Monday, April 17, 2023

Why Your Chicken Breasts Don't Taste Like They Should



MinuteFood looks at USDA guidelines for cooking chicken to ensure it is safe from passing salmonella on to us. The science that went into the guidelines is considerable, but the total information is quite dense to the average home cook, so government authorities tend to simplify it to "cook chicken to an internal temperature of 165°," which is easy to remember. It's nice to know they err on the side of keeping us safe. Still, most home cooks don't use an internal thermometer to cook dinner every night, so we've fallen into the habit of cooking chicken to death just to be sure. That's why a chicken breast often doesn't taste as good as it should. Maybe it's time to invest in an instant-read meat thermometer.   

The USDA tables and charts with the information from the video can be found here. Chicken is on page 37 and turkey is on page 38. Personally, I rarely cook a whole chicken breast anymore. I tend to cut up meat into small pieces and use it as an ingredient in other dishes, so it could be cooked two or three times before it's eaten, with much of the flavoring coming from spices. Still, the more you know, the better cook you can be!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That ought to be cooking 101. Thanks!

xoxoxoBruce said...

I suspect the chicken you buy is much different than the bird Grandma raised in the yard with a different diet. That's why hers were more flavorfull.
Plus the love Grandmas slather on everything.

Anonymous said...

love = butter

Anonymous said...

1. There are better tools than "instant read" thermometers. My favorite is the ChefAlarm with a waterproof probe.

2. Chicken (and other fouls) need to be browned for their wonderful flavor to develop.

3. Chicken breast are now too large to use Moma's recipes. Split them in half lengthwise before cooking.

- Edward