5 Simple Steps To A Perfect Fennel Roasted Chicken - By Jonathan T. Teng

By Jonathan T. Teng

Fennel seeds are grown in many places. A highly expensive fennel pollens or fennel seeds which have an aromatic flavor to it have relatively long cooking times and can be classed as a slightly complicated dish.

By nature, fennel is an herb which form a bulb-like structure. Primarily used in Mediterranean to add flavor to fish dishes, they are also grown in much of the Asian sub-continent. The dialects in places where it is grown has given it variety of names.

Compared to wild fennel seeds, cultivated fennel is used in culinary purposes.

The cultivated fennel seeds are used for a variety of purposes. It is best to have it cooked with chicken for tenderness.

In this article I’m going to show you how to cook a chicken dish and add fennel to it.

The result is going to be awesome. And the smell? Superb! Simply put, the combination of taste, aroma and looks of the dish will be… wow!

Obviously when preparing any dish, the ingredients need to be good. Especially, when talking about a chicken dish being prepared with fennel, the basic ingredients would of course be chicken and fennel and other “secret ingredients” that I have learned through out the years .

With good chicken available in abundance in the market, I recommend the following two options:

1) Use all the drumsticks and thighs when you are cooking the dish as these will brilliantly add flavor to fennel. Cooking time of the dish can be reduced to a good 10 minutes if you remove the drumstick from high at the joint.

2) Use the sharpest knife that you have to cut the whole portion of the chicken. If you do this, ensure that you cut the drumsticks and thighs as well so that it will be cooked in no time. I don’t like the chicken to be dried out. I highly recommend that you remove the breast early to prevent this from happening.

– Fennel Roasted Chicken –

~ 1 whole (about 3-pound) chicken, cut up, or about 3 pounds drumsticks and thighs

~ 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, or as needed

~ 2 bulbs fennel, trimmed and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices

~ Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish

~ Lemon wedges

~ Salt and freshly ground black pepper

(1) Heat oven to 400F. Drizzle bottom of shallow roasting pan or baking sheet with about half the olive oil and cover it with a layer of the fennel.

(2) Overlap pieces if necessary but use whole pan. Drizzle remaining oil over fennel and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

(3) Roast about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cut up chicken if necessary and sprinkle the pieces with salt and pepper.

(4) Top fennel with the chicken parts, skin side up. Ideally, you’ll have a layer of fennel pretty much covered by a layer of chicken, but it’s fine if some of the fennel roasts uncovered.

(5) Spoon some of the oil from bottom of pan over chicken. Roast about 15 minutes, then baste chicken with pan drippings and rotate the pan. If necessary, adjust oven temperature so chicken browns but does not burn.

The chicken will be done in about 30 minutes. Serve each piece with some fennel and a little of the pan juices spooned over, garnished with parsley and a lemon wedge.

Dinner is ready! Bring everyone and enjoy.

Jonathan writes for a famous online cooking newsletter “Quick Easy Recipes Secrets”. If you need delicious recipes and up to date cooking tips just visit: http://www.easy-recipes-secrets.com

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Prepare and Cook the Perfect Chicken and Turkey - By Kevin McCarthy

By Kevin McCarthy

People want to eat healthy foods today, and a good way to accomplish that is through poultry. There are some chicken cooking tips that can help you in the kitchen and protect your family as well.

Here are a few of the best chicken cooking tips available.• You must take care to always wash your hands, knife, and cutting board in hot soapy water after preparing raw poultry.

• You should never use the same utensils and cutting board for other ingredients without thoroughly washing them first and after use. This prevents cross contamination.

• You should always marinate poultry in the refrigerator. Never leave it out in the open.

• Do not use the poultry marinade for basting.

• If the marinade is to be used for the basis of a sauce, bring it to a boil and boil for 2 minutes.

• Never put cooked poultry on the same plate that was used to transport raw poultry. Again, this prevents cross contamination.

Here are some chicken cooking tips for storing your poultry:

• Fresh poultry is a very perishable food. You should not leave it out in the open air. Instead, wrap it in plastic as soon as you get it home from the store and always store it in the coldest part of your refrigerator. You should use it within two days; if this is not possible, place it in a freezer bag and freeze for up to three months. You should always freeze giblets and livers separately from the whole bird.

• Cooked poultry dishes can be frozen. However, you should not freeze poultry dishes that contain mayonnaise or hard-boiled eggs.

• Allow small poultry dishes to cool completely before wrapping and freezing them. Allow larger items to cool in the refrigerator and then wrap airtight and freeze.

• You should never freeze stuffed poultry.

Some of the most important chicken cooking tips involve proper thawing of the bird.

It is especially important that the poultry be properly thawed before cooking. Allow it to thaw in the refrigerator while it is in the original wrapper. You can place it on a tray to catch any drips that may fall as it thaws. When thawing in the refrigerator is not possible because there is not enough time, there are two other alternatives. For rapid thawing, you can put the bird in watertight wrapping and then submerge in cold water. You should change the water frequently as this will help quicken the process. Smaller birds require about one to two hours.

The other alternative is to leave the bird in its wrapper and put it into a heavy paper grocery bag. Close up the bag and put it into a cool room. You will need to check it frequently, and once the bird is thawed, you must cook it immediately.

Now for the Turkey!

Turkey is a long time favorite of many families and now there are some great cooking tips tricks that anyone can learn and use to better prepare these wonderful birds.

Selecting the proper size: You should plan on about 3/4 pound per person for generous servings. You should understand that this will not leave much in leftovers. If you like to have more leftovers, plan on 1 to 1 1/2 pounds per person.

Hens or Toms: It may surprise you but the only real difference between a hen and tom is the size. Hens are classified under 16 pounds and toms are over 16 lbs. A somewhat secret cooking tips tricks is that both will be a young turkey, just a few weeks old at the time of processing. They will be equally tender and moist.

Roasting your bird: Remove the neck and giblets from the neck and body cavities. Rinse the turkey inside and out with cold water. If you want to stuff the bird, you should loosely stuff the body and neck cavities and then fasten the leg clamp back onto the legs.

Cooking tips tricks: Place the turkey in a roasting pan with the plastic timer unobstructed. Cover with a lid, or fashion your own cover with a loose tent of foil. Remember to remove the cover for the last hour for browning.

Cooking tips tricks for Roasting Times: Roast in a preheated, 325 degree Fahrenheit oven. Roasting will take about 15 minutes per pound if the turkey is not stuffed. Stuffed turkeys require an additional 1/2 to 1 hour cooking time. However, it is always best to follow the instructions that come with the stuffing and the turkey. You oven temperature may vary as well which will require you to adjust your time, either upward or downward.

Cooking tips tricks for Basting: One of the most usefultools you can have is a suction basting tube. These inexpensive tools can make basting your turkey a snap and they can also help decrease the time that the oven door is open, which leads to losing oven heat. Baste your bird about every hour or so. This will help make it brown and tender.

If you enjoyed this article then have a look at =>http://www.heavencooking.com for more cooking articles, information, tips & tricks. There’s even a free report on Master Chef insider tips for saving money on your cooking utensils and equipment.

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