Month: October 2022

Home › Christmas Dinner › How to Thaw a TurkeyIf you’re planning a great turkey dinner, the first step is to know how to thaw your turkey. And when Christmas or Thanksgiving rolls around, odds are that turkey is on the menu!

There’s nothing tricky about thawing turkey. The only really important thing to remember is that it can take a pretty long time to thaw turkey. So the real key to knowing how to thaw a turkey is planning on having that time!

But what if you’re running low on time? Not to worry, there are different ways of thawing turkey, and some are quicker than others. So let’s find out how to thaw a turkey.

In this article, I’ll go over what happens when you thaw turkey — why all the fuss? Then, I’ll talk about the three different ways to thaw turkey: in the refrigerator, in cold water, or in the microwave.

Here we go!

 

What Happens When You Thaw Turkey?

It may seem like there’s a lot of fuss when it comes to learning how to thaw a turkey. But there’s a really good reason to follow one of the three methods in this article.

And what happens when you thaw turkey is that reason.

So here’s the story. There’s bacteria in turkey, like in any poultry. That’s perfectly normal, and nothing to worry about. When you cook your turkey,you kill all that bacteria — that’s why you need to heat the meat to just the right temperature.

When a turkey is frozen, so is the bacteria. That means it won’t grow at all. But when you thaw turkey, you’re giving that bacteria a chance to grow! And if it grows too much, even cooking it won’t kill enough bacteria to make the meat safe.

The good news? The bacteria will only really grow if the temperature gets above 40F (4C). So if you control the temperature just right, you can have a perfectly safe thawed turkey.

Special Tips

• Never thaw turkey at room temperature. The outside of the turkey will thaw before the inside, and it’ll get warmer than 40F, giving the bacteria an opportunity to grow. That could mean food poisoning!
• Never thaw a pre-stuffed turkey. The stuffing will be in contact with the raw turkey and get contaminated. But when you cook a turkey, the stuffing doesn’t get hot enough to kill the bacteria as efficiently.
• Thawing turkey can take a while. You can speed the whole process up a little bit by removing the giblet bag as soon as the turkey is thawed enough. Think of it as removing an ice pack from the inside of your turkey!
• To be safe, you should always carefully wash any surface that come into contact with raw turkey, and wash your hands thoroughly when you handle the turkey.
• What if you forgot to thaw your turkey and you just don’t have time? Don’t panic. You can actually cook the turkey while it’s still frozen. It just takes a little while longer.

How To Thaw A Turkey:
In The Refrigerator

The absolute best and safest way to thaw turkey is to thaw it in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, it’s the method that takes the longest time!

Here’s how you do it:

1. Keep the turkey in its original wrapping. Ideally, it’s perfectly sealed so that you won’t get any turkey drippings contaminating your fridge.
2. Place the turkey on a tray, so that if the packaging does leak, it stays in the tray.
3. Place the turkey on the lowest shelf in the fridge. This way, if an accident happens, it won’t contaminate all your shelves.
4. Thawing turkey in the fridge takes about 5 hours per pound. This adds up really quickly:

Turkey Weight	Thaw Time In Refrigerator
10 to 14 lbs	2 to 3 days
14 to 18 lbs	3 to 4 days
18 to 22 lbs	4 to 5 days
22 to 26 lbs	5 to 6 days

Thawing turkey in the fridge really does take a long time, and takes up quite a bit of room, too. So why is it the best method?

• As I mentioned, it’s the safest. The perfectly controlled environment means you’re not giving the bacteria a chance to grow.
• Once the turkey is in the fridge, you can forget about it. You don’t have to put in any more effort or time until it’s time to cook the turkey.
• Because it’s such a safe way to thaw the turkey, you can leave the turkey in the fridge for a day or two before cooking it once it’s fully defrosted. So you can even thaw the turkey a bit ahead of time, if it’ll ease your worries.

And that’s how to thaw a turkey in the refrigerator!

How To Thaw A Turkey:
In Cold Water

If you don’t have the time or the fridge space to thaw turkey in the refrigerator, don’t worry. We’re about to talk about how to thaw a turkey in cold water.

Thawing turkey in cold water is much, much faster than thawing it in the fridge, but it’s a lot more effort if you want to keep it safe.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Keep your turkey in its original wrapping, or in a leak-proof plastic bag.
   • It’s really important that there be no leaks, so that you avoid cross-contamination.
   • You also don’t want water to seep in to your turkey and make it watery.
2. Completely submerge the turkey in ice-cold water. The water should be as close as possible to 40F.
   • You can use the sink or a basin to thaw the turkey. A sink is handy because it makes changing the water a breeze.
   • A cooler is an even better choice. It’ll keep the water from warming up as fast, so that you don’t need to change it as often. And if you only have one sink, you probably don’t want a turkey taking it up for 10 hours!
3. Keep an eye on the water temperature. You can keep it cool with ice packs, but if the water gets to be about 50F or much warmer than your coldest tap water, you need to change it.
4. Thawing turkey in cold water takes about 30 to 45 minutes per pound.
   • Even if your water is at 40F, just like your fridge, water transfers heat much more easily than air. That’s why it’s so much faster.
   • On the same note, if your turkey packaging is very tight, it’ll take less time to defrost than a turkey in packaging with an insulating layer of air.

   Turkey Weight	Thaw Time In Cold Water
   10 to 14 lbs	5 to 10 hours
   14 to 18 lbs	7 to 14 hours
   18 to 22 lbs	9 to 17 hours
   22 to 26 lbs	11 to 20 hours

    

5. Once the turkey is thawed, you should cook it as soon as possible.
   • It’s not as controlled an environment as the refrigerator, so there may have been some bacteria growth.
   • Because of that, it’s not always safe to leave a turkey in the fridge after you’ve thawed it in cold water.

Thawing turkey in cold water is much, much faster than thawing it in the refrigerator, but there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

• It’s a lot more work than thawing it in the fridge, because you have to change the water.
• Larger birds take long enough to thaw that they’ll need to thaw overnight. And because you should cook the turkey soon after it’s thawed, you may even need to thaw smaller birds overnight.

How To Thaw A Turkey:
In The Microwave

The first thing I want to say is that thawing turkey in the microwave isn’t the best way to go. It’s okay if you’re stuck, but if you have time, avoid it!

• The microwave heats unevenly. It heats the meat differently depending on whether it’s touching the bone or not. That means that some parts of the turkey will actually start to cook before others are thawed. That can mean tougher meat.
• Depending on how big your microwave is, you might not be able to fit the turkey in there. It really only works for smaller birds, or turkey parts.

But, if you’re really in a jam and need to know how, here’s how to thaw a turkey in the microwave.

But, if you’re really in a jam and need to know how, here’s how to thaw a turkey in the microwave.

