(no subject)

[the_rck]

I have to cook chicken today. Normally, I'd just stick it in the crock pot and let it go, but Scott has complained that the chicken we've had recently (all cooked that way) has been dry. He thinks that part of Cordelia's refusal to eat chicken comes from that.

I will brine the chicken for a couple of hours. I should have done it over night, but it completely slipped my mind last night. My cold symptoms were getting bad, and I was thinking more about that than about anything else.

I never thought I'd miss being able to grill (I don't care for grilled food), but it's nice, in good weather, to pass responsibility for cooking the meat off to Scott. The meat tends to come out juicy, too, and Cordelia's more willing to eat it.

Anyone have any tips or tricks for producing juicy chicken in the crock pot or oven?

ETA: I should note that I'm cooking boneless, skinless chicken breasts. That's what was cheapest when Scott was shopping, so that's what we've got this week.

Comments

[wyldbutterflies]

Do you add water or chicken broth to the slow cooker with the chicken? I find that chicken comes out juicer if it has a moist environment to cook in. I usually add enough liquid to almost cover the meat and they turn out wonderfully. But you may be able to add less liquid and still get a really good result.

[the_rck]

I have sometimes done that. I didn't last time because Cordelia complains that it smells horrible cooking (not that she likes the smell of chicken cooking without the broth, so...).

[retsuko]

I usually make chicken in the crock pot with rice and a lot of liquid to both cook the rice and keep the chicken moist. When I just straight-up bake chicken breasts, I tend to put in about a tablespoon of canola oil to keep things moist.

What's your feeling on yogurt and chicken? My Mom has an awesome recipe for baked chicken that involves yogurt and bread crumbs, and it's always nice and moist. Let me know if that would work and I'll get the specifics from her. :)

[the_rck]

I don't object to yogurt, in principle. I'd have to see the recipe to know how feasible it is for us, but I'm interested.

[rilina]

I use this recipe for chicken breasts when I use strips in salads, wraps, etc. Good if you want to use the meat in other dishes.
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-cook-moist-tender-chicken-breasts-every-time-36891

[the_rck]

Thanks!

[booniverse.livejournal.com]

Do you have a good roaster? I think I remember you having a cute chicken roaster, which I greatly coveted until I got one of my own. I just pop it in covered and cook it however long it says. You could bast it 3/4 of the way through cooking but I always forget and it turns out OK. One trick is to stuff a whole onion (peeled and then cut like you would cut it in half but only go 1/3 or so the way down the onion. I usually do 3 such cuts) or even an apple or pear (at least scored so the juice can get out) in the cavity to keep the bird moister. I've also used an orange (peeled and scored) but that imparts a pretty strong orange flavor which limits your spicing. I can't understand why your crock chicken is coming out dry...is there still liquid at the bottom of the crock pot at the end of cooking? Maybe toss a bit of chicken broth in the crock before cooking? Our chicken usually comes out moist in the crock so I am baffled.

[the_rck]

We're cooking some boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Would you use a roasting pan for those? I always thought it was for whole chickens exclusively. We seldom buy whole chickens. I think they aren't on sale very often, and Scott tries to buy meat on sale when he can.

When I cook in the crock pot, there's always a lot of liquid left in the pot, even if I didn't add any to begin with. Of course, when I roast a whole chicken, there's always a lot of liquid left in the pan (I pour it off, refrigerate it, scrape off the layer of fat and use it in soup).

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

There's a thing that sometimes happens with stewed meat, where the meat can be "dry" internally even though it's in a bowl of liquid. It happens when you overcook meat, especially low-fat meat. (It's really frustrating, because chicken needs to be cooked thoroughly for safety, and you don't have the resources for stir-frying.) Soaking the meat in a brine or marinade ahead of time helps to prevent the problem. Cooking in foil, so the meat is partly cooked with steam, also helps. Can you do something like shake-and-bake? The cracker crumb coating helps to keep the chicken juices inside the chicken where they belong, and the process doesn't require a lot of hands-on time.

[the_rck]

I'm brining the meat right now.

