PANTRY: All About Chicken

This information is excerpted from The Perdue Chicken Cookbook by Mitzi Perdue. This incredibly complete cookbook is now available in bookstores. For more information about Perdue products, write:

What should I look for when I shop for chicken?

Whatever city we're in, whether it's on the East Coast, or Puerto Rico, or even London or Moscow or Tokyo, Frank visits supermarkets the way other people visit museums or monuments. He notices the following kinds of things himself and would recommend that you do also when selecting chicken.

• Give the package a little squeeze. Are there signs of ice along wings, backs, or edges? Some chicken producers blast their birds with air as cold as - 40F, but Perdue never does. Freezing causes a breakdown in protein, loss of natural juices, and could reduce tenderness. Also, when you cook a frozen bird, the bones and nearby, meat may turn an unappetizing dark color.
• Look at the thickness of the meat in proportion to the bone. If, for example, the breast looks scrawny, you're paying a lot for bone rather than meat.
• Read the labels so you know what you are getting. Many different parts and combinations are available, and some look surprisingly alike even to Frank's trained eye. The label tells exactly what is inside.
• Ask questions. If any meat or poultry product doesn't look, feel, or smell just right, check it with the professionals behind the counter.
• Notice the pull date. Most stores are scrupulous about removing chicken before the pull date expires-but sometimes there's a slip-up.
• Was the chicken well-cleaned? Or are there little traces of feathers or hairs? These can look really unattractive when the bird is cooked.
• Is the chicken stored correctly on the chilling shelf, or are the trays of chicken stacked so high that the top ones aren't kept cold? When that happens. The shelf life of the top ones is seriously shortened.
• Is the meat case kept so cold that the fresh chicken is frozen and ends up with ice crystals on the tray `? If so, complain to the manager.
• Look at the ends of the bones. Are they pink or turning gray? Generally; the more pink the bone ends are, the fresher the chicken.

How should I store chicken at home?

Chicken, like all meat, is perishable. It should be stored in the coldest part of the refrigerator (4OF or below), kept sealed as it comes from the market, and used within two or three days of purchase.

Should I freeze chickens?

Frank doesn't recommend freezing poultry: However, if a bird must be held beyond two days, freezing will keep it wholesome.

How do I freeze poultry?

When freezing is necessary, seal chicken or other poultry in an airtight container, heavy plastic bag, plastic wrap, foil, or freezer paper. Try to have the wrapping tight against the chicken, because any place where it isn't, small ice crystals will form. That means moisture has been drawn from the meat, and where that's happened, the meat will be tough and breading won't stick. Frozen uncooked chicken can be stored up to six months; frozen cooked chicken should be used within three months. Personally I try to avoid freezing chicken since I know that freezing makes the chicken less tender and less juicy. Still, in spite of good intentions, I sometimes end up doing it. I make it a point to have a wax marking pencil and freezer tape handy, so I can label the package with the date and contents. It's unbelievably easy to lose track of how long things have been in there. Do not stuff poultry before freezing, and freeze cooked birds and stuffing separately

Can frozen chicken be thawed and frozen again?

Each time you freeze chicken, you sacrifice quality. If carefully handled, however, it is safe to defrost uncooked chicken and to freeze it again after cooking. If frozen after cooking, do not thaw and freeze chicken again.

Why is chicken sometimes implicated in illness?

In a warm, moist environment, illness-causing bacteria can grow in high-protein, low -acid foods such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and milk. But there is no reason to become ill from eating or serving these foods, if they are cooked thoroughly and served or refrigerated immediately. To prevent transferring bacteria from one food to another, use warm water and soap to wash hands, utensils, and work surfaces before and after use.

Why are some chickens yellow-skinned and some white?

A chicken's skin color comes from the diet it is fed. The diet that produces a yellow skin is more expensive than the usual diet, but the people at Perdue Farms feel it's worth it because a yellow skin color is one of the fastest ways Frank's inspectors have of finding and disqualifying an inferior bird. If a bird is sick or off its feed, it doesn't absorb nutrients well and won't develop the rich golden color that is characteristic of Perdue birds. Also, if part of a bird's outer skin is "barked," that is, rubbed off due to rough handling during processing, the Perdue inspectors can detect it more easily than with a white skinned bird. Detecting and removing chicken with barked skin is important because damaged skin shortens the shelf life and both dries and toughens the meat.

Sometimes when I open a package of chicken, there's a pungent odor that doesn't smell spoiled, but it's definitely unpleasant. Should I throw the chicken out?

If the odor lasts only a matter of seconds, your chicken is probably fine. Meat is chemically active, and as it ages, it releases sulfur. When you open a bag that doesn't have air holes, you may notice the accumulated sulfur, but it will quickly disperse into the air. In fact, I've heard of cases where a wife will call her husband over and say, "Smell this, I think it's gone bad." He'll take a deep whiff and find nothing wrong with it. She'll take another sniff and then wonder if it was her imagination. It wasn't. It's just that once the package was opened, the sulfur smell faded into the air like smoke rings. If the chicken still smells bad after a couple of minutes, that's an entirely different story The problem is bacterial spoilage or rancidity or both. Return the chicken to the store where you bought it and write.. to Frank. Rancidity can also occur in frozen chicken if the freezer where the meat was stored wasn't cold enough or if the product was kept there for a very long time (more than six months for uncooked chicken, or more than three months for cooked chicken). I don't like to focus on this unpleasant stuff, but I do want you to get your money's worth when you're buying chicken.

