Q&A Thread- Ask And Answer Questions Here...

dancegypsy67 1 year, 4 months ago said:
Homemade chicken stock
My mom used to poach whole chickens quite often when I was growing up. I don't think she ever cut it up. I don't do it quite so much now, but I would add carrots, celery and onions to the pot. I should check out that recipe...

dancegypsy67 1 year, 4 months ago said:
Cuttin chicken
Oooooo I love cutting up a whole chicken!

I usually run the chicken under cold water after removing it from the package. I've heard of brineing chicken in salt water (and have done it many times), but that's more than a rinse. Grab a heavy sharp knife and and get to a non-skid flat surface. Start by running your knife along one side of the breast bone, breaking the skin and cutting the meat. Following that same line, either with your knife or kitchen shears, cut through the bones so that the two halves of the breast fall to the sides. Now position your knife on one side of the back bone and cut through that.

There is a natural division between the thigh and breast, so that’s easy enough. If you want to take off the drumsticks, find the joint between the thigh and drumstick, and cut through that (I usually find the joint by bending the drumstick, then hold the piece up by the drumstick to make the cut – don’t know why). Taking off the wings are a bit trickier…essentially you’ll need to make 2-3 cuts around the base of the wing to find the joint.

It gets much easier and you’ll feel more comfortable with practice, and before long you’ll wonder why people spend so much more for cut up chicken when it’s so easy to do it yourself! You should also be able to find lots of sites on the internet with other/better instructions and pictures of the technique.

Have fun!

softgrey 1 year, 4 months ago said:
RE: Q&A thread- ask and answer questions here...
and i think i am just going to go ahead and use the chicken whole for this soup---
until i get the tools i need...

doesn't seem to make a real difference---so....

dancegypsy67 1 year, 4 months ago said:
chicken
I admit, I always rinse my chicken, am bad about drying it (plus don't want to waste the paper towels), but drying will help cut down on the slipperyness. I have a tray that I've dedicated for chicken cutting -it has higher sides than one of the plastic cutting mats so I don't have to worry as much about juices splashing on my work surface. As long as you're careful and don't cut thru it, you could cover your wooden board with plastic wrap I should think.

My grandmas never made me chicken soup - one was known for burning things, so it's probably for the best. The other made really nice French Onion Soup.

softgrey 1 year, 4 months ago said:
RE: Q&A thread- ask and answer questions here...
hahaha....
borinda you are wonderful!!...you have once again brought a smile to my face...
first the perfect soup recipe and now more of your marvelous sense of humour!!!

i find that the guys working behind the meat counter at most stores are maybe more clueless than i am...
and i don't know if there is still such a thing as a good butcher anymore....
though i do hear tales.........
even the guy at the fancy new whole foods couldn't figure out what a lardon was when i was trying to get some...
sheesh!!.....

sorry borinda- my grandmothers were actually making tomato sauce and cavatelli when i was a kid!...if there was meat, it was usually in the sauce...;-)
and i never even heard of a parsnip until i was an adult...!

for the record...
i did use the chicken whole- thanks to some coaching from borinda...
and handling the chicken was not nearly as weird or creepy (or slippery) as i imagined...perhaps it was because it was organic?...so just less yucky in general...?
anyway...i thought it was sort of a cute little fella and now i think i am ready for the next step...

*but anyway- once the chicken was cooked- it basically fell apart by itself
..omg...i was just amazed how it just sort of melted off the bone...but never got overcooked...
** so then i was REALLY glad i didn't bother with the whole cutting thing!!...ha!...

gypsy- having a separate cutting board is such an obvious thing...silly me for not thinking of it...

oh and DRYING it?>.
DUH!..another obvious one...i never would have thought of that...
(and i hate wasting paper towels too!..)

**taking the chicken apart once it was cooked actually really helped me to see the skeleton and joints , etc better though....
so that was good....


all in all- great tips and answers to my queries...

thank you ever so much ladies!!..
*bow*

cheers to you!!
xx-softie

softgrey 1 year, 3 months ago said:
RE: Q&A thread- ask and answer questions here...
ok gypsy- will do...!

now i have another question...

you know how if you make any kind of pureed soup it says to 'puree in batches'...?
so what are you supposed to do, dump the batch from the mixer into a separate bowl while you do the next batch?...

i just hate getting another bowl dirty...hmmm...
am i missing something?

bentley 1 year, 3 months ago said:
Chicken soup from scratch
For what it's worth..........I roast the whole chicken first. I also roast the veggies.

