Chicken thigh meal planning
Chicken thigh meal planning has been a thing for me for a while now. If you ever read my weekly diary blog over at My Thoughts and Stuff, you’ll know that since October 2017 I’ve been trying to lose some weight. I was doing okay but then I reached a plateau and I seem stuck at the moment. I’d like to get to 77 kilograms (170 pounds), but I’m currently hovering at around 82 kilograms (180 pounds).
Content warning
WARNING this post contains unrefined sarcasm and some ranting Continue at your own risk 😜 Navigate away now if you’re not interested in the Yummy Lummy brand of wit and criticism. If you do continue on despite this warning and your emotional well-being is hurt, please make your criticism constructive and entertaining 😂
This is a scheduled post
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Falling off the wagon
I think my weight plateau is because I’ve fallen off the coffee wagon and I’ve been enjoying a medium flat white every morning. Sometimes there are two of these a day. Every now and then, there may be three. It could also be because I’ve been poor with portion control and I’ve been spending some days day dreaming of cake 🍰 This week I succumbed to temptation and bought a slice of pecan pie. Oh my goodness it was good.
Meal plan blogging
At the beginning of 2018, I contemplated getting into blogging about meal planning, but when I looked at some blogs and some social media feeds I felt it was really over the top and it didn’t interest me at all. My social media feeds are not what I’d call well curated. My feeds are a random collection of the meals I remember to photograph and upload. Sure, I do make some effort with the evening meals I cook to get the lighting nice and I edit the images, but when you look at my feed, there’s nothing pretty about it.
In some ways, my social media is like my personal grooming. Clean, but not refined 😜
I find it remarkable that people who make money from social media are so into ‘beautiful’ meal planning photographs on their timelines. There seems to be so much effort to get all the food nice and neat and the containers all so aligned. I can’t be arsed.
I mean, I have great Tupperware® containers, but I’m not about to shoot a photograph of five neatly aligned small microwave radiation safe Tupperware® containers each holding a roasted chicken thigh and post that to Instagram. I mean, I just couldn’t be arsed to go to all that trouble.
Where’s the normal recipe post?
This weekend is a little hectic with invitations to go out for meals, including Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday lunch. I won’t be posting a usual recipe here today, rather, just revealing what I’ve been doing to maintain a protein focussed meal plan.
Coles sponsorship…Nope
I bought all the ingredients from Coles. No, Yummy Lummy is not sponsored by anyone.
Recipe
- Chicken thighs
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While you're out shopping for groceries, go to the meat section and look for chickens and chicken meat.
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Some places call chicken thighs, chicken cutlets. I don't know why. When I think of a cutlet I think of a lamb cutlet. Mmm... I always leave all the fat on so I can enjoy the full fatty flavour of perfectly cooked lamb on the bone. There's nothing like gnawing the last muscle fibres and tendon insertion points from the rib bones of a little lamb.
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Buy some chicken thighs. I bought 5 because that's how the chicken thighs were packaged.
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When you're ready to cook, turn on the TV and stream whatever you like to watch while mucking around in the kitchen. I've been getting into Babylon 5 lately, so that's what I had on TV. What do you like to watch on TV when you're cooking? Do you like watching science fiction?
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Turn the oven on and dial in 150 °C/300 °F. Life would be so much easier if readers in the USA, Burma and Liberia converted to the metric system of measurement.
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Remove the chicken thighs from the plastic packaging and under your breath curse the multinational companies which prioritise profit over jobs. I mean, the hard plastic containers create so much dead space. I rinse the plastic containers out and using kitchen shears cut them into strips to make more space in my kitchen rubbish bin. This is because I'm lazy, and in Winter, I don't like taking the rubbish out of my rented one bedroom flat downstairs in the cold to the rubbish bins. Mainly because I don't want my ugg boots being contaminated with possum faeces which covers the concrete of the under cover car park of the apartment building I dwell in. Oh, and there's the frigid cold of Canberra too. I hate the cold of Canberra. I love the people but I hate the weather. If you like good weather I recommend somewhere nice like any of the coastal towns in Queensland or somewhere like Darwin.
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Place the chicken thighs onto a baking tray. I like to use baking paper because it means less scrubbing afterwards, but if you're a scrubber, by all means delete the baking paper.
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Add some iodised salt, freshly cracked black pepper and anything else you like to the skin. If you want, you can rub on and massage in a little olive oil first. That will help anything else you add whether it be poppy seeds or sesame seeds to stick a little better to the skin. If you're not living the low carb life, you could sprinkle on some brown sugar or even pour some maple syrup on your chicken thighs. How about a little soy sauce mixed with some honey? I use iodised salt because I'm not a certain Australian celebrity chef who eschews conventional medicine and science for unconventional forms of thinking about safe nutrition. I believe in evidence-based health in Australia. I believe in real science and not confirmation biased trends. If you take just one thing from this blog post, it's use iodised salt. I don't want Australia to be known as the land of cretins. I'm sure you don't either. Apologies to those Australians suffering from cretinism because of a lack of iodine in their mother's diet and in the food they were fed when infants. If you're pregnant, speak with your doctor about iodine supplementation.