1. Remove all the packaging, wrappings, and anything that might not be microwave safe.
2. Place the turkey on a microwave safe tray or platter, to catch any drippings.
3. Unfortunately, since all microwaves are different, you’ll have to read your microwave’s manufacturer’s instructions to know how long to defrost the turkey.
   • Depending on how big it is, thawing a turkey in the microwave can take an hour or even two.
   • When you can, remove the giblet bag. It’s fine when it’s frozen, but some giblet bags aren’t microwave safe and need to be taken out as soon as possible.
4. Once the turkey is thawed, you have to cook it right away. Some parts of the turkey will have started to be warm and cook, and they’ll be at the perfect temperature for bacteria to grow. Cooking the turkey is the only way to stop them from growing too much.

And that’s how to thaw a turkey! It’s the first step towards a delicious turkey dinner.

Home › Cooking Vegetables › How to Steam Vegetables

Learning how to steam vegetables is a fantastic idea. Steaming is a great way to prepare vegetables. It’s especially healthy, because you don’t need any kind of fat to do it. And unlike other cooking methods, the gentle heat of steam helps vegetables keep more of their nutrients and flavor.

So what is steaming? It’s easy. When you boil water, it creates steam, which is really hot. And you can use that steam to cook the vegetables. It’s different from boiling – when you boil vegetables, the veggies are immersed in the water. But when you steam, they don’t touch the water at all. The steam does all the work!

It’s incredibly easy to do. And you don’t need a whole lot of specialty equipment to do it. If you have a pot and a colander or steaming basket, you can steam vegetables. In fact, you can even get away with just using a pot!

In this article, I’ll go over what you need to steam vegetables. And then I’ll go over how to do it.

What You’ll Need

There are a few different ways to steam vegetables. Which one you pick will depend on what kind of equipment you have available in your kitchen. They’re all pretty convenient though… and they all make for really easy cleanup! Here are four ways to help you learn how to steam vegetables, and what you need to do it.

Steaming Basket Method

My favorite way to steam vegetables is using a steaming basket. A steaming basket is basically just any heat-resistant container with holes on the bottom. It can hold the veggies, but the holes let the steam in to cook the vegetables.

So here’s how to steam vegetables with a steaming basket. It’s easy: you just fit the steaming basket over a pot with an inch or so of boiling water, and loosely cover it with a lid. It doesn’t need to fit perfectly – it should keep most of the steam in, but still let a bit escape.

What kind of containers can you use as a steaming basket?

• You can get an actual specialized steaming basket. They’re nice because they’re usually adjustable and can fit inside pretty much any size pot. They also have little feet that keep the basket raised out of the water – so that it’s the steam that cooks the vegetables, not the boiling water.



• If you don’t have a steaming basket, you can always use a colander or strainer. Just be sure that it’s heat-resistant.

• You should be able to put an inch or two of water at the bottom of the pot without it touching the steaming basket. Remember, you don’t want the vegetables immersed in the water – that’s boiling, not steaming.

  • If your steaming basket has feet to lift it off the bottom of the pot, that’s perfect. If not, you may be able to place it so that it rests on the sides of the pot.

• You should be able to place the lid on top of the pot. It’ll help keep the steam in so that it cooks the vegetables faster.

Steamer Method

Another way to steam vegetables is to use a steamer. It’s a special kitchen appliance specifically designed to steam food, and it makes learning how to steam vegetables a breeze. Generally, it consists of a few parts.

• A base, that you fill with water. The base has an element for heating the water quickly, so that it’ll boil and produce steam.
• Steaming baskets. They’ll fit over the base, and some models allow you to stack several baskets.
• Some steamers have extra accessories like a dish for steaming rice.

A steamer is nice because it takes care of everything for you. The water’s always at the right temperature, the vegetables are always above the water, and just enough steam escapes. A lot of steamers even have timers so that you once you start it, you don’t need to worry anymore.

But the best thing about a steamer is that the steaming baskets are usually really big. If you plan on steaming lots of vegetables, a steaming basket in a pot might be a little on the small side. And when you can stack baskets on top of each other, you have even more flexibility!

But a steamer works the exact same way as the pot and steaming basket – boiling water producing steam to cook vegetables. If you’re short on cupboard space and don’t want an extra appliance, you don’t really need a steamer to learn how to steam vegetables.

Pan Method

What if you really want to know how to steam vegetables, but you don’t have a steamer, or even anything that can serve as a steaming basket? Don’t worry. It’s possible to steam vegetables using only a pan or a pot of water.

Here’s how to steam vegetables in a pan.

1. First, pick a pot or pan that’s big enough to hold all your vegetables, preferably in a single layer.
2. Then you add just a bit of water at the bottom. You only need about half an inch.
3. Once the water is boiling, you’ll add the vegetables. Because there’s so little water, the steam will be doing the cooking. Just be sure to keep an eye on the water level – if it gets too low, you’ll need to add a bit more, so that you keep generating steam.

Like the other steaming methods, you want a lid to keep most of the steam in. But you do want a little steam to escape, especially if you’re steaming green vegetables. Letting the steam escape will help them keep their green color.

Notes

• Since the vegetables will be in the water a little, some of the nutrients and flavor will end up in that water. But since you’re using so little, and because it’ll boil down a bit, you’ll end up with a nice, concentrated vegetable broth that you can use for soups or sauces! You can save the water from steaming in the freezer, adding more until you have enough to use.

Microwave Method

The last way to steam vegetables is using the microwave. And like the other methods, it’s super easy. All you need is a microwave safe bowl, and some plastic wrap.

Here’s how to steam vegetables in the microwave:

1. Wash your vegetables, and then cut them up to the size you want to serve them.

2. Place the vegetables in the microwave-safe bowl, and add a bit of water to the bottom of the bowl.

   • Most vegetables don’t need much water at all. Just a thin layer will do.

   • Leafy vegetables like spinach don’t need any extra water other than what’s still on the leaves after washing them.

   • Denser vegetables like carrots will need a bit of extra water.

3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, but leave a little gap for the steam to escape.

4. To steam the vegetables, microwave them on high until they’re as cooked as you like them.

   • Most vegetables will take at least 5 minutes, but it really depends on how powerful your microwave is.

   • Try starting with five minutes, then adding a minute at a time.

5. When you remove the plastic wrap, be very careful. Steam is going to escape, and it’s hot!

Steaming vegetables in the microwave is really easy and convenient, but it’s also not quite steaming. Why? Because steaming means cooking vegetables only with steam. But the microwave doesn’t just heat the water – it also cooks the vegetables. So they’re partially cooked by steam, partially by the microwave.

What that means is entirely up to you. I’ve heard that vegetables cooked in the microwave are much less nutritious, and I’ve heard that they’re more nutritious. It’s not clear what the reality is at all! But if you’re concerned that microwaving food is bad for you, it’s not hard at all to use one of the other methods!

How To Steam Vegetables

In this section, I’ll go over how to steam vegetables using the steaming basket, steamer and pan methods. They’re basically all the same. For steaming vegetables in the microwave, you can find instructions in the microwave method section.

Here’s how to steam vegetables.

1. Bring the water to a boil.

2. Add the vegetables.

   • Either place the steaming basket over the boiling water, making sure that the vegetables aren’t immersed, or place the veggies in the thin layer of water for the pan method.

