Chicken & Turkey Cooking Tips

People want to eat healthy foods today, and a good way to accomplish that is
through poultry. There are some chicken cooking tips that can help you in the
kitchen and protect your family as well.

Here are a few of the best chicken cooking tips available.

You must take care to always wash your hands, knife, and cutting board in
hot soapy water after preparing raw poultry.

You should never use the same utensils and cutting board for other
ingredients without thoroughly washing them first and after use. This
prevents cross contamination.

You should always marinate poultry in the refrigerator. Never leave it out
in the open.

Do not use the poultry marinade for basting.

If the marinade is to be used for the basis of a sauce, bring it to a boil
and boil for 2 minutes.

Never put cooked poultry on the same plate that was used to transport raw
poultry. Again, this prevents cross contamination.

Here are some chicken cooking tips for storing your poultry:

Fresh poultry is a very perishable food. You should not leave it out in the
open air. Instead, wrap it in plastic as soon as you get it home from the
store and always store it in the coldest part of your refrigerator. You
should use it within two days; if this is not possible, place it in a freezer
bag and freeze for up to three months. You should always freeze giblets and
livers separately from the whole bird.

Cooked poultry dishes can be frozen. However, you should not freeze poultry
dishes that contain mayonnaise or hard-boiled eggs.

Allow small poultry dishes to cool completely before wrapping and freezing
them. Allow larger items to cool in the refrigerator and then wrap airtight
and freeze.

You should never freeze stuffed poultry.

Some of the most important chicken cooking tips involve proper thawing of the
bird.

It is especially important that the poultry be properly thawed before cooking.
Allow it to thaw in the refrigerator while it is in the original wrapper.
You can place it on a tray to catch any drips that may fall as it thaws.

When thawing in the refrigerator is not possible because there is not enough
time, there are two other alternatives. For rapid thawing, you can put the
bird in watertight wrapping and then submerge in cold water. You should
change the water frequently as this will help quicken the process. Smaller
birds require about one to two hours.

The other alternative is to leave the bird in its wrapper and put it into a
heavy paper grocery bag. Close up the bag and put it into a cool room. You
will need to check it frequently, and once the bird is thawed, you must cook
it immediately.

Now for the Turkey!

Turkey is a long time favorite of many families and now there are some great
cooking tips tricks that anyone can learn and use to better prepare these
wonderful birds.

Is It Time To Do Infrared Oven Cooking

Do you want to know how infrared oven cooking tastes? Do you know about convection cooking? This type of cooking is better than conventional cooking. Food is cooked better in these ovens. You can get a tabletop model. Look over this article for why you should use infrared oven cooking.

Infrared oven cooking refers to cooking food using invisible light energy. When light waves hit the foods the food molecules begin to vibrate and heat up. According to Prevention, the infrared technology used in microwaves does not have cancer threats, because they do not have sufficient power to damage your DNA.

In conduction cooking the heat surrounds the food and produces a golden brown on the outside, and even cooking on the inside. Convection circulates the heat around the food, but this type of cooking takes longer than infrared.

There is no need for you to add fats and extra seasoning to enhance the taste as foods natural flavors are not wasted. Since there is no need for fats, cooking convection oven promotes healthy cooking. In addition, you can save time with it both in cooking and food preparation. Defrosting is no longer a necessity.

In addition, the foods are cooked evenly from inside and out. Infrared oven cooking does not require fats and other seasonings to have a flavorful taste. With its precision and varying temperature you can never be wrong with cooking estimates. It allows you to save time as it cooks food 50% faster than conventional ovens. It does not create smoke during cooking, so there is no need for vents.

Unlike conventional oven cooking, you do not experience difficulties in cleaning up the infrared oven. Its laxan dome is durable and dishwasher-safe. When you bake with it, it does not produce baked-on and caked-on messes. Its touch pad cooking control is easy to understand and use.

Even when you are having a picnic or camping, you can bring with you your infrared oven. It is compact in size and light in weight, making it convenient and portable to use anywhere. Its lightweight does not mean it cannot carry a 9 lb whole chicken or turkey; it certainly can.