I'll ask Scott about picking up a shake and bake packet of some sort. He has to stop at Kroger anyway to pick up some prescriptions.

[jss]

Worst case, you can shake your chicken in a zip-top bag with a bunch of breadcrumbs.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

That might not be a worst case, now that I think of it. If the packaged mixes are too spicy or have seasonings you're allergic to, it's fairly easy to make your own seasoned breadcrumbs and put them in a bag. (And the seasoned breadcrumbs keep for a long time.) Then dip the chicken pieces in milk, shake in the bag of coating, arrange in the baking pan. You might want to enlist Cordelia's help--some kids her age can handle that much cooking alone, but it's more fun to work together.

[the_rck]

I'd like to get Cordelia more involved in cooking. She'll need the skills some day, and I'd like her company. Right now, though, her iPad and video chats with her friends are a much bigger draw than time with her mother. I'm still hopeful-- I bought a second apron so that there's one for her if I can talk her into helping.

I found a recipe for seasoned breadcrumbs that might work. We'd have to swap some of the herbs because they're things I can't have, but that should be doable. I had to do further searching to find out the best way to make plain breadcrumbs as the recipe assumed that one already had breadcrumbs to work with.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

As I see it, the best thing about making my own seasoned breadcrumbs is that I can use the seasonings I like and leave out the stuff I don't want. If it's not convenient for you to "make your own" starting from leftover bread, you can buy plain breadcrumbs. I know Kroger used to have a choice of plain or italian-seasoned crumbs, in cylindrical cardboard containers like cornmeal. Dunno what aisle.

Good luck getting Cordelia interested in cooking.

[sorcycat.livejournal.com]

Here's an oven technique I use: I marinade the chicken in a store bought marinade from morning until dinner time. Then put the chicken and extra marinade in an oven-safe baking dish and put it in a 350 oven. Depending on the size of the chicken it's 20-40 minutes to bake. You need a meat thermometer to check for doneness, or you can take it out and cut it every few minutes. We did this with teriaki marinade over new years and it came out very juicy. Another key to juicy chicken I've noticed is not waiting until the last day the meat says on the package.

[sorcycat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I just remembered one important thing! If you let the chicken sit for 5 minutes after it is pulled from the oven, that gives it time to reabsorb the juices and makes the meat more moist. I think this applies to other cooking methods as well.

[chorus-of-chaos.livejournal.com]

THIS. It applies to most meats, wait at least five minutes after extracting it from whatever method you are cooking, let it "rest" before you slice it or whatever you need to do, otherwise all the juices just run out leaving you with a dry piece of meat.

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

If you have foil, you could wrap them in parcels with a spot of gravy/sauce that you know is acceptable to everyone and cook them in the oven for most of their cook time like that, opening them up for the last five minutes or so in the hopes of giving them some colour?

[the_rck]

We have foil. This may be what I try tonight.

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

Another possible thing to try in future is to make chicken kievs - slice into the side of a chicken breast making a pocket, and put in a little bit of garlic butter (as Cordelia will take at least a bit of garlic), then coat the chicken in seasoned breadcrumbs, close the "pocket" by means of a cocktail stick just pushed down through the meat, and cook in the oven for the usual time. The breadcrumbs and butter should keep the meat from drying out.

[the_rck]

I'll bear that in mind to try later. Thanks!

[chorus-of-chaos.livejournal.com]

boneless skinless almost always call for some kind of sauce or something, though the "shake and bake" suggestion above is a good one. I don't know for certain but you don't eat a lot of fried type foods either if I recall.

I eat a lot of boneless skinless and could share any number of recipes but I don't know what all is verboten in your house, I know Cordelia is selective about flavors.

