I like pan-roasted chicken for three reasons.
First, it’s delicious.
Second, it’s just three simple steps: brine, brown on the stove top, and bake for 20 minutes.
Third, because each step is so easy, you can mess around with the recipe without worrying that you will screw it up.
Fourth, it’s great practice for a few of the most common steps in cooking, in a context where you can build some confidence and intuition for how it works without lots of complexity to confuse you.
A few tips to remember:
- Pat dry the meat after you brine it. It sounds dumb, but it’s very important, because the meat won’t brown until all of the water on the outside evaporates off (but the inside will still be cooking).
- Wash your hands (or change to fresh gloves) after handling raw meat. Also thoroughly clean all surfaces and utensils that have been in contact with raw meat.
- Use a thermometer to check the internal temperature of the meat after it comes out of the oven. Poultry should be at least 165 degrees F to be safe. And expect some carryover cooking after it comes out of the oven, so if it reads about 160 when you remove it from the oven, you should be all set (but feel free to check it again after it sits for 5 minutes).
Next week we’ll be making gravy to pour on top of this.
Recipe here.
Enjoy,
Kevin
