How Long Does a Perfectly Roasted Chicken Need to Cook?
By Mary Ann Allen
Although cooking chicken can be a simple task, there are many determining factors that lead to a perfectly juicy and tender well cooked bird. Chicken is probably one of the most popular meats around for it offers a range of versatility and possibilities! You can boil it, grill it, broil it, bake it, roast it, fry it, sauté it, rotisserie it and stir fry it and always end up with a delicious meal. However, one of the big challenges with chicken is that it must always be well cooked to prevent food borne illnesses. You can never eat chicken rare or medium rare. If the meat is pink cook it longer. Raw chicken can make you very sick. OK, so why is this such a big deal? It’s a big deal because chicken, specially the white meat breast area, tends to be overcooked and dry. It does not have to be! I would like to concentrate on roasted whole chickens in this article as these seem to be the ones that are hardest to perfect. Because of the way a chicken is shaped, it is very easy to end up with overcooked, stringy breast meat; undercooked leg and thigh meat; and inedible, chewy skin. Read the rest of this entry »