Everything you need to know about chicken: Tips, recipes and more

1. Chickens (and ostriches) are the closest living relatives of the Tyrannosaurus rex.

2. Chickens were first domesticated in southern China about 8,000 years ago. They were initially bred for cockfighting, not for food.

3. Archaeologists believe chickens were introduced to the New World by Polynesians who arrived on the westerns shores of South America 100 years before Columbus’ arrival.

4. With a population of more than 25 billion, chickens outnumber any other species of bird on Earth.

5. Chickens can run up to 9 miles an hour.

6. The largest chicken on record is Big Boy, owned by Sue and Don Ritter of Sugarloaf, Pennsylvania. A cross between Plymouth Rock and Cornish chickens, Big Boy’s official weight was 24.18, recorded in 2012 in nearby Quakertown.

7. The fear of chickens is called alektorophobia.

8. A 1961 ordinance passed in Gainesville, Georgia, as a publicity stunt to promote Gainesville as the Poultry Capital of the World, made it illegal to eat fried chicken with anything but your fingers.

9. The average American eats 92 pounds of chicken a year.

10. The United States has more than 3,200 restaurants dedicated primarily to chicken wings.

Spatchcocking: Another term for butterflying. To spatchcock a chicken, remove its backbone by cutting along either side of it through the rib cage, then laying the whole bird flat. The flattened bird can be roasted at 450 degrees or grilled. Two advantages to spatchcocking: A whole chicken will cook in about 30 minutes. The method exposes all of the chicken’s skin to the hot air in the oven, resulting in a larger quantity of crispy bits.

Beer-can chicken: A fun and surprisingly effective method for grill-roasting a chicken: Insert a half-full can of beer into the cavity of the chicken and place it on a hot grill, balanced on the can and the two drumsticks. It isn’t the beer in the can that is keeping the chicken juicy. Rather, it is the vertical roasting that allows the dark meat to heat faster than the breast, ensuring that the legs and thighs can cook fully before the breast meat dries out. Vertical roasting also allows for efficient rendering of the fat under the skin, resulting in a nicely browned and crisp exterior. And the skin all over the bird crisps up.

Chicken in a pot: This classic French technique calls for browning a whole chicken in a Dutch oven on top of the stove, adding some vegetables, then covering it and cooking it in the oven until done. Chicken cooked this way is exceptionally moist and tender. The skin, however, won’t win any awards for crispiness.

Sauteed boneless, skinless chicken breasts can be dressed up with an infinite variety of quick pan sauces. First, master the technique: Pound the chicken breasts to an even thickness. For the best browning, don’t move them while they cook. Watch the pan carefully, adjusting the heat so the breasts brown without burning. Then you can experiment with the sauces, making additions and substitutions.

Basic sauteed chicken breasts with pan sauce

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound total), pounded to an even 1/2-inch thickness

Salt

Ground black pepper

1 small shallot, finely chopped

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley

1. In a large (10-inch) skillet, heat the oil and 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high heat until the butter foams. Sprinkle the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Add the breasts to the pan and cook without turning until golden on the bottoms, about 5 minutes. Turn and continue to cook until done, another 3 to 5 minutes, adjusting the heat as needed.

2. Remove the chicken to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm. Add the shallot and cook until softened, about 2 minutes. Add the wine to the pan and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon to loosen the brown bits, until reduced by half, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and swirl in the remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Stir in the parsley. Pour over the chicken and serve. Makes 2 servings.

Chicken meat consists primarily of muscle. Dark meat, which includes legs and thighs, comes from iron-rich muscles the chicken uses for sustained activities such as standing and walking. White meat, the breast and wings, comes from muscle that is used in short bursts for flapping.

Nutritionally, the biggest difference between the two is in fat and calorie content. The muscle in dark meat is layered with fat, while white meat is not. It should be noted, however, that most of a chicken’s fat is found in the skin. So skinless thighs will be less fatty than skin-on wings.

Flavor-wise, dark meat has a stronger, gamier taste. Your preference for one or the other probably depends on how much you love the taste of chicken. If you are a real fan, then you are probably Team Dark Meat. If you value chicken for its ability to absorb flavors of other ingredients, you probably prefer white meat.