I often take a couple chicken breasts and simply spice them (usually salt, pepper and a bit of Mrs Dash general table blend) and then put them in a non stick pan with a small amount of olive oil. Heat your pan, then put in the olive oil and let it get good and hot, and then put the seasoned chicken in on fairly high heat and sear each side a light brown color. (usually takes about 3 to 4 minutes a side) then reduce the heat to very low and cover the pan with a lid to cook the chicken all the way through, usually another 5 to 8 minutes depending on the thickness of the chicken. (I put my chicken in ziploc bags and use something like a can of green beans to pound them flat so they are uniformly thick and cook evenly.) When they are done take them from the pan and let them set on a cutting board for 5 or so minutes, then you can do whatever you want with them. I often cook several at once and keep them in the fridge for making chicken salad or to put between bread for a chicken sandwich at lunch or to shred and add to macaroni and cheese like a casserole type dish.

If you can give me an idea of what kind of food restrictions there are in your house (and I know cooking time is a factor too, I also can't stand at a stove for very long) I'll troll through my recipes and see what I can come up with.

Uniform thickness, pan searing, and letting it rest a bit before cutting it up are three really important parts of keeping chicken juicy though.

[the_rck]

The biggest restriction we're under is that Cordelia absolutely won't eat anything with a visible sauce (the exception is Alfredo sauce with pasta).

I can't have tomatoes or peppers of any type. I can't have oregano, basil, paprika, cumin, chili powder or anything really spicy. Scott and I both like ginger and garlic, but Cordelia dislikes ginger and is iffy on garlic (we use garlic anyway, but she complains if the flavor is strong). We don't buy olive oil because I dislike the flavor. We do have canola oil and sesame oil.

I use a lot of rosemary, sage and thyme. I have dill, but Cordelia only likes that if she's just picked it off the plant and eats it plain.

I am limited in how long I can stand at the stove or counter, preparing things. (I can stand long enough to make banana bread from scratch and get it into the oven. That's maybe fifteen minutes.) That's why I like to dump everything into the crock pot or into a pan to bake. I know I can do that, even on the bad days. I try to cook in big batches so that I only have to do it every three or four days.

[chorus-of-chaos.livejournal.com]

ah, I can see where this can make cooking really difficult! Does Cordelia's dislike of sauce extend to barbeque? (I realize that's out for you because of the tomato/spice, but there's a thought here.) It sounds like what might be easiest for you would be to fix seared chicken breasts (and olive oil isn't necessary, any oil is good, I like sesame oil quite a bit myself, especially if I'm cooking asian style) then "dress" each breast in the individuals choice of sauce. It sounds like a pain in the ass but is really fairly easy, since I only cook for me (no one else here) I usually have a bottle of barbeque, a thing of sesame ginger marinade, a thing of hoisen sauce, orange sauce, zesty italian dressing, and a few others in the fridge. I either marinate the chicken in those items (and I've never brined chicken, it doesn't seem to make any difference for me) and then cook it or I do the pan sear and then just add the sauce afterwards before plating. You can usually zap it 45 seconds in the microwave and pour it over and it's quite tasty.

Do you think Cordelia would eat chicken marinated (and then lightly rinsed before cooking) in italian dressing? it would not be a strong flavor but it would give it a bit more taste than just plain.

I wonder if she would like chicken piccatta. It can be very complicated if you want to be true to the recipe but I've pared it down to a simple version that works well, it's basically pan seared and then add some lemon juice and white wine (or chicken stock if you don't want to fool with wine) It typically has mushrooms and capers cooked with it, but those could be put aside as well. It isn't strong flavored and you can elect to serve it with or without the reduced lemon and wine/stock "sauce" over it. If Cordelia likes pickles, she might like capers.

Hopefully I'm not putting my foot into anything here, just trying to figure out solutions..Is Cordelia's issues with sauces and such rise from dislike of them being messy, or maybe a texture thing? Or does she just not like too many flavors all at once?

Wonder what she would think of tea baked chicken. I drink a lot of tea, and I get my tea in loose leaf form as opposed to tea bags. (I grew up drinking afternoon tea with my grandmother and tea is a big deal for me.) One thing I tried that was remarkably good was I brewed some large leafed oolong tea, and after drinking the tea, wrapped a chicken breast in the tea leaves. I then poured a little tea into a foil packet and set the chicken breast down in it and closed it up and baked it. (I drizzled a bit of oil over the top to help keep it from drying out.) When I pulled it out I peeled the leaves off discarded them, the chicken had a lovely flavor I don't really know how to describe. It wasn't strong tasting, but quite unique.

