/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.5528356]

How easy is it to buy an cook an entire chicken? like from the grocery store?

I almost exclusively buy chicken breasts or thighs and they are slightly expensive, while an entire chicken is about the same price if only a bit more expensive for more meats.

Can I just do basic recipes with it? Like just salt and pepper (maybe some garlic or onion as well) or should I always make it with celery onions carrots and "the nine yards" with spices?

Is it easy to cut my own meats from the chicken before and after cooking it? The most experience I ever have cooking a bird was last years turkey for thanksgiving (and it went well, but took a very long time to make, and I even managed to get the deepest part of the bird not fully cooked).

Thanks for any help /ck/

[Anonymous No.5528371]

salt and pepper is fine... afterward you can fancy it up (pic related). Get a baster so you can keep the chicken moist.

Allow to rest then carve pieces off. Look on youtube for tutorials of how to cut it, but in broad terms : legs off at the joint and breasts break at the sternum.

[Anonymous No.5528377]

You can literally just salt and pepper and throw the chicken in the oven, and it'll be fine. Brining beforehand will make it juicier and more flavorful, and spatchcocking (google it) will help it cook more evenly, but neither is required.

[Anonymous No.5528381]

>>5528371
Wow, that looks like a really dope recipe. Never really had something like that.

I've seen some videos on how to cut a chicken up, but I don't own a clever, or really any kind of heavy-knife. I have a couple good knifes, but nothing crazy; mostly cause I'm only a hobbist cook.

[Anonymous No.5528385]

breaking down a chicken is easy as fuck. just look it up on youtube. there are like 3 joints to worry about cutting and the rest is just work you can do with your bare hands.

otherwise, roasting it whole is extremely easy. puncture two lemons and push them inside the cavity. pull the skin over the cavity and fasten with toothpicks. salt and pepper it generously, then roast it on its back in an oven tray at 180ºC, flip after 45 mins and turn the oven up to 200 until it browns and take it out to rest. whatever's left in the pan can make gravy.

[Anonymous No.5528387]

>>5528381

>I've seen some videos on how to cut a chicken up, but I don't own a clever, or really any kind of heavy-knife. I have a couple good knifes, but nothing crazy; mostly cause I'm only a hobbist cook.

you categorically do not need a cleaver. you don't actually have to cut through bone at all.

[Anonymous No.5528959]

>>5528356 (OP)
I make whole chickens fairly regularly. I've had great success with the following method. They always turn out perfectly and fully cooked, yet moist and not dried out:
Remove the gizzards. Coat the chicken first in oil (to prevent it from drying out) then salt and pepper. Put it on a pan/tray that can catch all the juice and melted fat from it, breast side up. Put it in the oven at 450 for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350 and cook 20 minutes per pound. Once it's finished, harvest all your meat from the bones/carcass then use the bones/carcass, as well as the juices at the bottom of the pan you roasted the chicken in, to make delicious chicken stock. I generally like to use chicken stock as a substitute for water in the making of rice. It makes God-tier rice, which I particularly enjoy using for chicken fried rice or chicken burritos.
A lot of recipes for chicken stock will instruct you to get rid of the fat which floats to the top of that, but fuck that, I say, it's fucking delicious.

[Anonymous No.5529013]

>>5528356
Alright OP, these mother fuckers are doing you a disservice. I will tell you how to make the BEST motherfucking chicken you've ever had.

First you have to remove the innards (obvi) and then rinse the chicken (inside and out) thoroughly in the sink before patting dry with some paper towel.

In the inside you want to put some salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, sage, generous garlic, and basil. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. (make sure not to overdo it on the thyme and rosemary)

Then coat the outside lightly in olive and proceed to rub in some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a bit a cayenne.

After that, place it in the baking dish breast side DOWN. Proceed to pour 1/2 to a whole bottle of light white wine into the dish (i prefer pinot grigio).

The wine, herbs inside the chicken, and natural chicken juice with coalesce into the most beautiful sauce you have ever had the glory of tasting. Don't overdo it on the salt though.

After that, throw that fucker in the oven at 400 for 75 minutes, basting every 5-10. If the skin isn't crispy enough at the end, you can let it sit in the oven with the door cracked and the heat turned off.

As an aside, you can cook the wine sauce down into a gravy, adding a can of cream of mushroom can be delicious.

Have fun OP, this chicken will make your mother weep and your bitches wet, use it wisely!

[Anonymous No.5529057]

It doesn't need that many ingredients.

>gut it
>rub with garlic powder, less in salt, lesser in pepper
>slow roast while covered on a low temp for a long time
>like lol dunno around 200F for 3hrs
>check every hour
>when almost done, uncover and baste
>bake for appropriate remaining time
>cool for 10 minutes

As for cutting, I learned from Ramsay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFHvC9sluWM