I need tender chicken!

**Fragony** · 10-19-2007, 19:40

Originally Posted by Vuk Brankovic

lol, we are not talking about fresh chicken? oh, my mistake. :P I used to butcher my RhodeIsland Reds myself, but don't keep birds anymore. I just buy them from a friend. :P (If you do this, make sure it is someone you can trust. Many people abuse their animals and the meat is usually very unclean)

Well I buy meat from the local farmer, anything supermarket has been frozen twice, water is comming from everywhere, no good.

**Vuk** · 10-19-2007, 21:18

Originally Posted by Stig

Do you even know what I'm talking about, or are you just spamming again?

Again? That my dear sir, is flaming!
Yes I do. I said that your idea would murder the recipe. lol Lighten up my dear abismal!

Vuk

**lars573** · 10-19-2007, 22:06

Originally Posted by Beirut

How's that for a thread title.

I just made a very nice chicken Vindaloo and it was tasty indeed, but the chicken was dry and a bit tough. I can deal with lamb and pork and beef, but I cannot get my chicken to be juicy and tender. Whether I cook it fast or slow, high heat or low, in a fire, over a tire, standing next to a liar, nothing works.

If any of you can help, I'll send you some Vindaloo in the mail.

Thanks.

My ma says boil the chicken first. And I'll settle for the recipie.

**Tribesman** · 10-20-2007, 00:11

The really important part of getting it tender, is the malleting.

The only reason anyone would have for taking a mallet to a piece of meat to tenderise it is if they have bought a crap piece of meat in the first place .

**Proletariat** · 10-20-2007, 01:17

Honestly, just spare the extra few and get the dry aged steaks. Malleting meat and cooking meat well done is for the peasants (ie, college students) who can't afford meat where neither should be necessary.

**Beirut** · 10-20-2007, 12:00

Originally Posted by Proletariat

Honestly, just spare the extra few and get the dry aged steaks. Malleting meat and cooking meat well done is for the peasants (ie, college students) who can't afford meat where neither should be necessary.

You are right, but there are very tough and inexpensive cuts that can be made wonderfully wonderful with the proper cooking technique. But as BBQs go, nothing beats an aged Rib Eye 1 1/2 inches thick.

As for the chicken, I'm liking this idea of cooking the chicken whole or in pieces separately and adding it to the curry just for the last few minutes. Sounds like the silver bullet I'm looking for.

**Proletariat** · 10-20-2007, 15:08

Let us know how it turns out. And don't forget that if your curry is decent right after it's cooked, it's going to be twice as good the next day by the time the meat has broken down a little more and the spices have congealed and mixed more evenly.

**Pannonian** · 10-20-2007, 18:30

Chicken wings. It's impossible to dry out chicken wings short of carbonising them.

**Vuk** · 10-20-2007, 20:32

Originally Posted by Tribesman

The only reason anyone would have for taking a mallet to a piece of meat to tenderise it is if they have bought a crap piece of meat in the first place .

lol, that is the attitude of someone who obviously has never had the true pleasure of eating wild fowl. Do you know how they get that meat (the stuff you are talking about) that tender? They soak it in all kinds of solutions, and put it through shock treatment.
Wouldn't you rather buy a whole chicken from your neighbor, and tenderise it yourself? I can get the chicken so darn tender that you can eat it with a spoon! I'd like to see you do that with treated chicken you buy from the store. :P
I prefer to keep it natural and do the work myself; after all, isn't that half the fun?

Vuk

**Tribesman** · 10-20-2007, 22:22

lol, that is the attitude of someone who obviously has never had the true pleasure of eating wild fowl. Do you know how they get that meat (the stuff you are talking about) that tender? They soak it in all kinds of solutions, and put it through shock treatment.

edit to remove the suggestion about the validity of the commentdizzy2:

Wouldn't you rather buy a whole chicken from your neighbor, and tenderise it yourself? I can get the chicken so darn tender that you can eat it with a spoon! I'd like to see you do that with treated chicken you buy from the store. :P

from someone who says they rear Reds for eating

**Vuk** · 10-21-2007, 13:49

Originally Posted by Tribesman

clueless

from someone who says they rear Reds for eating

I said that I ate them, not that I raised them for eating. I mostly raise my chickens as pets and for eggs, but when they get to old, or I have an excess (esp of roosters. I only keep three roosters alive at a time), I eat them. I dare say that I have (had) plenty enough.

As I have taken care of and raised chickens since I was about four, I really do think I am capable of it without your advice.

Vuk

**Beirut** · 10-21-2007, 14:15

(*Flame the chickens, gentlemen, not each other. Please edit all personal remarks.)

I picked up a package of chicken thighs. I think I'm going to let them sit in a marinade, then BBQ them real fast. I'll have my lovely rich curry sauce brimming (brimming I tell you!) with onions and garlic and hot peppers, simmering away and I'll shred the BBQ chicken meat and add it just for the last few minutes. Then the whole thing get refrigerated and it's lunch for the week.

**Megalos** · 10-21-2007, 14:45

When they do it in the restaurants, they cook it on a tandori (sp?) oven, then add the meat to the curry after it is cooked.

The best way I can think of replicating this when at home, is to:

-Pre-heat you oven to 180oc

-Place a oven proof dish that has a lid into the oven with about a centimetre of water in it (best to boil the water beforehand)

-cut the chicken into the cube sizes you like

-seal it, by flash pan frying it (make sure the pan is very very hot) til slightly brown on the outside

-Pull off some tin-foil (enough that you will be able to make a nice envelope with plenty of space inside for the chicken)

-tip the contents of the pan into the tin foil, add whatever spices you want to the chicken, add half a tablespoon of animal fat, and seal the tin foil into an envelope, with plenty of room inside for the chicken to breathe (don't squash the Tin-foil around it).

-place your air/water tight tin-foil envelope into the oven proof dish, place lid on top, and cook for about half hour.

-prepare your sauce

-add chicken to sauce about 5 mins prior to serving

Voila! nice tender chicken!

If it is still not tender enough for you, try it as above, but cook the whole chicken brests instead of cubing it, then cut and add to the sauce as above.

Enjoy

Mega