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| image courtesy of ifood.tv |
About 10
years ago I created my first cookbook called "The White Trash
Connoiseur", which showed the novice cook how to make easy, tasty meals on
a budget and in little time. Sorry, everyone, this is no longer in print and
only a very few people were lucky enough to be given a copy of it. In this
publication, I devoted an entire chapter to the amazing wonders of canned
chicken. At the time I was a broke college student and canned chicken was a
great way to get chicken in a dish with very little effort. Thankfully, my
culinary tastes have matured over the years and while I still encourage those
on a tight budget to by-all-means use canned chicken, there is a healthier and
much more flavorful option: the store-bought rotisserie chicken.
I know
some of you have already known of this amazing food, while some of you are
getting ready to click the 'x' and close this window, but give me a chance.
I'll warn you, if you are any bit squeamish, this task may not be for you.
Even I was a bit green doing this the first time, as like most people I wasn’t
used to seeing a chicken in this form. Once you learn how to break down and use a
rotisserie chicken in everyday cooking, you will be wondering why you never did
this before. Found in most grocery stores, rotisserie chickens come in a
variety of flavors. I tend to go with the most basically seasoned, as you can add
additional flavor later depending on the dish you are preparing. Choosing a rotisserie
chicken is easy - pick the freshest you can find and the most appetizing-looking.
You really can't go wrong from there.
When back
to your kitchen you will need a cutting board, a slotted spoon, a colander, a
small pot of simmering water, and a knife - I'd suggest a medium-sized one (a
chef's knife too large and a paring knife too small). I'd like to interject
here and mention, I'm a self-trained cook, so what I've learned over the years
has come from personal experience and hours of watching cooking shows. Please
do not rely on me to be 100% accurate on terminology and for heaven sake not
grammar or spelling. Feel free to experiment on your own. Feeling
comfortable with the ingredients and tools you use to prepare is key and just
do what feels right and tastes right to you. But, learn to take risks too!
Okay, back to the cluck-cluck. Your chicken will either come in a resealable
bag or some other container - do not throw this away as it will be important as
you breakdown the bird and dispose of it later. These birds are juicy and if
it’s been a mere minutes since you purchased it, it will be HOT so be careful! Open
the container and carefully move the chicken from its packaging and place the
cutting board. Once the bird is on your board remove any bindings that may be
holding the bird together, plastic, string or otherwise. Now it’s time to break
it down, cue a *funky tune*.
As most
everyone knows a whole chicken is comprised of white meat and dark meat. First
take off the white breast meat, found on both sides of the breast bone. You’ll
find it’s very easy to remove this meat by first removing the skin from the
breast and placing it to the side or in the container the chicken came in. Next,
carefully cut along the either side of the breast bone with your knife. Then,
using your fingers, dig in and gently pull the meat away. Again, be careful as
the bird may still be very hot. Gently use a fork if necessary. Get as much of
this juicy delicious meat off as you can - you should easily be able to pull
about 1 lb. of breast meat from the bird. Next comes the dark meat. Now, for
those of you who just can’t stand dark meat, give it a chance. It is
undoubtedly the most flavorful and is delicious in soups, casseroles, and many
other dishes. This meat is located throughout the rest of the chicken. You have
to work a bit for it, carefully watching for small bones, gristle, and other
unfavorable pieces. Place these pieces, along with the skin in the package the
chicken came in – do not throw these away yet! With practice, you should be
able to get about 1 lb. of dark meat off as well. Altogether you will have
anywhere from 3 to 4 cups of deliciously juicy chicken meat that beats canned
chicken’s pants off, if chickens wore pants that is.
You will
notice while the chicken is incredibly juicy, it is also quite greasy. This is
where that simmering pot of water comes in. Plunging your poultry in simmering
water will render fat from the bird. White meat should be done for 45 secs to 1
min; dark meat for 1 ½ to 2 mins max. With a slotted spoon carefully remove the
chicken from the pot into a colander to drain. After a couple minutes,
carefully move back to the cutting board and let cool about 5 minutes. After
cooling, it can be chopped finely for dishes or left whole, used in a dish you
are working on or chilled in the fridge for later use. Do not feel you have to
render the fat from the bird, though.
Now, for
those ‘leftover’ pieces of the bird. They can be used to create a flavorful
stock – to be discussed in a future post. This can be done right away or the
remaining pieces can be tightly wrapped and frozen for later use. My favorite
use is of the skin. I add it to a pot of boiling potatoes to add flavor that
will knock your socks off! Just remember to discard the skin after boiling. If
you don’t want to deal with doing either of those things, simply discard,
sealed in the container it came in. For those with pets, while you may sneak a
bit of meat to them, but do not give them any of the bones as these can cause harm
to them. Just let them have the good bits.
For those
of you who haven’t left this post yet, pat yourself on the back. While this may
seem like a tedious task, with practice you can break down a bird in 15 minutes
or less and have up to 2 lbs of moist, flavorful chicken meat.
~tl
p.s. not
all posts will be this long, promise J
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