Cutting Up A Whole Chicken, and Oven Fried Chicken

I'll tell you a secret...

I'm afraid of cooking meat.

I think that I'll do something wrong and kill everyone with food poisoning, and I'm particularly phobic about chicken.

Therefore, it took some courage to decide to look at a whole chicken and decide to cook it in any way. (I've cooked chicken maybe two or three other times, but always in a crockpot. I have produced bland and sad meat that made the baby Jesus cry.)

The first real hurdle was cleaning and cutting up the chicken.

I carefully washed the bird off in the kitchen sink, with just plain water. It was a good idea to get a buddy to turn the water on/off, and make the garbage can available without needing to use my hands. It was also good to have a bowl right next to me to put the bird in, so it didn't drip on the floor on the way to the cutting board.

The CSA that I signed up for plucked and gutted the bird, and I decided to turn to Youtube for the answers to cutting it into pieces.

 

                              How to Cut Up a Whole Chicken - Gourmet Magazine 

This video was super helpful, but cutting up a chicken didn't go exactly like this at all. I had a very crummy dull knife. It is extremely helpful to have a good one, I'd imagine. 

Popping the bones out wasn't exactly effortless either, and I really had to work on some of them. I guess that I have to start working out with weights again. Ha!

 I watched the video once, and forgot some of the steps too...so...I didn't have quite as many pieces. 

The coolest thing about this video is that it gave me an idea of what to do, and it also mentioned kitchen scissors. I finally know what those are really great for doing! 

I managed to do the breastbone part completely wrong, and it was nowhere near as easy as he showed. I'll have to try to improve on that part next time.

I was pretty happy with the end results. I got most of the meat off of the bird, and in a fairly orderly manner. 

I found a recipe that I could use as a jumping off point, Oven Fried Chicken III Recipe by Elizabeth Hinlely.

I changed quite a few things about it. The very first thing was the oven temp. I put it to 375 degrees.

Ingredients 

• 1 whole chicken, cut up into pieces
• 1 cup dried bread crumbs (I used IGA brand breadcrumbs.)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/8 teaspoon Curry Powder
• 1/8 teaspoon Mustard Powder
• 1 cup mayonnaise

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. Mix dry ingredients with mayonnaise.
4. Rub chicken pieces with mixture. It will be sort of gloppy, and won't stick on the chicken very well. 
5. Put the chicken pieces in a glass baking dish, and then put all remaining glop on the chicken pieces.
6. Bake for 45 minutes. Check internal temperature of chicken with a meat thermometer. It needs to be 160 degrees. If it isn't, put it back in for 5-15 more minutes. 

Verdict: 

 This recipe turned out uber yummy. I left the skin on the bird, because I like it. My partner wasn't fond of the skin, but he removed it easily and enjoyed it anyway.

I'm pretty sure that I'll be doing this recipe again, and I think that next time I want to try using my own (homemade) breadcrumbs and cornmeal. I don't know how to do that yet, but it sounds fun and I think it would taste good. I'm also curious about taking off the skin, dipping these in egg, and then rolling them in the breadcrumb mixture (without the mayo).

~ Patty