   • If you’re cooking several different kinds of vegetables, add the ones that’ll take longer to cook first. For example, carrots take longer to steam than aspargus.

3. Let the vegetables steam until they’re cooked. The time it’ll take depends on a few things.

   

   • Most vegetables take at least 3 to 5 minutes to be done.

   • Dense vegetables like carrots will take longer.

   • The bigger the vegetable chunks, the longer they’ll take to cook.

   • How long you cook them depends on your preference. If you like them a bit crisp, it won’t take as long. But if you prefer them soft, it’ll take a bit longer.

   • Bigger whole vegetables can take a lot longer. New potatoes can be steamed 15 minutes, and artichokes can take up to 45 minutes!

4. Be sure to check the water level. If it gets too low, add some more water, hot if possible so that you don’t cool down your water.

5. Once the vegetables are as cooked as you like them, you can serve them as is, or add a little seasoning.

   • A bit of butter or olive oil can add some flavor.

   • You can add a sauce, or citrus juices, or anything you think will give a nice flavor.

   • Herbs and spices can make a nice addition. A bit of salt or pepper goes a long way!

And that’s how to steam vegetables! It’s easy, and steamed vegetables are really yummy, especially with just a hint of butter and salt.

Enjoy!

Home › Making SoupLearning how to make soup – or just brushing up your soup-making skills – is a fantastic idea. Whether you’re looking for a light dish to start off your meal, or looking for a main course, cooking soup is a great choice… and you can’t get better than a delicious, homemade soup.

Soup for lunch, soup for dinner, or soup as a starter… it’s just so versatile!

But even better, soup is great for you. Any good soup starts with a stock. Whether you use a chicken, beef, or vegetable stock, it’s packed full of nutrients. And when you’re cooking soup, you don’t lose a thing – all the nutrients from your ingredients stay right in the pot.

But first, you need to know how to make soup! Well, cooking soup isn’t hard at all, but if you want great results, there are a few guidelines to follow.

I’ll do quick overview in this article, but you can browse deeper for more details about each step of the process. First, I’ll talk about one of the most important parts, and the base of any great soup: stock. Then I’ll go over the different types of soups. You’ll know how to make soup in no time!

 

A Great Soup Starts With Stock

First things first: what is stock? Well, it’s nothing complicated. It’s just the liquid you get when you simmer meat and bones (or vegetables for a vegetable stock) together with aromatic vegetables and seasonings.

Knowing how to make stock is one of the most important parts about knowing how to make soup.

Stock is the base of a soup. It’s the liquid part that you cook your meat and vegetables in. When you’re cooking soup, start with a great stock. It’ll add a lot of depth of flavor to your soup.

You can buy stock in cans or boxes in stores, but believe me, if you have the time at all, it’s worth making homemade stock. It takes a bit of time, but almost no effort, and you have full control over what ends up in your stock. You end up with less fat, less salt, and more flavor.

On top of it all, it’s a whole lot cheaper. Really, you can’t go wrong making your own stock!

If you’re not sure how to do it, check out our articles on making your own stock:

• Find out all about making chicken stock in this two-part article:
• If you’re making a beef-based soup, you need a beef stock… and homemade is always best. Check out our article on how to make beef stock for more information.

The Different Types of Soup

It might seem like there are too many kinds of soup to count, but actually you can fit almost any soup into one of these categories:

An important part about knowing how to make soup is knowing what type of soup you’re trying to make. Once you know that, there are usually just a few guidelines to follow. There’s a lot of room for you to improvise when you’re cooking soup!

Clear Soup

Meat And Vegetable Soups

Puréed Soups

A puréed soup is just what the name implies. You start with vegetable or meat stock, add some vegetables, and purée the whole thing.

Of course, there’s a bit more to making it than that… check out our article on making puréed soups for some tips and tricks to help you get awesome results every time.

Cream Soups

Fish Soups

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Well, that’s all about how to make soup. Now you’re ready to get started in the kitchen!

These articles should be enough for you to make soup or stock on your own, but if you’d rather start with a recipe, check out our homemade soup recipes.

Enjoy!

Home › Making Soup › Making Chicken Stock – Part IIGo To Making Chicken Stock – Part I: What Is Stock?

Let’s keep learning how to make chicken stock.

In Part I of this article, I went over a few details about what chicken stock is. I talked about the difference between chicken stock and chicken broth, and the difference between a brown stock and a white stock.

This part of the article is a bit more practical. I’ll go over how to make chicken stock. First, I’ll talk about the actual process of making chicken stock. Then I’ll go over how to clarify chicken stock once it’s made. Finally, I’ll talk about how to store it.

Here we go!

 

How To Make Chicken Stock

Making chicken stock is one of the easiest things to do in a kitchen. You just have to know what to do! In this section, I’ll show you how to make chicken stock.

Making chicken stock does take a long time, but you’re only actually working for about 15 minutes of that time.

For most of the time the stock is cooking, you can leave it to simmer and go do whatever else you feel like… while enjoying the fantastic smell of cooking stock.

Ingredients And Equipment

The first step of knowing how to make chicken stock is knowing the ingredients and equipment you need. In this section, I’ll go over everything you need to make chicken stock.

You might notice that I don’t really use any precise measurements here. That’s because they really don’t matter for making chicken stock! General guidelines are enough for you to know how to make chicken stock.

Here’s what you need:

• One pot, large enough to contain all your ingredients: water, bones, meat, vegetables and seasonings.
• Chicken bones. Anything goes here. If you roasted a chicken and have leftover bones, you can throw them in. Chicken backs, wings, necks, it’s all great. Just leave out the liver… it gives the stock a strange color.
  • If there’s some meat left on the bones, don’t worry about it. It’ll add flavor. The only important thing when making chicken stock is that bones be the main ingredient in your stock.
  • Making a big batch of stock takes just as much time as making a small one. If you want to make more at once, you can freeze chicken bones until you have as many as you want.
• You’ll need enough cold water to cover the bones in your stockpot.
  • When making chicken stock, the water really must be cold when you start, or the collagen won’t melt properly and you won’t get any gelatin in your stock.
  • The water level should be an inch or so above the level of the bones. That way, the bones are completely covered, but you don’t get a watered down stock.
• A few aromatic vegetables can add a lot more flavor and depth to your stock than just chicken bones alone. Carrots, celery, onions, leeks and garlic are all aromatic vegetables that tend to enhance your food’s natural flavors rather than adding their own flavor to it.
  
  • Try starting with one carrot, one celery stalk, one large onion and three cloves of garlic for every 2lbs of bones you use. Once you’re more comfortable making chicken stock, you can experiment with that ratio.
  • Making chicken stock is a great time to use the less attractive vegetables you have lying around in your fridge or pantry – they’ll get thrown out when the stock is done anyway.
  • Chop the veggies coarsely or not at all. They’ll be simmering long enough to get all the flavor and nutrients out, no matter how big the chunks are. There’s no need to even peel the onion, since you’ll be straining the stock. The peel will even give it a nice golden color! Just make sure it’s clean, and toss it in whole.
• You can also add seasonings to your stock, like salt, peppercorns, cloves, ginger, bay leaves… anything you like. But use these sparingly.
  • Add seasonings towards the end of the cooking time. The stock will reduce and become more concentrated, so the seasonings might end up overpowering the stock.
  • Sometimes, it’s best to just keep stock as neutral as possible. Some herbs and spices just don’t go well with certain foods. Knowing how to make chicken stock means knowing how to make something delicious, but fairly neutral.