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Then insert a meat thermometer into the thickest muscle bundle. I use a MEATER® wireless meat thermometer which connects via Bluetooth to my tablet. I use the app on my tablet to guide my cooking.
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If you're using a 'dumb' or analog thermometer, aim to get the middle of the thickest muscle bundle to 74 °C/165 °F.
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Put the chicken into the oven and then cook until the middle of the thickest muscle bundle gets to 74 °C/165 °F.
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When the chicken has finished cooking, remove it from the oven and allow it to rest for about 5 minutes. The only downside of this method is the skin isn't very crispy, but I can assure you the flesh under the skin and especially near the bone is moist, juicy and tender.
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Remove the thermometer because you don't want to eat that. I wonder what would happen if I swallowed my MEATER® wireless meat thermometer? I could measure my core body temperature with the app. I'm not sure what would be worse though, swallowing the MEATER® wireless meat thermometer or having an old fashioned rectal thermometer shoved up my arse. What would you prefer?
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Place the chicken into airtight containers and refrigerate. I use Tupperware® containers because a friend at work is a Tupperware® consultant and I like helping her out.
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The chicken thighs can now be eaten for lunch at work or even breakfast when you're in a rush.
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Don't forget to shoot process photographs.
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Don't forget to edit the photographs. Given this is a pretty lame arse post, not much editing is necessary.
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Share this post when you don't have anything else to share because of a busy social schedule.
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Hope that regardless of the lame arseness of this post that readers might consider sharing it on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
Disclaimer
I have no culinary training nor qualifications.
This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner.
The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste.
I deliberately do not calculate energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.
Photographs
This is a gallery of photographs. Click on one thumbnail to open the gallery and then scroll through the photos.
Questions and answers
Do you do this every week?
Yes, most weeks I cook up some chicken thighs to eat during the week. I mean, red meat is too expensive these days and the dark meat of a chicken is fine as a protein load.
What happens if you don’t have a meat thermometer?
In my experience, if you set the temperature of the oven to 200 °C/400 °F and cook for 45 minutes, chicken thigh pieces will be safely cooked and remain reasonably tender. The benefit is the skin will be a little more crispy too. The downside is that after a few days in the refrigerator, chicken cooked this way seems to tighten up a bit and it is a little tougher and chewier. If you want a MEATER® wireless meat thermometer go to their website. Yummy Lummy is not sponsored by MEATER®.
What about cooking the chicken in the Tupperware® microwave radiation pressure cooker?
Well, yes, that would work, but boiled chicken under pressure really doesn’t have much taste and it’s a pretty crude way of cooking the delicate flesh. I’m effectively putting the chook into an autoclave. It would be safe but would it be tasty?
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Final thoughts
Do you plan your meals?
Do you carefully curate your social media feeds?
Does your personal grooming roughly match the appearance of your social media feeds?
Do you earn a living from social media? If you answer yes, please let me know in the comments below. I’ve never met a social media professional before.
Sponsorship
Yummy Lummy has no sponsors but maintaining a blog isn’t free. If anyone or any company would like to contribute please contact me.
Quick and easy one pot roast panko chicken thigh and vegetable rice
“I can’t be arsed.” This may be my favourite new zinger. I hope you don’t mind if I steal it. Hahaha
Haha, not at all. Be my guest.
Chicken thighs! Chicken skin! I sometimes plan my meals and cook in advance, but I do try to use whatever I have in the fridge and freezer and minimise waste. Sometimes I plan my social media posts, but not always and yes, their messiness matches my personal grooming! I’ve done social media management for small companies. It’s exhausting…
I’m happy to blog for fun and not for money. I don’t have the right personality to blog for money. It would drive me crazy trying to be on top of everything. I can only imagine how exhausting it must be to run social media for a company.
Amusing post Gary even though it’s about cooking chicken.
Thanks very much Sue
Looks nice and crispy, Gary. I love chicken thighs and I usually rub a ginger, garlic, lemongrass and chili paste on it lightly and that gives me that chilli kick I need. leftovers can be used for various other quick meals!
Thanks Rose, I reckon I’ll try your rub. It sounds delicious.
I don’t see why you couldn’t put up your tupperware. Some people I follow do it and it looks perfectly fine. Meal planning is different from aspirational recipes.
Hmmm… I’ll have a think about it 😃
I so need to try lamb sometime. You make it sound so good!
I read when I cook. OK, just when things are actually cooking. I have to pay attention to what I”m doing when I’m actually mixing things up. I can get so sidetracked!
