greek foods. Vassilis Stenos offers an extensive archive of food and travel photographs of Greece. Name: Diane Kochilas Well-known Greek food expert, consultant, chef, and author Diane Kochilas has written 12 books on Greek and Mediterranean cuisine. She is the consulting chef at Pylos, one of New York’s top-rated Greek restaurants. Diane divides her time between Athens, Ikaria, and New York. In Athens, where she’s lived for the last 15 years, she is the weekly food columnist and restaurant critic for Ta Nea, the country’s largest newspaper. Diane writes frequently for the US food press and appears regularly on American television. Her books: The Food and Wine of Greece, The Greek Vegetarian, The Glorious Foods of Greece, Meze, Against the Grain (good carbs), Mediterranean Grilling, Mastiha Cuisine. Forthcoming: The Northern Greek Wine Roads Cookbook and Aegean Cuisine. And Greek Food with Greek Feta
Dutch oven chocolate cherry cobbler
NH Chronicle – Cooking with JM Hirsch
He’s the National Food Editor for the Associated Press and he calls Concord, NH home. JM Hirsch has developed what he calls a blunt force approach to cooking. His philosophy is to let the foods that taste great do the work for you. The result of his years of writing about food is a cookbook anybody can handle called “High Flavor, Low Labor.” Tiffany Eddy spent time in the kitchen with JM and learned some innovative ways to get dinner on the table.
How to Cook Vegetables : Preparing Asparagus for Healthy Cooking Recipes
Learn how to prepare asparagus and what to add for flavor to asparagus in this free how-to video on cooking with vegetables and healthy recipes. Expert: Louis Ortiz Bio: Louis Ortiz is a professional chef instructor at a culinary institute. He has been working in the culinary industry for 10 years. Filmmaker: EV studios
Posted in Cooking Video | 
Tags: chef, cook, cooking, culinary, food, free, kitchen, knife, recipes, tips, vegetables, video | 
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