Making Chicken Stock

Now that you have all your equipment and ingredients, it’s time to put it all together and learn how to make chicken stock.

1. Place the chicken bones and vegetables in the pot. Add cold water. The water should be about an inch or two higher than the level of the bones and veggies.
   • The bones need to be in there the whole time, but the veggies only need about 3 hours of cooking time, so you could always add them in later. Just do whatever is more convenient for you.
2. Bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat so that you obtain the barest simmer. You just want a few little bubbles trickling up to the surface.
   • A simmer is the best way to extract collagen from the chicken bones.
   • A slow simmer will help any particles to rise to the surface of the water so that you can skim them off, if you want. If you keep a rolling boil going, those particles will stay in the stock and make it cloudy.
3. Simmer uncovered for 4 to 6 hours. During the first hour or two, some scum might rise to the surface. You can skim it off if you want, but it’s not necessary. Add your seasonings during the last hour of cooking.
   • The scum is mostly coagulated albumen that’s released from the chicken meat and bones. It’s actually not at all bad for you, but it’ll make your stock a bit cloudy if you leave it in.
   • Make sure the water level is always above the bones and vegetables. If it gets too low, add more boiling water to your stock pot.
4. When the stock is done, remove it from the heat. Pour the stock into a large bowl through a colander or strainer lined with cheesecloth.
5. Cool the stock uncovered as quickly as possible, then cover and refrigerate.
   • A great way to cool down the stock is to place the bowl in a tub of ice-cold water. It’ll cool it down much faster than placing the bowl in a bed of ice. It’s important that the stock cools quickly to avoid bacteria growth.
   • Don’t cover the stock while it’s cooling! It could turn it sour.
   • Don’t put the stock in the fridge while it’s warm. That amount of heat can make the fridge work too hard and break.

And that’s how to make chicken stock!

Notes

• After a day or so in the fridge, all the fat in the stock will rise up to the surface and harden. When you’re ready to use the stock or freeze it, just skim off the fat.
• After being in the fridge, you might notice that the stock is a bit jelly-like. That’s a good thing, and means you did it right!

• What you’re seeing is all the gelatin you extracted from the bones. It’ll turn liquid again once you heat the stock, but with a much better texture than a plain old broth.

Well, that’s all! Now you know how to make chicken stock!

Clarifying The Chicken Stock

Alright, now you know how to make chicken stock. If you followed the steps in the section above, you have one delicious stock just waiting to be used in all sorts of recipes.

But even if you skimmed it while it was simmering, your stock might be a little bit cloudy.

Clarifying stock means removing all the particles clouding up your stock. You only really need to do this if you’re making something that calls for a crystal clear stock, like a consommé or an aspic.

Clarifying stock isn’t hard, but it’ll add an extra half hour or so of work to your stock making. Still, you need to know how to clarify to know how to make chicken stock for certain special dishes.

Here’s how you do it:

1. For each 1 to 2 quarts (1 to 2 liters) of stock, beat 1 egg white and 1 crumbled egg shell with 1 cup of cold stock in a bowl large enough to hold all your chicken stock.
2. Bring the rest of the stock just to a boil. Slowly pour the boiling stock into the egg white mixture, whisking constantly.
3. Pour the stock and egg white mixture back into the pot, and bring it to a simmer, whisking constantly.
   • It’s important to keep stirring until it starts to simmer. If you don’t, the egg white could fall to the bottom of the pot and burn, and ruin your stock.
   • Once the simmer starts, the upward motion of the bubbles will keep the egg whites from falling, so you can stop stirring.
   
4. Let the stock simmer for 15 minutes. Don’t let the stock boil. While the stock is simmering, a thick, white, foamy crust will form. This is just the egg white and shells attracting all the particles that were clouding up your stock. You shouldn’t skim it off, but you can gently push it to the side to check that your stock isn’t boiling.
   • The stock only needs to be hot enough for there to be upward motion in the pot, maybe a few tiny bubbles rising to the surface. This helps all the particles go up and get caught by the egg white crust.
   • If the stock gets too hot and boils, all the particles will go crashing back down to the bottom and the stock will stay cloudy.
5. Remove the stock from the heat and let it stand for 10 minutes.
6. Gently ladle the stock into a large bowl, through a strainer lined with paper towels or a damp kitchen towel. Let it drain completely without disturbing it.
7. Let the stock cool completely, uncovered, then cover and refrigerate.

And now you have a beautiful, crystal clear stock! Of course, you don’t really need to do this unless you specifically need clear stock for something.

Still, it’s a very cool process, and worth trying out at least once, just for fun. The stock ends up being so pretty, it’s like magic!

Making chicken stock isn’t hard, but it does take a long time. Once you know how to make chicken stock, you might prefer to make it in large batches and then store it. Here are a few ways to store chicken stock.

• Chicken stock will keep in the fridge for about 3 to 4 days. After that, you can boil it for about 15 minutes every 3 days to keep it bacteria free.
  • If you’re storing stock in the fridge, it’s best not to degrease it. The layer of fat will keep the bacteria out, and protect the stock from other flavors in the fridge.
• Once the stock is cold, you can freeze it and use it later. The best way to freeze stock is to split it up into smaller portions that you can use later in sauces or soups.

Well, that’s all you need to know about how to make chicken stock! Don’t be intimidated by how long it takes, or how long this page is! It’s not hard, and well worth the little bit of effort.

Enjoy!

Home › Making Soup › Beef StockSome things are just better homemade. And once you know how to make beef stock, you’ll wonder how you ever used the canned kind.

Learning how to make beef stock isn’t hard, and the results are so worth it. A homemade beef stock is a lot healthier than anything you can buy – because you make it yourself, you know that you’re not putting in chemicals, preservatives, or tons of sodium.

And that’s not all…. it’s just a whole lot cheaper! You can make an amazing beef stock by saving beef bones that you’d normally throw away, or by buying inexpensive bones.

In this article, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about how to make beef stock. Just read on, or click on one of the links below to jump directly to that section.

Here we go!

 

What Is Stock?

Beef stock may sound like something complicated that you can’t possibly make at home, but nothing could be further from the truth. It’s just become so convenient to pick up a can at the grocery store that a lot of us have forgotten what it really is.

Beef stock is just what you get when you simmer beef bones and meat in water for a very long time. Yup, that’s pretty much it. Of course, there are a few tricks to knowing how to make beef stock, but that’s essentially it.

A well-made stock is an awesomely flavorful liquid that you can use to make a lot of dishes better. But it also has a special texture.

