Cooking chicken meat

These are very important to prepare of cooking, to use right heat treatment temperature and to be able to identify properly the end of cooking process. Here are general recommendation about raw poultry meat.

How to prepare for cooking?

At first before cooking, it is necessary to wash hands with soap and dry thoroughly. This procedure should be repeated after touching raw chicken meat before contacting with ready-to-eat products.

Use individual cutting board and knife, which are indeed for raw meat and can`t be used for ready-for-eat products.

Make sure juices from raw poultry do not come into contact with other foods.

In case of using frozen meat, it is necessary to defrost it before cooking.

There are 3 ways to defrost chicken meat – in the refrigerator, cold water or the microwave. Meat is considered defrosted if the temperature in core of the thickness tissues is 0…+4oC.

It is best to plan ahead for thawing poultry meat in the refrigerator. Boneless chicken breasts will usually defrost overnight. Whole chickens might take one to two days.

Meat can also be defrosted in cold water in its airtight packaging or in a leak proof bag. Submerge meat or bird, or cut-up parts in cold water, making sure to change the water every 30 minutes to ensure it stays cold. A whole (1.5 to 2 kg) package or parts should defrost in 2 to 4 hours.

Meat should be defrosted in the microwave according to the equipment instruction. Such meat should be cooked immediately after thawing because some areas might become warm and begin to cook during microwaving.

Which cooking parameters should be used?

Whole chicken.

ROASTING / BAKING. Preheat oven to 200°C. Place chicken in shallow roasting pan and roast during 50 – 150 minutes (approximate 40 minutes/per kg + 20 minutes), until meat thermometer registers 82°C in the thickest part of the thigh.
Chicken parts.

ROASTING / BAKING: Preheat oven to 180°C. Place chicken in roasting pan and roast during 35 – 85 minutes until internal temperature reaches 74°C in the thickest part.
SKILLET: Preheat lightly oiled pan to MEDIUM-HIGH heat. Cook chicken for 35-50 minutes turning occasionally until internal temperature reaches 74°C in the thickest part.
All time remember the following:

The duration of heat treatment is depending on the size of whole chicken or their parts and the individual technical parameters of equipment.

Make a main focus on the temperature of the meat in the thickness to understand the end of cooking. The best practice to measure temperature during the cooking is doing it in the thickness. For whole chickens and their parts with bones it is better to measure temperature in the thickness part near the bone.