All about the chicken
Most professional chef's consider chicken as the food of choice for the indecisive. Some even go far as saying that chicken is a boring ingredient. But why? mainly because its just a big piece of white meat with feathers with no real distinct taste/flavor.
The chicken that you eat in Mc Donalds will taste the same as the chicken you eat in your Michelin starred restaurant- let me be clear on this: I mean the chicken itself the meat not the chicken dish. It is not like fish that has so many varieties and each one has its distinct flavor and texture. Hell even beef has its distinct varieties- depending on how it was fed, raised and buthcered.
Chicken on the other hand is plain and simple- thigh, drumstick, wing, breast. This is why chicken has both its mass appeal and its sorry reputation inside a professional kitchen. But I love it.
To me the simplicity and plainness of chicken is what gives it its mass appeal. For someone who loves home-cooking chicken is my best friend because I know from the beginning what the final taste will be. This, however, does not mean that there is no room for creativity with chicken- that is a very bad misconception.
Chicken, due to its simplicity, can carry different kinds of flavor allowing you to be very creative in your sauces. It also gives you room to play around with texture depending on how you cook the meat and with what you baste it with. You can have a very simple Chicken Cacciatora or a very elegant Whole Boned chicken with Beef and Parmesan Stuffing (i will try this soon). There are also hundreds of dishes that incorporate game birds on the dish widening the variety of flavor one can create with chicken or birds. The spectrum of flavor and texture is so wide that I find it so hard to understands why many chef's (even anthony bourdain) find chicken as boring.
The chicken that you eat in Mc Donalds will taste the same as the chicken you eat in your Michelin starred restaurant- let me be clear on this: I mean the chicken itself the meat not the chicken dish. It is not like fish that has so many varieties and each one has its distinct flavor and texture. Hell even beef has its distinct varieties- depending on how it was fed, raised and buthcered.
Chicken on the other hand is plain and simple- thigh, drumstick, wing, breast. This is why chicken has both its mass appeal and its sorry reputation inside a professional kitchen. But I love it.
To me the simplicity and plainness of chicken is what gives it its mass appeal. For someone who loves home-cooking chicken is my best friend because I know from the beginning what the final taste will be. This, however, does not mean that there is no room for creativity with chicken- that is a very bad misconception.
Chicken, due to its simplicity, can carry different kinds of flavor allowing you to be very creative in your sauces. It also gives you room to play around with texture depending on how you cook the meat and with what you baste it with. You can have a very simple Chicken Cacciatora or a very elegant Whole Boned chicken with Beef and Parmesan Stuffing (i will try this soon). There are also hundreds of dishes that incorporate game birds on the dish widening the variety of flavor one can create with chicken or birds. The spectrum of flavor and texture is so wide that I find it so hard to understands why many chef's (even anthony bourdain) find chicken as boring.
The pictures here are some of the chicken dishes I have already made- notice the variety of the sauces incorporated in the different dishes- chicken is a great ingredient, and it can create magic in your kitchen.
Comment (1)
March 23, 2010 at 9:10 AM
walk in the pork...hmmm... nice one dear. hehehehe... food looks delish!
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