When you simmer the beef bones, the collagen from the bones turns to gelatin and enters the stock. It’s what gives a stock its particular mouthfeel that makes it so great.

It’s also what makes a stock different from a broth. A broth is made up from meat, not bones, simmered in water – no bones means no gelatin. A broth just can’t get the same depth of flavor that a good stock has.

Why Make Beef Stock?

Alright, we know what beef stock is. But before learning how to make beef stock, let’s go over why you’d make it:

• The first thing that comes to mind as a use for beef stock is soups and stews. If you’re making any kind of beef based soup, using beef stock will really enhance the flavor.
• You can also use stock instead of water to cook rice or grains. It’s a whole lot more flavorful, and it adds a lot of nutrients too.
• If you’re boiling vegetables, you can boil them in beef stock instead of water. It’ll add some flavor to them, which might help some picky eaters eat their greens.
• A beef stock is the perfect base for delicious gravies and sauces, especially when combined with pan drippings.

Those are all good reasons to use beef stock. And the real reason to learn how to make beef stock rather than use canned is that in this case, homemade is better. Trust me. If you make it right, you’ll never want to go back.

And it’s so easy to make in large quantities to store for later, so it’s almost just as convenient!

So let’s learn how to make beef stock!

How To Make Beef Stock

Now that we’ve gone over what beef stock is, and why to make it, we can talk about how to make beef stock. First, I’ll go over what you’ll need to do it, and then I’ll talk about how to do it.

What You’ll Need

Before you start making beef stock, it’s a good idea to gather all your ingredients and equipment. Here’s what you’ll need:

• One baking sheet or roasting pan. It should be big enough to hold all your beef bones.
• One pot, big enough to hold all your ingredients: the bones, the vegetables, the water, and the seasonings.
• Most importantly, you’ll need beef bones.
  • You can use all kinds of bones – rib bones, marrow bones, soup bones, knuckles… pretty much anything goes. If you can, chop them up so they’re about 2 inch chunks.
  • The bones can definitely have meat on them… In fact, they should! It’ll add an extra meaty flavor to the stock. But the main ingredient should be bones. Try to have about 3/4 bones to 1/4 meat.
  • If you want, you can use a veal knuckle, too. It’ll add a lot of gelatin to the stock, giving you a stock with a lot more body.
  • You can use leftover roasted bones, too. If you do, you can skip the part where you roast the bones in the instructions below.
  • If you have leftover bones, you can freeze them, and keep adding to them until you have enough bones to make a big batch of stock.
• You’ll also need some cold water. You’ll need enough to cover all your bones and vegetables.
• You can also use a bit of vinegar. If you use about a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar per quart (or liter) of water, it’ll help extract all sorts of good nutrients like calcium from the bones, so you end up with a more nutritious stock.
• Aromatic vegetables are an important ingredient in any stock. Onions, celery and carrots are the ingredients to add to enhance flavors. You can also add a bit of garlic.
  • You can use one onion, one large carrot, one celery stalk, and a few cloves of garlic for every 2-3 pounds of bones you use. There’s no right amount though. Just try different things to see what you prefer.
  • You can chop the vegetables really coarsely. They’ll be simmering long enough to leech just about everything out of them no matter how big your pieces are. Just cut them so they fit easily in your pot.
• Finally, you can add seasonings to a beef stock.
  • Salt, pepper, thyme, parsley, bay leaves, and lots of other herbs make a really nice addition to any beef stock.
  • Be sure to season sparingly. The stock will reduce as it simmers, which will intensify the flavors.
  • If you’re worried about overpowering the stock, add your seasonings during the last hour or two of cooking. It’ll give you a bit more control.

And that’s what you need! The next step is to put it all together and learn how to make beef stock.

How To Make Beef Stock

Alright, now that we have all the ingredients and equipment we need, let’s learn how to make beef stock.

1. Preheat your oven to 375F.
2. Arrange the beef bones on your baking sheet, and bake in the preheated oven for about an hour, until they’re nicely browned.
   • It’s not necessary, but you can brush the bones with a bit of oil to prevent them from sticking.
   • You don’t have to roast the bones before making your stock. It does tend to give the stock a meatier, richer flavor though, which is a good quality in a beef stock. It’s definitely worth it.
   • The bones should never char, or they’ll make the stock bitter. If they start to burn, reduce the heat. They should brown, not burn.
3. Meanwhile, clean and coarsely chop your carrots, onions and celery and place them in the stock pot.
4. When the bones are browned, place them in the stock pot.
   • If your roasting dish can go on the stove, you can deglaze it with a bit of water or wine and scrape up all the brown bits, and toss the mixture in the stock pot.
   • If not, you can just try scraping off what’s left in the pan. Those brown bits, the fond, are nice and flavorful. Just be sure not to damage your pan!
5. Cover everything with cold water, and add the vinegar.
6. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, then simmer for about 8 hours. Skim the scum that forms on the surface every so often.
   • Yes, it really does need to simmer 8 hours, to extract as much as possible from the bones. Trust me, it’s well worth it. The taste will be outstanding. And you don’t have to stand there watching it the whole time!
   • The stock should barely be simmering. The surface should be still, but you should still see some tiny bubbles rising from the bottom. That’s the best way to extract gelatin from the bones.
7. Strain the stock.
   • You can strain it through a colander first to remove the bigger chunks of vegetables and bones.
   • If you like, you can also strain it through a strainer lined with cheesecloth to get a clearer stock.
8. Let the stock cool down to room temperature, then store it in the fridge.

And now you know how to make beef stock. It takes a long time, but not a lot of effort. And it’s very easy, and so worth it.

Notes

• If you included some marrow bones in your beef bone mix, try to find the marrow and eat it – it might be floating, or it might still be in the bone. I’m not a big marrow fan myself, but a lot of people swear it’s the best part of making beef stock! Just spread it on a bit of bread or crackers and enjoy.
• You can throw out pretty much everything you strain out of the stock. It’s cooked long enough that almost all its nutritional value has been leeched out. Everything that was good is in the stock!
• While the stock is cooling, all the fat will rise to the surface. Once it’s had time to cool down in the fridge, the fat will solidify, making it very easy to skim off to get an awesome, delicious, low fat beef stock.
• If you like, you can reduce the stock again after straining it. Just bring it to a boil, then simmer it until it’s reduced by half. This is called a demi-glace, and it’s essentially a super concentrated beef stock. You can use it for a super burst of flavor, or dilute it with water later to turn it back into a stock.
• If you’ve done everything right, the stock will be very gelatinous once it’s had a chance to cool down in the fridge. Don’t worry. That’s what makes it great! And it’ll liquefy again as soon as it’s heated.

All About Storing Beef Stock

Now that you know how to make beef stock, it’s time to store it. There are two ways to store beef stock: in the refrigerator, or in the freezer.

Storing In The Fridge

Storing In The Freezer

Home › Cooking Beef › How To Make A Hamburger

Summer is the time to learn how to make a hamburger at home. Sure, hamburgers are great all year round, but for me, there’s just something about cooking hamburgers on the grill and eating them outdoors. It’s just linked to summer in a mysterious but delicious way.