Miso paste is also good for a marinade/sauce that does not seem particularly like a sauce. You can take a small bit and mix it with a drizzle of sesame and spread it over the chicken and bake it. No need for salt if you do this, the miso is salty by natures. Rub it on in a very thin layer and it leaves a nice flavor on the chicken without there being a sauce.

Course there is always chicken veggie soup, I have some other chicken soup recipes but the ones I usually make would not work for you (chicken paprikash and an asian type soup with peppers and lots of ginger and lemongrass)

I'll poke through my cookbooks and see what I can find that might fit into your needs, hopefully something from the ideas above might give you a bit of help.

Does she eat tuna? think she would eat tuna patties or tuna noodle casserole? I often turn my nose up at stuff like tuna helper and chicken helper because they tend to have a lot of salt in them, but it's mildly possible they might have a meal of that type that she would find acceptable. (chicken and stuffing?)

[the_rck]

Cordelia doesn't eat fish of any type. We keep trying to encourage her to, but we've had no luck so far.

I don't know what Cordelia's dislike of sauces comes from. She's generally willing to taste a new to her sauce, but after that, she wants nothing to do with it. This even applies to things like soy sauce. This extends to barbecue sauces. Scott uses those a lot, dipping each bite of chicken in whichever one he's using. Cordelia has tasted the sauces Scott uses (she's curious about them), but she won't go beyond that.

Cordelia will eat marinated chicken as long as she can't see any flecks of herbs or spices. (She'll usually taste it if there are flecks, but she won't eat more than that.) Italian seasoning, however, is out. It's nearly impossible to find Italian stuff without oregano and/or basil, and I really, really can't have either.

I'll keep your other ideas in mind, going forward. Some of them might work.

[chorus-of-chaos.livejournal.com]

I wish you luck finding some new easy recipes. Only other thing I can think of in all three of our stores here (kroger, aldi and walmart) you can buy these frozen stuffed chicken breasts. They are usually like chicken kiev (with a butter sauce inside), or stuffed with broccoli and cheese, or cordon bleu (stuffed with ham and swiss) They come in either breaded or unbreaded and aren't overly spicy or fancy, often they are 99 cents a stuffed breast. You just pull off the wrapping and stuff it in the oven for a specified period of time (I usually wrap them in foil with a little water or chicken stock to keep them moist) Those would be very easy and possibly? something your family would eat.

I'm wondering if Cordelia is what they call a "super taster" or someone with more tastebuds than ordinary, where flavors (and often fragrances as well) are rather intense for her. I was very picky as a child because of this issue (though my parents were of the "eat what's on the table or go hungry" school until we found out I also had food allergies which were part of the issue) I know a few other people with the same thing, we all pretty much grew out of it and become foodies :D Hopefully Cordelia will get an interest in expanding her palate soon!

[the_rck]

Well, she's willing to taste just about anything. She just won't have more than that taste of most things, and what she's willing to eat has been narrowing down. We've got very few vegetables, for example, that she'll eat-- broccoli, green beans, peas and lettuce (but it must be green lettuce, none of the purple stuff). She used to eat cauliflower, summer squash and bok choy but no more.

I'd buy peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes for her, but she's very inconsistent about when she will or won't eat them. Cucumbers have to taste right, and there's no way to tell from looking at one whether or not it will meet her standards. The color of pepper that she's willing to eat changes frequently enough that I'm not willing to risk buying any. If Scott or I could or would eat any of these, we'd buy them and gamble that she'd eat some, but if we buy them, they get thrown out if Cordelia doesn't eat them.

[booniverse.livejournal.com]

Will Cordelia eat chicken with stuff? I have a proprietary pan deelie which has a FAAAAABULOUS recipe for chicken, taters and a marinara sauce (which you could skip I suppose) but it steams the chicken and the two or three times we've made the dish it has been the best cooked chicken EVER. I can let you borrow the pan if you like.