Meat containers irritate me to bits. I get really ticked when I see people reuse them. I can’t do that…I am constantly thinking of germs. Even if they’ve been ‘scrubbed’.
I love anything that helps me not have so much to clean up after!!!!!! Take out is very nice.
Your thermometer is too spendy to lose. Don’t swallow it. Use the fancy pants forehead kind to take your temp.
Enjoyed this, but I always enjoy what you write. :o)
Thanks Kris, if I had a young child, I think these days I’d invest in one of those infrared sensor thermometers. They seem pretty good.
Thanks for your kind words Kris.
I hope the pain settles soon.
:o)
Blogging shouldn’t involve so much stress … I tell myself as I stress. 🙂
I try to remember that this all started as a glorified food diary on livejournal. (sigh) But then I go a little crazy and take 700 pics a month and delete 90-95% cause they’re crap. Good luck on past the block.
It’s a good thing that photographs these days are strings of 1s and 0s and deleting 90 per cent of them isn’t wasteful or environmentally damaging 😃
I remember taking my rolls of film to the photo shop and getting NO usable prints cause of various stupid things I did. My memories of New Orleans, Montreal, Quebec City, that work convention at the hiking camp on the outskirts of Denver CO.
There is a film revival, but I’d never go back, it’s digital forever for me.
I agree.
Since I’m usually cooking for myself, I use my toaster/convection oven to cook my chicken thighs (I prefer the dark meat – so duck means I’m in heaven!) After they appear to be done, I put the oven on broiler for a couple of minutes and viola, the skin is crisp.
Now – about that thermometer……….
Have a great day, Yummy (I’m still addicted to that ham hock/chicken congee too) 🙂
Likewise, if I’m cooking just one thigh, it’s the toaster oven too.
I need to make some congee soon given it’s winter here.
I enjoyed your post with its humorous delivery. Sometimes I get stuck with the Australian words like chook but I can usually figure it out from the context of the paragraph.
I’m used to the words oven, microwave or slow cooker. Then again perhaps Australians have cooking devices not available in America.
It’s summer here in the States and hotter than Hades but once I retire next month on August 16th I will relax on the beach and begin an exercise plan in September when the weather cools down. Not to lose weight because I need to gain weight but to stay fit and flexible.
As for Instagram my specialty is Street/Urban photography so my followers will see lots of street scenes and New York city events.
I wouldn’t define myself as an Instagram influencer. My goal on Instagram is to promote my Photography and artwork.
You have beautiful photography and art.
I hope the retirement transition goes well. I’ve got a few more years ahead of me.
I like that we all speak English but a little differently 😂
Lol! Thanks for the compliments. I’m looking forward to retirement. I will probably work part time since I’m not yet 62 but I’m able to carry the medical and dental benefits with me. I’ve also been saving money so I can rest before a few months before getting a part time job.
And yes the English language is beautiful in all its forms. 😀😁😃😄😉
This was quite the different food post. Portion control can make a big difference, and I feel more so than the treats we indulge every now and then. Sometimes you just can’t help it and want to eat and just enjoy. Sometimes portion control needs to happen over time.
You probably know this but I have two IGs – one private and personal where I don’t give an arse about how my photos look, though I do like to minimally experiment with photo editing there. The public one is a photography one but like you with weightloss, I’ve fallen off the bandwagon on that and haven’t posted in a few months.
I also never met an IG influencer. That said, some of my friends have called me a social media influencer because of my blog 😂
The odd thing is on my @garydlum IG account, I post sporadically now, but it’s a more popular account than the @yummylummyblog IG account which gets between one and three posts a day.
That is surprising, the personal account is more popular, and @yummylummyblog is food focused. I do like the bright coloured photos there a lot. Clean and sterile aren’t visually appealing to me.
It takes time to be an influencer…and a lot of liking other posts and leaving comments. $5000 per post is quite a lot. It seems like easy money if you have, not necessarily the reach, but follower numbers.
It must be an almost fulltime job. I can’t imagine making that much effort to get the following and maintaining the interest.
It might be. All that sitting around and prepping photos all day, maybe even going to events as well to sponsor a product.
I’ve read a few articles about IG boyfriends who shoot all the photos. I also read about one person who spent >$100,000 in an effort to become an influencer but she just couldn’t get the following and command the attention of sponsors.
Actually I also heard IG boyfriends who shoot their partern’s photos 😂 Also some accounts like to buy followers and likes for a period of time to gain attention…maybe it backfires sometimes.
I’ve read lots of blog posts about boosting posts on Facebook and Instagram. I just don’t see the point, even if I was making money from blogging, the return probably wouldn’t be worth it.
I think a good return from social media happens for a minority. Maybe you might make quite a bit from your book when it comes out 😀
haha, my book will go for free, it may be the future books that I can sell 😂
It does my head in knowing social media professionals can be paid >$5000 a post.