Chicken breast

Chicken breast with coleslaw

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

Greetings from a wet Canberra. If you’re not from Australia, you may have read or seen or heard in the news that the east of Australia is experiencing a second wave of heavy rain.

Looking at how much water there is, makes me wonder how much rain fell when God commanded Noah to build the ark. Fortunately, God promised Noah He wouldn’t do that again. Every time I see a rainbow, I remember God’s promise.

Chicken breast

Ingredients

  • Chicken breast
  • Aluminium foil
  • Baking paper
  • Eggs
  • Feta cheese
  • Parsley
  • Spring onions
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Cabbage
  • Carrot
  • Shallots
  • Wasabi mayonnaise
  • Sour cream
  • Lime juice
  • Sugar
Chicken breast and coleslaw

Instructions

  1. Lay your breast on a cutting board.
  2. Trim off any excess.
  3. Make a longitudinal incision from one pole to the other with a sharp knife.
  4. Gently open the pouch with the tip of the knife on either side of the vertical incision.
  5. Scrunch some aluminium foil and wrap it in some baking paper.
  6. Insert the rod of foil and paper into the pouch you’ve just fashioned.
  7. Turn the oven on to about 150 °C.
  8. Heat a frying pan.
  9. Add a small volume of vegetable oil.
  10. Cook the chicken breast and turn it every few minutes.
  11. The aim is to create and fill a vacuole after the pan-frying.
  12. When the meat fibres have been cooked and feel stiff, turn off the heat and remove the foil/paper filler.
  13. Add some crumbled feta cheese, sliced spring onion, chopped parsley, pepper, and egg white to a small bowl. Mix and spoon into the hole you’ve created in the breast.
  14. Place the frying pan and chicken into the oven and cook until the egg white has set.
  15. Remove the chicken from the oven.
  16. Place yolks on the set egg white.
  17. Place it back into the oven and cook until the yolks have cooked to your liking.
  18. Allow the chicken to rest a little.
  19. Plate up the chicken on a dinner plate along with the coleslaw.
  20. Thank the Lord for all things.
  21. Enjoy the meal.

Final thoughts

  • Have you ever done this with a chicken breast?
  • How was your week?
  • Is it wet where you are?
Chicken breast
Chicken breast and coleslaw
Chicken breast and coleslaw
Chicken breast and coleslaw

Breasts or thighs? What do you prefer?

Posted by Gary

Breasts or thighs? What do you prefer?
Breasts or thighs? What do you prefer?

Breasts or thighs? What do you prefer?

[maxbutton id=”12″ url=”#photos” ][maxbutton id=”11″ url=”#questions” ] [maxbutton id=”14″ ]

I’ve never been fond of breasts, I’ve always been keen on thighs. I find breasts dry and stringy, even when people tell me they have great breasts I’m usually disappointed. Thighs, however, rarely disappoint me. Thighs are succulent, juicy and moist without any of the dry stringiness of breasts.

I was recently challenged by my blogger friend, Mabel Kwong, to try to prepare breasts and make them as succulent, juicy and moist as thighs.

Well, until recently, I thought it would be impossible, but now that I am cooking sous vide, I may be able to find out if I can make breasts as well as thighs.

I mean I have my MEATER wireless meat thermometer, but in my mind, a meat thermometer is more for safety rather than texture and mouthfeel. I could poke my MEATER wireless meat thermometer into a breast and cook it precisely using the app until the internal temperature reaches the safe point for a breast. Such an approach wouldn’t necessarily guarantee a soft, tender, moist, and juicy breast.

The one disappointment though with this challenge is that I couldn’t find a breast with the bone in and skin on. I know I could have bought a whole bird and dissected out the breasts and thighs but I didn’t want to buy a whole bird. I wonder if dissecting out the breast can be called a mastectomy, I expect not. Dissecting out the maryland though, I reckon could be regarded as a hindquarter amputation.

So for this challenge, I used a breast sans skin and bone along with a thigh with bone in and skin on.

The cooking conditions I chose were 60 °C (140 °F) for three hours which should successfully pasteurise the flesh of harmful microorganisms.

The most common microorganisms of concern are Salmonella and Campylobacter. Both are pathogenic enteric bacteria which can cause not only diarrhoea but severe abdominal pain which presents as colic, along with fever and occasionally in severe infections, especially in immunocompromised persons, bacteræmia. Campylobacteriosis is also associated with arthritis and Guillain Barré Syndrome. Salmonellosis also has its share of nasty post-infectious problems too. It’s really important to ensure your meat is pasteurised and you handle your meat with tender loving care.

This advice goes for all forms of poultry.

If you read my recipe on sous vide kangaroo, you’ll also know there are concerns about parasites too.

I bought everything from Coles.

The zucchini noodles were prepared by Coles and in a microwave radiation-safe plastic bag.

I cooked sous vide with my Anova Culinary Precision Cooker.

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