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How To Cook Chicken

Chickens Are Smart, But Are We When It Comes To Cooking Them?

How to cook chicken.

Did you know that chickens are smart?  While we tend to hear just a cluck-cluck here and a cluck-cluck there, all those clucks actually mean something.

Chickens have their own language!

Researchers have catalogued more than 30 chicken calls and alarms, such as calling their chicks, where to find food, and to warn about a predator.  And the language seems to be universal across chicken breeds.

There seems to be a lot about chickens that we don’t know!

For some, chickens are a complete mystery in the kitchen.  Where you like to bake, broil, or grill overcooking your chicken by even a small amount of time will render you a dry, stringy piece of meat.

So what’s the secret?

How To Cook Chicken

Chicken is lean meat with very little connective tissue.  Fat and connective tissue equals moist meat and lots of flavor.  Lean meat can be a challenge.

Here are some tips for ensuring a moist and flavorful result with your lean chicken:

1.  Cook chicken to just the right amount of time.  To kill all the potential bad bacteria that could be lurking on your bird the USDA recommends cooking chicken to an internal temp of 165 F.  Pull your chicken from the oven a few degrees sooner and let it hit the mark outside of the oven.  A kitchen thermometer is a great investment for this reason.
2. Most chicken breasts are really thick on one end and thin on the other.  Use a kitchen mallet to flatten the breast or run your knife through the breast horizontally to create two pieces of breast from one large thick one.  Cooking a chicken breast with an even thickness will help ensure you don’t overdo it.

Congratulations you’re now smarter than a chicken!

Ready to cook?  Give this baked chicken recipe a try.  It was a family favorite!