If there’s no time to roast a chicken for dinner, start with a store-bought rotisserie chicken to prepare the following dishes in minutes:

Asian chicken salad: Toss shredded chicken with shredded Napa cabbage and shredded carrot. Whisk together rice vinegar, sesame oil, minced garlic, ginger, a little sugar and a little soy sauce, and toss with the chicken and vegetables. Garnish with chow mein noodles or toasted sliced almonds.

Chicken and spinach quesadillas: Saute a chopped onion in a little olive oil, then add a few cups of baby spinach until just wilted. Spread the spinach mixture over a tortilla, sprinkle with shredded chicken and Jack cheese and top with another tortilla. In a skillet over medium heat (you can just wipe out the skillet you used to cook the spinach), cook until golden on both sides, turning once. Serve with salsa and sour cream on the side.

Hoisin chicken lettuce wraps: Finely chop shredded chicken and saute until heated through with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar and grated ginger. Stir in chopped scallions, and drained and chopped water chestnuts, then pile on top of butter lettuce leaves and serve.

Brining, or soaking your chicken in a saltwater solution before cooking, serves a dual purpose. As the salt penetrates the meat, it changes its molecular structure, enhancing its ability to hold onto water. Chicken that has been brined will stay juicy during cooking. At the same time, the salt seasons the meat, making it more flavorful.

The technique is simple. Stir salt into water to dissolve completely. Pour into a zipper-lock bag or an airtight container, add the chicken, submerge and refrigerate. Brining time will depend on the size of the chicken pieces (a whole bird will take longer than a couple of chicken breasts) and the strength of the solution (a saltier brine will penetrate the meat more quickly than a less salty one).

Before grilling or roasting the chicken, carefully rinse away the excess salt from the surface of the bird (this is the exception to the “no washing” rule) and pat it thoroughly dry.

Look for bright pink flesh (graying is a sign that it’s past its sell-by date) that is springy, not soft, to the touch. Off odors and blood on the meat are signs of decay and bad quality.

Animal advocates believe it is more humane to raise chickens outdoors than in cages. If your chicken is labeled “free-range,” this means it had the opportunity to spend at least part of its life outdoors. However, according to USDA standards there are no requirements for length of time the chicken must spend outdoors or what type of ground cover must be provided by the farmer.

“Hormone free” is essentially a marketing label, since all chicken legally sold in the United States is required to be raised without hormones. Some chickens are treated with antibiotics, however, so if you’d like to avoid these (the jury is still out on whether or not antibiotic use in farm animals is related to growing human resistance to antibiotics), look for chicken labeled “antibiotic-free.”

The “certified organic” label has a bit more meaning. Chickens labeled thus must have been fed 100 percent organic feed and forage, including organic grains. In addition, any antimicrobials or sanitizers used during processing must be approved for organic use.

Kosher chickens have been slaughtered according to Jewish dietary law. Once they have been plucked and cleaned, they are salted to draw out the blood. There is no scientific proof that kosher chickens are healthier or cleaner than non-kosher chickens. But salt added during processing can make them juicier and tastier without brining.

Chickens come in different sizes and are labeled accordingly. Here they are, from smallest to largest:

Cornish game hen: Despite its fancy name, which is left over from the time when chickens at market were identified by breed, a Cornish game hen is simply a very young (5 weeks old) chicken weighing between 1 and 2 pounds. Each one serves a single person; roasted whole, they make an elegant dinner party presentation.

Poussin: This is another name for a small, young chicken, used interchangeably these days with game hen.

Broiler: A young (6 to 8 weeks old) chicken weighing about 2 1/2 pounds

Fryer: A young (6 to 8 weeks old) chicken weighing up to 3 1/2 pounds

Roaster: A youngish (no older than 8 months) chicken weighing between 3 1/2 and 5 pounds. Despite their names, broilers, fryers and roasters are actually all-purpose chickens that can be prepared any way you like.

Buying a whole chicken and then cutting it up into parts is often cheaper than buying it already cut up. As a bonus, you’ll have the back, which you can place in a zipper-lock bag and freeze for making stock later, along with the wing tips.