Are chickens given hormones?

Never. It's against the law to give chickens hormones.

Can I cook frozen chicken, or do I have to let it defrost first?

In a pinch, go ahead, but allow extra cooking time. For the best texture and tenderness, however, you're better off starting from refrigerator temperatures; you can be more sure of getting an evenly cooked product.

How long can I keep chicken at room temperature?

From the point of view of food safety, you're taking a risk if you leave it outside the refrigerator for more than two hours. Unfortunately; bacteria grow and multiply at temperatures between 40F and 140F and they flourish at room temperature. To avoid food borne illness, all foods of animal origin should be kept either hotter than 140F or colder than 40F. If you know you won't be returning home directly after shopping, bring along an insulated bag or box to keep cold foods cold until you can get them into the refrigerator.

Do I need to rinse chicken before cooking?

Advice on this has changed over the years, including the advice Frank gives. The latest research shows that from a health point of view; washing is not necessary. Any microbes that you'd wash off will be entirely destroyed by heat when you cook the meat. It's actually far more important to wash your hands, your cutting board, and your utensils since they won't be sterilized by cooking.

How do I get the best flavor?

That depends on whether you're after a mild and delicate flavor, or a strong and robust flavor. The younger the bird, the milder the flavor. A game hen. which is five weeks old, will have the mildest flavor of all. A broiler at seven weeks, will still have a quite mild and delicate flavor; a roaster on the other hand, is usually about five weeks older than a broiler and it will have a much more pronounced "chickeny" flavor. Frank and I enjoy chicken at all ages, but if we had to choose on flavor alone, we'd most often go for the roasters. For a really strong, chickeny flavor, see if you can find fowl or spent hens or stewing hens. These birds are around eighteen months old, which means they're going to be quite tough, but if you use them in soups or stews, they'll add an excellent flavor. I've had chicken in the freezer for a year. Is it still edible? From a health point of view it would be okay, but the flavor and texture will have deteriorated and it just won't be particularly tasty I stored chicken in the freezer for a year once as an experiment. It wasn't awful, but it was kind of flat and tasteless.

Why are bones sometimes dark?

Darkened bones occur when the product has been frozen. Freezing causes the blood cells in the bone marrow to rupture. When the chicken is thawed, these ruptured cells leak out and cause Visible reddish splotches on the bones. when cooked, these discolorations will turn from red to almost black Is it better to cook a chicken quickly at a high temperature-or slowly at a low temperature? Both work, but with high temperatures, you run a greater risk of uneven cooking, with the wings and legs becoming overcooked before the rest of the bird is done. Usually we recommend a moderate temperature of 350F for whole birds and 350-375F for parts. If you are in a hurry and want to use a higher temperature, shield the wings and legs by wrapping them with aluminum foil when they start to become too brown. How much should I allow for shrinkage when cooking chicken? For each 3-ounce serving of cooked poultry, buy an extra ounce to allow for shrinkage and an extra 2 ounces to allow for bone.

If I want to use different parts of the chicken from what the recipe calls for, how do I go about making substitutions?

This table should help:

• Whole breasts - 3 parts will equal one chicken
• Half breasts - 6 parts will equal one chicken
• Whole leg (thigh and drumstick) - 9 parts will equal one chicken
• Thigh - 12 parts will equal one chicken
• Drumsticks - 14 parts will equal one chicken
• Drumette (upper part of wing) - 24 parts will equal one chicken

When using cooked chicken, allow one pound of whole uncooked chicken for each cup of cooked, edible chicken meat.

Some of your recipes call for roasters. I don't live in an area where Perdue chicken is sold, and I haven't been able to find roasters in the stores. What exactly is a roaster, and can I substitute a broiler?

A Perdue Oven Stuffer Roaster is a twelve-week-old bird especially developed for a broad breast. Roasters have a more favorable meat-to- bone ratio than broilers. Because they are older birds, they also have a much deeper, richer flavor. You can use broilers in roaster recipes, but plan on the chicken being done sooner and having a noticeably milder flavor. Frank, by the way, is the man responsible for creating the roaster market. Back in the early 1970s, when few people had ever heard of a roaster, he worked hard to breed these broad breasted birds and put effort into advertising so people would learn about the new product. One of the men who worked with Frank told me that he was amazed that Frank, who will hang on to an old pair of shoes to save $50, was willing to spend millions to let people know about the product, and further, he did it without a qualm, because he had such belief in it. If you haven't tried an Oven Stuffer Roaster and you're visiting the East Coast, try one, and you'll see why Frank believed in it so much.