Both the experts and mothers who tried infrared oven cooking vouched that their lives have changed. All meats-fish, chicken and beef-have succulent and flavorful taste. It browns foods to perfection.

IR ovens are flexible when it comes to cooking ware. They can cook foods from cooking ware that has a flat surface or three-dimensional shapes. There is no need to install a ventilation system in the kitchen because IR ovens do not give off smoke during cooking.

Chefs enjoy the IR ovens zoning features. Besides being able to rotate cooking wares to have evenly exposure to radiation, you can also configure the oven for ideal heating temperatures. In contrast to what people believe, IR ovens do not have health hazards as do ultraviolet radiation and microwave radiation.

Compared with ultraviolet radiation or microwave radiation, infrared oven cooking does not pose immediate threats. However, for precautionary measures, you are advised to use reflectors and shields to improve the efficiency of the oven. It is also advised not to have prolonged viewing of high intensity infrared emitters at 15 distance.

The maintenance of infrared oven cooking includes an examination of emitters and replacement of malfunctioning components. Regular cleaning of reflectors is helpful in maintaining the efficiency of the oven and making it to last longer.

Outdoor Cooking Grill Tips

There is no better means to make food than to have it grilled on an outdoor cooking grill. The healthy mood of being outdoors also compliments perfectly the great quality of food you create when cooking outdoors. Although most people believe outdoor grilling is merely for barbecues, they are not aware of the many things you might do with an outdoor cooking grill such as baking, roasting, searing, steaming and smoking. Cooking utilizing an outdoor cooking grill isn’t only more pleasurable, but as well has a distinct outdoor cooking grill flavor.

Classic Outdoor Grilling

Out-of-doors grilling would in no way be accomplished without some foods that are typically prepared directly on the outdoor cooking grill. Direct outdoor grilling is best for cooking steaks, chops, sausages, fish fillets, kabobs and chicken cuts. Not only does grilling these things make it a lot easier for them to make, but cooking them directly would as well provide them a very agreeable zest that only an outdoor cooking grill could turn out.

As for whole fish, chicken, turkey or ribs, you can use another outdoor grilling method which is referred to as indirect outdoor grilling. This technique involves having only one side of the outdoor cooking grill turned on and putting the things on the other side of the burner that is not hot. A different method of indirect outdoor grilling would require having an aluminum foil placed on the center to regulate the temperature, moisture and adding a special flavor to the objects to be grilled. You might also place spices, lemon juice and other flavorings to improve the flavor of items on the outdoor cooking grill.

Roasting Using The Outdoor Cooking Grill

There are two main methods of roasting that you can perform on the out-of-doors grill. The first is pan roasting; this calls for having an aluminum foil pan on top of the outdoor cooking grill surface and having meats like ham, ducklings or large portions of meat. This process permits the meat to be grilled by its own juices which would drizzle to the pan while cooking and would turn into vapor during the procedure. For extra flavor, you can add spices, wine, lemon juice and additional flavorings to improve it.

The second manner of roasting on the outdoor cooking grill is called spit-roasting. This process is best utilized for poultry, meat and lamb and is known to give these meats with flavor more like themselves. The method is similar to pan roasting, except you have the item rotate over the heat having it constantly soaked in its own broth. The juices gathered here can later be collected and can be utilized as gravy.

Smoking Food Utilizing The Outdoor Cooking Grill

Whilst grilling out-of-doors most fishes, meats, turkeys, whole chicken and game tastes really excellent if smoked. Of all ways of outdoor grilling, smoking is known to have the most distinctive and agreeable flavor and it is fairly easy to achieve. The procedure of smoking calls for the use of firewood which provides that smoky taste to the objects to be grilled on the outdoor cooking grill. To prepare it, have the wood soaked all night in water. Once doing so, place the wet wood in aluminum foil and perforate a few holes on the side. Position holes facing facing up the length of briquettes and you are ready to get smoking.

Utilizing one or two of these uncomplicated secrets will help to change you from an out-of-doors cooking grill zero, to hero, in no time flat!