Now, hamburgers have kind of gotten a bad reputation as being pretty unhealthy fast food, and in a lot of cases that’s not too far from the truth.

But if you know how to make a hamburger, you can actually even make something that’s not too bad for you.

And it’s not hard. Hamburgers are super easy to make. I often end up cooking hamburgers when I looked in the fridge and realized I should have gone grocery shopping 3 days ago, and only had 30 minutes until dinner.

But even though it’s not hard, there are still a few tricks you need to know if you want to know how to make a hamburger that’s just right for you.

This article will go over everything you need to know about cooking hamburgers: what meat to choose, how to make a patty, how to cook the hamburger, and what to serve the hamburger with.

Here we go!

Selecting your Hamburger Meat

The first thing to know about how to make a hamburger is what meat to pick. Of course you’ll be picking some kind of ground meat, but there are a lot of choices out there… lean, regular, beef, turkey, bison. You can make burgers with any of them.

Here are a few tips when picking meat for hamburgers:

• Traditionally, hamburgers are made with ground beef, and generally that’s what people expect of a burger. But you can also use other ground meats, like ground pork, bison, turkey, lamb, or even little bits of sausage, and you can even mix different meats together.

• Fat. Fat, sadly, can be pretty delicious. The most flavorful and juiciest burgers are usually made with ground chuck, 80% lean, 20% fat.

  • If you prefer a burger with a pure beefy taste, with no spices or anything, you’ll get much better results with an 80% lean beef.

  • If you like to spice up your burger though, you can go for leaner cuts. I’ll show you how to make a hamburger that’s lean, but juicy and flavorful.

  • The same applies to other meats. The leaner the meat, the more flavoring you might need to add, unless the meat already has a very strong flavor of its own.

• The texture of the burger is affected by how coarsely the meat is ground up.

How to Make a Hamburger Patty

Now we have our meat selected. The next step in learning how to make a hamburger is forming the patties. In this section, I’ll talk about seasoning first, and then I’ll go over how to shape the hamburger patties.

Seasoning the Hamburger Patties

• Finely chopped or grated vegetables. I like to put onion and garlic in my burgers, but you can put anything. Mushrooms, scallions, hot peppers, zucchini, celery. It just needs to be very very finely chopped or grated. If the pieces are too big, the meat won’t hold together well and you’ll have trouble shaping the hamburger patties.

• There are lots of spices that go great in burgers. Onion salt, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, basil, mint… there are too many possibilities to name. Just experiment and find out how to make a hamburger that’s right for you.

  • Try a little bit in your burger, see if you like it. You can also use prepared spice blends like Montreal Steak Spice, or even dried onion soup mix.

• There’s also a number of liquids you can add to burgers. These’ll add moisture to the hamburger patties, which will make the burger juicier, especially if you chose a lean meat. Try Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, mustard, Tabasco sauce, tomato juice, bacon fat, wine, vinegar, beef stock, olive oil or barbecue sauce.

• Breadcrumbs aren’t exactly a seasoning, but sometimes the ground meat might be too wet to stick together properly. Defrosting meat can do that. Breadcrumbs can remove some of that moisture.

  • Adding breadcrumbs comes at a cost – flavor. If you can avoid it, do, but it’s better to have burger that holds together.

Notes

• When you mix your seasonings into the meat, it’s important to remember that the more you handle the meat, and the more you squish it around, the more dense your burger will be. You might also squeeze out some of the juices and end up with a drier burger.

  • If you want to know how to make a hamburger that’s less dense, here’s what you do: handle the meat as little as possible. Mix in the ingredients with a spoon or a spatula, and avoiding smooshing the meat too much.

• Getting the meat mixture just right can be a bit tricky. If it’s either too dry or too wet, it won’t really hold together when you’re ready to form the hamburger patties.

  • If the mixture looks too dry, try adding some moisture, either by adding liquid or some shredded vegetables, or even an egg.

  • If the mixture is too dry, add breadcrumbs until you can form a hamburger patty that sticks together.

  • Sometimes, if the meat is too wet, you can leave it covered in the refrigerator for a few hours, and it’ll get a bit drier.

Shaping the Hamburger Patties

The next step in this guide on how to make a hamburger is how to shape the hamburger patties. First, I’ll go over a few general guidelines.

• When ground meat cooks, it gets smaller. The more fat in the meat, the smaller it gets. Be sure to make your hamburger patty wider than the bun.

  • 80% lean ground meat can reduce by as much as 25%.

  • Lean meat doesn’t reduce all that much, so the hamburger patty doesn’t need to be much wider that the bun.

• Try to get your hamburger patty as flat as possible. It doesn’t necessarily have to be super thin, but it should be uniformely flat.

• When hamburgers cook, the middle tends to round up. This makes it a pain when you’re putting the burger together – all your toppings will slip off. Here’s how to make a hamburger flat:

  • Keep the patty as flat as you can.

  • Don’t make the burger too thick compared to its width. A very wide burger for a big bun can be up to an inch thick. A smaller patty meant for a small bun should be closer to 1/2 an inch.

  • After you shape your hamburger patty, make an indentation in its center. Using your fingers or a spoon, press a 1 or 2 inch circle about 1/4 of an inch deep into the meat. This’ll help it not round up as you cook it. Start cooking it indentation side up!

Now, for the actual shaping of the hamburger patties! Here’s how you do it.

1. Split the meat into as many even portions as you want burgers. Usually this means about a quarter pound per burger, but that’ll vary depending on the size of your bun.
2. Take a portion of ground meat and form it into a ball the size of a tennis ball. Place the ball on a flat surface.
3. Press down on the ball to flatten it. If the edges crack, you can cup your hands around the patty to press them back together, and then flatten again. Repeat until the burger is wide enough for your bun.
4. Make sure the hamburger patty is evenly flat! Press in a little indentation in the center of the burger, as described above.
5. Keep doing this until you run out of meat! And that’s how you make a hamburger patty.

Tips

• Instead of pressing down the burgers by hand alone, you can use either a hamburger press or even just a lid from a jar.

  • Just pick a lid that’s the same size you want your hamburger patties. Line it with plastic wrap, and gently press the meat into it. The lid will take care of cracking edges as you press it in, and you’ll have perfectly uniform burgers.

• Remember, the more you handle the meat, the denser and less juicy your burger will be. So don’t squish it!

• Wondering how to make a hamburger patty ahead of time? Well, hamburger patties will keep in the fridge for a few hours, or in the freezer for weeks.

  • To keep them in the fridge, you can keep the hamburger patties separated by wax paper.

  • Patties stored in the freezer should be very well wrapped.

• If you’re worried that your burgers aren’t firm enough and might break up when you cook them, try putting them in the fridge for 10 to 30 minutes. It’ll help them stay firm on the grill.

Cooking the Hamburgers

By now, we already know a lot about how to make a hamburger. But the most important part is coming up – cooking the hamburger.

