The Perdue Chicken Cookbook | Page 9

and I've never seen him go for anything but breast meat. Is it better to cook a chicken quickly at a high temperature-or slowly at a low temperature? Both work, but with high temperatures, you run a greater risk of uneven cooking, with the wings and legs becoming overcooked before the rest of the bird is done. Usually we recommend a moderate temperature of 350 degrees for whole birds and 375 degrees for parts. If you are in a hurry and want to use a higher temperature, then shield the wings and legs by wrapping them with aluminum foil if they're starting to become too brown. How much should I allow for shrinkage when cooking chicken? For each 3-ounce serving of cooked poultry, buy an extra ounce to allow for shrinkage and an extra two ounces to allow for bone. If I want to use different parts of the chicken from what the recipe calls for, how do I go about making substitutions? This table should help: Name of Part Approximate No. to Equal One Whole Chicken Whole breasts 3 Half breasts 6 Whole leg (thigh and drumstick) 6 Thigh 12 Drumsticks 14 Wing 14 Drumette (upper part of wing) 24 When using cooked chicken, allow one pound of whole uncooked chicken for each cup of cooked, edible chicken meat. How do you truss a chicken? HERE HAVE ILLUSTRATION SHOWING HOW
What's the best way to carve a chicken? HERE HAVE ILLUSTRATION SHOWING HOW
Some of your recipes call for roasters. I don't live in an area where Perdue chicken is sold, and I haven't been able to find roasters in the stores. What exactly is a roaster, and can I substitute a broiler? A Perdue Oven Stuffer Roaster is a 12 week old bird especially developed for a broad breast. Roasters are bigger than broilers, and have a more favorable meat to bone ratio than broilers. Because they are older birds, they also have a much deeper, richer flavor. You can use broilers in roaster recipes, but plan on the chicken's being done sooner and having a noticeably milder flavor. Frank, by the way, is the man responsible for creating the roaster market. Back in the early 1970s, when few people had ever heard of a roaster, he was the one who worked to breed these broad-breasted birds, and who put the effort into advertising so people would learn about the new product. He surprised his colleagues by how determined he was in his developing and marketing efforts. One of the men who worked with Frank told me that he was amazed that Frank, who will hang onto an old pair of shoes to save $50, was willing to spend millions to let people know about the product, and further, he did it without a qualm, because he had such belief in it. If you haven't tried an Oven Stuffer Roaster and you're visiting the East Coast, try one, and you'll see why Frank believed in it so much.


Chapter One
: CHICKEN FOR EVERYDAY
Napoleon's cook once bet that he could cook chicken a different way every day of the year. The cook found that this was an easy bet to win, and I can see why, having looked at the recipes in Frank's files. Chicken's versatility seems almost endless. Perdue Farms home economists have been developing chicken recipes since the early 1970s and as a result, Frank has more than 2000 chicken recipes. If only Napoleon had chosen to bet with me, I could have won even if he'd said the bet was for six years! In this chapter, you'll find some of Frank's and my favorites for every day cooking. But there are different kinds of every day cooking, so I've divided the chapter into three sections to take care of three different every day situations. The first section, Fast Food Chicken from Your Refrigerator, is for when you're in a hurry and want dinner on the table in the shortest possible time. None of these recipes takes more than 15 minutes, and many are ready in five. However, you will find special tricks to make the food more interesting than just heat and serve. The second section, Perdue Plus Five, is for when you don't mind if dinner isn't ready for another hour or so, but you want your part of the preparation to be as brief as possible. The recipes in this section use only five ingredients in addition to chicken, salt, and pepper, and all of the recipes are simple to prepareathough they may take awhile to cook. The third section, Family Favorites, is for relaxed times. When you don't mind spending some time putting together something your family will really like, try this section. FAST FOOD CHICKEN FROM YOUR REFRIGERATOR (PHOTO: The most valuable player on the