All about chicken

We know that such an article could be thought to be a bit discriminant towards vegetarian and vegan people and all the people who, for whatever reason, don’t eat chicken. Yet, it is not, since a veg mum/dad could cook chicken for her/his children, or any other person could do the same for a dinner with friends. Then, advice can be useful not only for chicken lovers, but above all for those who don’t eat but are nonetheless obliged – by circumstances – to cook it.

How to recognize chicken freshness 

The first thing to do when you are buying chicken, as any other ingredient for your recipes, is paying attention to its freshness! It’s maybe the most important feature, given that if an ingredient is not fresh, your meal won’t taste good!

Color is not a feature to take so much into account, since it can vary according to the chicken variety and the food it has been fed with. Pay more attention to its skin, that has not to be dry and thick, to its meat that has to be tender, glossy and humid and, in case there is its crest, this should be of a nice, vivid red. 

After that, make sure it smells good! An acid or rancid smell says it all about its edibility. Finally, once you brought home your chicken and you cook it, if your meat is dry and not juicy at all, then learn that it’s not fresh.

A list of chicken recipes, level 1

In Italy, chicken is of a very high quality since it is fed with cereals, soy and integrators of vitamins and mineral salts, that are safe from a hygienic point of view.

Indeed, it is a common and versatile ingredient to prepare meat dishes. Being lighter than red meats and pork, and nutritious at the same time, many people tend to choose it for low-calorie and dietary reasons.

Beginning from the simplest and most basic chicken recipes, we can cook:

• baked chicken…we think there’s no need for explanations!
• chicken cotoletta, usually chicken breast coated with breadcrumbs and then fried or, for a lighter version of it, baked;
• stewed chicken, on a base of a sautéed mix of minced carrots, celery and onions, to which chicken, tomatoes, herbs and spices are added and left on the stove to stew, till chicken meats is tender and has absorbed all the flavors;
• roasted chicken;
• grilled chicken.

A list of chicken recipes, level 2

Now, let’s go to the next level:

• chicken nuggets with all sorts of sauces: caramelized orange sauce, mushroom sauce, saffron sauce, cheese sauce and all that your imagination can conceive;
• chicken rolls, that can be filled with artichoke hearts, a mix of garlic, onions and breadcrumbs, or a slice of ham and another one of thin cheese;
• crunchy chicken, coated with rice flour and sesame seeds and then fried;
• “chickburger”, cutting chicken into very small pieces, adding rosemary, garlic, pepper, nearly invisible pieces of onions and bay leaves, time, mint, basil, but also almonds slices;
• sweet and sour chicken with pineapple slices, letting it simmer in a sweet and sour sauce made with a spoonful of flour, sugar and vinegar.

These are just some clues for tasting chicken in conventional and non-conventional ways. Which recipe do you prefer? Or try your hands at your own invented recipes and let us know!

Sources

vivailpollo.it

All images released under Creative Commons license.