There are a few ways to cook hamburgers. Depending on the weather, whether or not you have a grill, and even just your personal preference, you may need different cooking methods.

But there are a few things that you need to know no matter how you plan to cook your hamburgers. In this section, we’ll talk about these important facts, and then we’ll go over how to cook a hamburger on the grill, in the oven, and on the stove.

Thing To Know About Cooking Hamburgers

There are a few important things to take into consideration before you start cooking your hamburgers.

• Ground meat is just that – meat that’s been ground up. That means that any bacteria that was on the surface of the chunk of meat ends up mixed in all throughout the meat.
  

  • The longer you leave ground meat without cooking it, the more chance that bacteria has to multiply inside the meat. That means if you want to kill all the bacteria that can make you sick, ground meat needs to be cooked until it’s well done (165F).

  • If you had a fresh chunk of meat that you just ground yourself, then it’s not as dangerous. The bacteria that was on the surface will still be in the meat though – it just won’t have had a chance to multiply.

  • Ground meat isn’t like a steak. Cooking hamburgers to well-done won’t ruin them. Instead of being a naturally tender cut of meat, it’s been mechanically tenderized by grinding it, breaking up the elastin. The small bits of meat that are left don’t bunch up as much as the fibers in a big piece of meat, so it stays tender.

• The best way to tell if your burger is done is by using a meat thermometer. Ground beef is cooked when it reaches 165F.

  • Stick the thermometer in the thickest part of the hamburger patty to see if it’s hot enough.

  • Cutting the burger isn’t a good idea to see if it’s done. Some leaner meats will stay pink even though they’re hot enough, and fattier meats will brown before they’re cooked. You could end up overcooking your burger or undercooking it.

• No matter which cooking method you pick, here are some tips to follow, whether you’re a pro or you’re just learning how to make a hamburger:

  • Don’t press down on the hamburger while it’s cooking. It really doesn’t help the burger cook or anything, and it presses out the juices, leaving you with a drier burger. If you’re just trying to keep it flat, make an indentation in the patty before you cook it.

  • Only flip the hamburger once. Cook it half way, flip, then cook the rest of the way. This’ll help it keep its juices and reduces the risk of it breaking up if you had a bit of a loose burger.

  • Once the hamburger is on the grill, don’t move it until it naturally releases. The outside will get firm and crispy on its own, and it’ll unstick from the pan or grill. Then you can move it without tearing the burger.

Cooking Hamburgers on the Grill

1. Preheat your grill to high heat.

2. Place the hamburger patties on the grill, indentation side up.

3. Cook the hamburgers for about 5 minutes. They should lift off the grill easily after this time. Flip the burgers over and cook for another 5 minutes.

   • Some grills have areas that are hotter than others. If you’re cooking multiple burgers, be sure to watch the ones on the hotter area – they may need to flip earlier.

   • The meat will brown as it cooks, starting from the bottom and moving up. You should flip the burger when it has browned about one third of the way up.

4. If you want to make a cheeseburger, add a slice of cheese during the last minute or two of cooking.

Broiling Hamburgers

1. Preheat your oven to the broil setting.

2. Place your hamburger patties on a lightly greased baking sheet.

3. Place the baking sheet in the over so that the burgers are 3-5 inches away from the heat source.

   • The closer the meat is to the heat, the less time it will take to cook. Too close, though, and your hamburgers will burn.

4. Cook the hamburgers for about 5 minutes, flip, then cook another 5 minutes.

   • Like when you grill, the meat will brown as it cooks, but from the top down. It’s time to flip the burger when its browned about one third of the way down.

5. If you want to make a cheeseburger, it’s best to add the cheese after you’re done cooking the hamburgers. It’ll have more trouble melting, but you lose a lot of heat opening the oven so it’s best to avoid it.

Pan-frying Hamburgers

1. Heat a bit of oil in a pan over medium high heat.

2. Place the hamburger patties in the pan, indentation side up. Be sure not to crowd the burgers or they won’t cook properly.

3. Cook the hamburgers for about 5 minutes. They should lift off the pan easily. Flip them over and cook them for another 5 minutes.

   • Just like grilling, the meat browns as it cooks, from the bottom up. It’s time to flip the burger when it’s brown about one third of the way up.

4. If you’re making cheeseburgers, add a slice of cheese on top of the patty during the last minute or two of cooking.

Alright, we’re almost done learning how to make a hamburger. The last part I’ll go over is how to serve the hamburger.

• One of the most important parts of the burger aside from the patty is the bun. It can be toasted or not, depending on how you like it.

  • If you have a bit of a flimsy bun, very very fluffy bread, it may be best to toast it or the grease and condiments will make it way too soggy.

  • Don’t be afraid to try different types of buns, like a flat bread or a French roll.

• The next step is condiments. There are so many choices. Add ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, relish, salsa, guacamole, baconnaise, chutney, chili, steak sauce, barbecue sauce, anything…



• Finally, the toppings. Again, there’s an almost infinite number of choices. Just look at the menu in a restaurant you like for some inspiration. But here are a few ideas: bacon, sliced tomato, sliced pickles, fried mushrooms, fried onion, grilled onion slices, grilled pineapple rings, grilled vegetables like eggplant or zucchini, avocado slices, hot peppers… again, anything you like.

  • Don’t be afraid to get creative. If you don’t like something, you can always pick off the topping and never do it again! You have to try different things to find out how to make a hamburger that’s perfect for you.

• A quick note about cheese. Sometimes, a slice of American cheese is all I want on a burger. But it can also be nice to dress it up a bit. Try all kinds of cheeses: provolone, Swiss, mozzarella, Monterrey jack, Gruyere, brie, Camembert, goat cheese, feta, Roquefort… any cheese you like could potentially make an awesome burger.

And then… just put all your toppings on the burger, and you’ve got a delicious meal waiting.

And that is how to make a hamburger… enjoy! 

Home › Cooking Chicken › How To Fry Chicken (Part I)

Go To How To Fry Chicken – Part II: Deep and Southern Fried Chicken

Whether you’re making dinner or planning a picnic, fried chicken is a delicious idea.

It’s crispy, it’s juicy, it’s yummy, and it goes great with all sorts of tasty sides – mashed potatoes, biscuits, corn on the cob, potato salad, and so many more.

There’s actually quite a bit to know about frying chicken. It’s not too hard once you learn how to fry chicken, but there are a lot of different ways to do it, and quite a few little tricks to learn to be able to make the perfect fried chicken for you. 

In this two-part article, I’ll show you how to fry chicken. In Part I, we’ll talk about the preparation steps – what parts of the chicken to use, brining, and breading. In Part II, we’ll talk about how to cook fried chicken, and how to make an awesome gravy to go with it.

Selecting the Chicken

The first thing to learn about how to fry chicken is knowing how to pick the chicken. There are a couple of things you can do.

• Pick a whole chicken. You can get a 3 or 4 pound fryer or roaster, and that’ll be just about the right size for frying. This is a great option if your family likes all the parts of a chicken! If you do pick a whole chicken, here are a few things to consider.