I also save those pesky onion skins that seem to separate themselves in the onion bin and use them in my stock.

In my opinion, it makes a richer, more robust stock.

borinda 1 year, 2 months ago said:
brining
In our family it wasn't called brining and I guess some things that are SO familiar are just done as a routine. Koshering is indeed done with the kosher salt BUT the big reason for using the kosher chickens is they are deemed very well cleaned. Softie - as I've said to you re. the photo of your very clean kitchen, we do indeed get a tad obsessive about cleanliness in our family.

The kicker to all of this is that I did not buy kosher poultry and before I left NY got into the Bell and Evans as it's organic. Here in Northern Ca. I use Foster Farms or other organic poultry from specialty markets.

Why? My logic is to avoid the growth hormones, antibiotics, and other chemicals we would get second hand from non-organic poultry (meat, too). Think how many strains of bacteria are becoming resistant to the antibiotics and other inexplicable health issues. I cannot say I am 100% right but I can say my instincts can't be 100% wrong, either, on this concern.

One friend here has a daughter who's taught this material at Harvard and is now doing so at UC Davis. She will not allow her parents to let anything pass her kids' lips that is not organic. She is particularly adament re. veggies and fruits that have very high water contents such as strawberries. She brings a lot of brilliance to this subject so I try to make even more of an effort these days.

IMMERSION BLENDERS -- They are great! I use one for my fresh or frozen pea soup, strawberry soup, and sometimes just puree all of the veggies in my chicken soup to make it a heartier soup, too. It has become one of my favorite kitchen toys and we all know I love my kitchen toys! LOL

borinda 1 year, 2 months ago said:
spcific task tools
think of it this way, Softie... some tools not merely are geared for specific tasks but in so doing make them easier and, with the immersion blender, neater. It goes into the pot and when held low keeps from spattering, is a quicker clean-up than ladling soup into the blender, etc. I remember purchasing mine during a big sale and it was around $30. Be a competitive shopper and get over being a mule. Albeit a charming stubborn mule!!!

softgrey 1 year, 1 month ago said:
RE: Q&A thread- ask and answer questions here...
i finally brined for the first time...
totally insanely deliciously amazing....
i just did chicken breasts for the first time as an experiiment....
boy howdy did the flavour go up a notch!...

i am sold!...

thanks for the push ladies...
i am going to start looking at immersion blenders...
MWA!...

x-softie

julesong 10 months, 3 weeks ago said:
Immersion blenders
I use mine a lot, especially for soup! :) I love it. I also use it to thicken sauces for stew and other dishes, simply by taking some of the juice and other ingredients from the pot or pan and whirring them separately and adding them back in. Healthier than adding flour, etc!

trigger 5 months, 3 weeks ago said:
RE: Q&A thread- ask and answer questions here...
A great place to learn from others as well as teach others all in one place. Soup is not that complicated but the variations of how we arrive at "chicken soup" or any other "soup " will overwhelm you. The methods and utensils or tools is another whole topic. I had an Immersion blender along with every bell and whistle imaginable , when we moved to a new home with a small kitchen we had to pare down the many many kitchen gadgets collected over the years.

Th funny part is after 15 years my Kitchen has doubled its original size and now I own twice the gadgets I tossed out or gave away, when we moved, however the one item I do not have still is a new replacement Immersion blender.

Birthday's come every year thank you very much . Now Blender or yogurt /ice cream maker that is the question?

Michael

bensmom 5 months, 3 weeks ago said:
Making chicken soup
Whether you put the chicken in whole or not probably doesn't matter for taste, but it will cook a lot faster if you cut it up.
What I'd suggest for the future is that whenever you bake a chicken, you take whatever is left on the bones after dinner (and there's always a bit) and stick it in a freezer bag in the freezer. Once you've got two or three of those accumulated (depending on the quantity of meat) use those as your chicken soup base. The soup benefits from the spices used in baking the chicken, you don't have to go buy a whole chicken for the exclusive use of the soup (which is going to give you pots and pots worth of meat - I've fed 20 teen agers on soup made with the remains of two roast chickens!) and you're recycling.