Chicken Dishes: What Mistakes to Avoid in Their Preparation

Were you planning to show off your culinary skills by serving chicken legs and fried potatoes for dinner, but the chicken turned out dry and tough?

Have you tried to marinate chicken pieces correctly to get a delicious shashlik, but the finished dish turned out bland?

It’s okay: everything can be fixed next time if you remember some mistakes and don’t repeat them, says Yulia Arkhipova .

Mistake number one - you serve fried chicken fillet on the table immediately after it has been fried in a frying pan. This makes the meat feel tough and dry. How can you make the chicken juicy?

After frying in a frying pan, place the pieces on a baking dish and simmer in the oven for a while (10 minutes is enough). Beating the boneless chicken with a hammer before frying is also a good idea: this will make the meat softer and more tender in taste.

The second mistake is that you only fry chicken, forgetting about other ways of cooking it.

A juicy fillet or breast will turn out much better if you wrap the slices in foil and bake them. A baking sleeve will also come in handy. What will this cooking method give you? The meat will retain its juice, and it will not be tough, like the sole of an old shoe.

Mistake number three - if you marinate chicken meat for subsequent cooking of shashlik or sprinkle the breast/wings with spices, then you often do the following: the pieces are simply immersed in the marinating solution/sprinkled with seasoning.

Because of this, only the surface of the chicken will be saturated with the aroma of spices or marinade, while the inside of the meat will remain bland and tasteless. What to do?

Make a few holes in the pieces with a toothpick or fork so that the marinade/seasoning can soak the inside as well. This way the whole dish will be flavorful and juicy.

The fourth mistake is that you store chicken incorrectly and do not monitor its freshness. It is dangerous to eat slightly spoiled chicken meat, even if the unpleasant smell was carefully masked by marinade and herbs, and the chicken itself was fried or baked.

Only the freezer will ensure the safety of the chicken, and it is better to defrost portions of fillet in the microwave, without leaving it to defrost in the refrigerator. Pay attention to the color: fresh chicken is soft pink, stale chicken takes on a gray tint.

Mistake number five is putting the chicken on a baking sheet or frying pan immediately after defrosting. Due to the difference in temperature between the outside and inside of the meat, the dish may become crusty on the outside, but will most likely remain raw on the inside.

To prevent this from happening, after a portion of chicken has been defrosted using the microwave, put it on the table for a quarter of an hour and do other things. Only then can you start cooking.

The sixth mistake is often made by hasty and inexperienced housewives. They worry about the chicken burning or drying out in the frying pan, and turn it over every now and then. In reality, this is a waste of time.

To form a golden crust on the surface of the chicken meat, you need to hold the pieces on one side for five or seven minutes (the frying pan must be very hot, literally red-hot), and only after these minutes can you turn the meat over.

Mistake number seven is eating cooked chicken, as they say, piping hot. Of course, steaks or ready-made shashlik straight from the skewer look and smell extremely appetizing. But they will become more soft and juicy if after cooking they are placed in a deep bowl, covered with a sheet of foil and left to stand for about a quarter of an hour.

If you remember all these mistakes and try not to make them when cooking chicken, your dishes will be truly juicy, tasty and tender.

Earlier, the expert talked about preparing juicy chicken cutlets .