  • You’ll have to cut up the chicken yourself. Split it into 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 backs, and 2 breasts. If the chicken is really big, the breast can be split into 4 pieces.

  • You’ll have to be pretty careful when you fry the chicken, because white meat cooks quite a bit faster.

  • If you get 2 chickens, you can fry a batch of white meat and a batch of dark meat. It’s easier, and you’ll have plenty of leftovers (or not, if you’re serving a crowd!)

  • If no one wants the backs or wings, you can save them to make an awesome stock instead of frying them.



• Buy pre-cut parts. You can also buy, say, a package of drumsticks and fry those up. There are advantages and disadvantages, of course.

  • If everyone in your family likes the same part of the chicken, you can avoid waste this way.

  • When frying chicken, all the pieces should be about the same size. If they’re from the same size chicken, you’re fine, but if you buy a package of parts, that’s not necessarily the case. Just be careful when you pick them! They should look like they came from a 3-4 lb chicken.

  • Generally, a whole chicken is more fresh than a package of drumsticks or breasts, because you cut it up yourself.

Whether you decide to cut up a whole chicken yourself, or buy parts, I’d recommend you get something with skin on. It provides a base for the breading, and makes the chicken crispier.

It’s true that it’s not as healthy, but we’re talking about frying chicken. It’s not that great for you to start with. So if you’re going to splurge, do it right! 

Brining the Chicken

Alright, now for the next step: brining. Brining chicken means soaking it in a solution of salty water for a few hours. It’s a completely optional step, especially if you’re short on time, but if you want to learn how to fry chicken and get exceptional results, brining is a good trick to know.

• Brining makes the chicken taste better. The salt in the water seeps into the chicken and enhances its flavor.
• Brining also makes the chicken even juicier and prevents it from drying out when you cook it.
• If you add some ice to the brine, it’ll also help keep the chicken’s skin taut and that’ll make the chicken even crispier!

If you’re interested in brining, it’s very easy to do. It takes about 3 minutes to set up, and about an hour of wait time. You can learn all about it in our article on brining chicken.

I’d recommend brining if you have the time. Personally, I find it makes a huge difference when you’re frying chicken, and it’s really worth a try!

Breading the Chicken

One of the most important steps of learning how to fry chicken is learning how to bread the chicken. If you have no idea how to bread chicken, the best thing to do is to have a look at our two part chicken breading article. It’ll give you all the basics.

That article will actually tell you almost everything you need to know about breading chicken. But since we’re learning how to fry chicken, I want to emphasize a few points.

• Generally, if you’re frying chicken, you should use a flour breading. You can use any method: 1, 1-2, or 1-2-3, but the last coat should be flour. Breadcrumbs and those sorts of breading tend to burn too fast in oil, and are better suited to oven-fried chicken.
• Flour doesn’t usually make as thick a coating. If you like thick breading, you can repeat the dipping step and coat it twice.
• If you’re going to deep-fry rather than pan-fry, you can make a batter to coat the chicken. Instead of soaking and then dredging, you can slowly add flour to the liquid… just add enough so that the liquid is thick enough to coat the chicken and stick to it.
• The most popular liquids for frying chicken seem to be buttermilk and an egg wash, but really, you can use anything you like. Just try different things and see what you like best!
• You can add a bit of baking powder to your flour coating to make it crispier and puffier. About 1 tsp of baking powder per half cup of flour can make a real difference.
• You can also replace some of the flour with cornstarch to make a crispier chicken. You can replace any amount you like, but using about 1 part cornstarch to 3 parts flour is a good start.

And… that’s it for Part I! Preparing chicken for frying really isn’t hard… but it can be a bit time consuming, especially if you decide to marinate it.

Now it’s time for Part II of How To Fry Chicken: Deep Fried and Southern Fried Chicken.

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Enjoy How To Cook collects personally identifiable information from the visitors to our website only on a voluntary basis. Personal information collected on a voluntary basis may include name, postal address, email address, company name and telephone number.

This information is collected if you request information from us, participate in a contest or sweepstakes, and sign up to join our email list or request some other service or information from us. The information collected is internally reviewed, used to improve the content of our website, notify our visitors of updates, and respond to visitor inquiries.

Once information is reviewed, it is discarded or stored in our files. If we make material changes in the collection of personally identifiable information we will inform you by placing a notice on our site. Personal information received from any visitor will be used only for internal purposes and will not be sold or provided to third parties.

Use Of Cookies And Web Beacons

We may use cookies to help you personalize your online experience. Cookies are identifiers that are transferred to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser to enable our systems to recognize your browser. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize the site’s pages, or register with any of our site’s services, a cookie enables Enjoy How To Cook to recall your specific information on subsequent visits.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying your Web browser; however, if you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the site.

A web beacon is a transparent image file used to monitor your journey around a single website or collection of sites. They are also referred to as web bugs and are commonly used by sites that hire third-party services to monitor traffic. They may be used in association with cookies to understand how visitors interact with the pages and content on the pages of a web site.

We may serve third-party advertisements that use cookies and web beacons in the course of ads being served on our web site to ascertain how many times you’ve seen an advertisement. No personally identifiable information you give us is provided to them for cookie or web beacon use, so they cannot personally identify you with that information on our web site.

Some third-party advertisements may be provided by Google, which uses cookies to serve ads on this site. Google uses the DART cookie, which enables it to serve ads to our users based on their visits to this site and other sites on the Web. You may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.

Browsers can be set to accept or reject cookies or notify you when a cookie is being sent. Privacy software can be used to override web beacons. Taking either of these actions shouldn’t cause a problem with our site, should you so choose.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act

This website is directed to adults; it is not directed to children under the age of 13. We operate our site in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, and will not knowingly collect or use personal information from anyone under 13 years of age.

Non-Personal Information

In some cases, we may collect information about you that is not personally identifiable. We use this information, which does not identify individual users, to analyze trends, to administer the site, to track users’ movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. The information collected is used solely for internal review and not shared with other organizations for commercial purposes.

Release Of Information

If Enjoy How To Cook is sold, the information we have obtained from you through your voluntary participation in our site may transfer to the new owner as a part of the sale in order that the service being provided to you may continue. In that event, you will receive notice through our website of that change in control and practices, and we will make reasonable efforts to ensure that the purchaser honors any opt-out requests you might make of us.

How You Can Correct Or Remove Information

We provide this privacy policy as a statement to you of our commitment to protect your personal information. If you have submitted personal information through our website and would like that information deleted from our records or would like to update or correct that information, please click on this link and/or use our Contact Us page.

Updates And Effective Date

Enjoy How To Cook reserves the right to make changes in this policy. If there is a material change in our privacy practices, we will indicate on our site that our privacy practices have changed and provide a link to the new privacy policy. We encourage you to periodically review this policy so that you will know what information we collect and how we use it.

Agreeing To Terms

If you do not agree to Enjoy How To Cook Privacy Policy as posted here on this website, please do not use this site or any services offered by this site.

Your use of this site indicates acceptance of this privacy policy.