1. Wings: On a large cutting board, place the chicken on its back. With one hand, pull a wing away from the body and wiggle to find where it attaches to the breast. Use a sharp chef’s knife to cut through the ball joint where wing meets breast. Repeat with the other wing. Trim away the tips from each wing. Set aside the tips for stock.

2. Legs and thighs: Pull a leg away from the body. With the chef’s knife, cut through the skin between the thigh and the breast. Continue to pull the leg and thigh away from the body until you can locate the place where the thigh socket meets the body in the back. Cut through that joint. Repeat with the other leg. Place the leg and thigh pieces skin-side down on the cutting board. You’ll see a thin line of fat where the thigh and drumstick meet. With a sharp chef’s knife, cut along the lines to separate the thigh from the drumstick.

3. Breasts: Starting at the head end of the chicken, use sharp poultry or kitchen shears to cut through the rib cage on either side of the backbone. Set aside the backbone for stock. Place the whole breast, skin-side down, on the cutting board. Carefully but forcefully push down on the bone to cut through cleanly into two breast pieces.

We’ve all been warned that poultry can carry dangerous bacteria on its surface. But don’t try to sanitize it by running it under water. Water droplets containing bacteria from the chicken can splash onto work surfaces and utensils, increasing the risk that we’ll pick up an infection.

For the same reason, dispose of any raw juices that have collected at the bottom of your chicken package by placing the entire package in the garbage and taking the garbage out. Contaminated juices might splatter as you pour them down the sink.

Use one cutting board and knife for raw chicken, and another cutting board and knife for anything else, to prevent cross-contamination.

The best defense against bacteria on chicken is heat. Cooking chicken to a safe temperature — the U.S. Department of Agriculture advocates 165 degrees for dark and white meat — will kill any dangerous germs.

If you can boil water, you can make chicken stock and soup. All it takes is time, a large pot and a fine strainer.

Basic chicken stock

8 pounds chicken legs, backs and/or wings

1 carrot, trimmed

1 parsnip, trimmed

1 onion, peeled

1 bunch dill or parsley

7 quarts water

Salt

Ground black pepper

1. Combine the chicken, carrot, parsnip, onion and dill or parsley in a 12-quart stock pot. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook, using a skimmer to remove any gray foam that rises to the surface. Simmer for 4 hours.

2. Place a smaller stockpot in your sink and place a fine mesh strainer in the stockpot. Carefully pour the hot stock through the strainer and into the pot, pressing down on the chicken and vegetables. Discard the solids. Stir in salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for up to 3 days and skim the fat from the top of the pot before using. Alternatively, freeze the stock in 1 large or 2 small containers until ready to use. Makes about 4 quarts.

Once you’ve made chicken stock, you can use it to make a variety of chicken soups, including:

Matzo ball: Warm 2 quarts stock; make matzo balls according to directions on a package of matzo meal and add to warm stock along with a few handfuls of baby carrots. Before serving, simmer until the carrots are softened, about 10 minutes.

Italian wedding soup: Brown small meatballs on all sides and add to 1 quart simmering stock along with 1/2 cup small pasta (orzo, pastina). Simmer until meatballs and pasta are cooked through, about 10 minutes. Stir in 8 baby spinach (or baby kale) leaves and cook, stirring, until wilted. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese on the side.

There are several vegetable proteins similarly neutral in flavor and versatility as chicken. Extra-firm tofu, made from condensed soy milk pressed into solid white blocks, has the mildest flavor. Slice it into 1/2-inch-thick rectangles, let drain on paper towels to remove extra moisture, and saute itas you would chicken cutlets, before making a simple pan sauce. Extra-firm tofu can be cut into 1-inch-thick “fingers,” dredged in cornstarch, coated in egg and crushed Saltines, then pan-fried to make vegetarian chicken fingers. Tempeh, made with whole fermented soybeans, has a chewier texture and a slightly nutty flavor. Cut it into cubes before using in curries and sautes. Seitan is made by washing the starch from wheat flour until what remains is its dense, chewy protein, known as gluten. Slice, brush with barbecue sauce and grill as an alternative to barbecued chicken. Or coat with flour, egg and panko bread crumbs for “chicken” cutlets or “chicken” Parm.