Cooking Tips

Cooking Chicken

Chicken is versatile and can be cooked in many healthful ways:

• Boneless, skinless breasts or thighs work well with quick, low-fat cooking methods like stir-frying and grilling. Boneless, skinless thighs are also suitable for dishes with long cooking times, as leg meat does not dry out as quickly as white meat.
• Use a nonstick pan or cooking spray instead of adding fat to prevent sticking.
• To add flavor, rub chicken parts with ground spices and herbs or marinate before cooking. Another option is to use the new premarinated chicken products. Either way, be sure to discard the marinade or boil for at least one minute before serving with the cooked chicken.
• Chicken parts can be roasted, baked, oven-fried, or grilled, preferably on a rack to allow fat to drip off the chicken during cooking.
• Use skinless parts in casseroles for added flavor with little fat.
• A flavorful broiler-fryer or stewing chicken is best for soup; allow enough time to chill the soup and remove the surface fat before reheating and serving.
• When grilling chicken, think leg meat. These pieces contain a little more fat than the white meat, making them better able to withstand the intense heat of the grill. When grilling chicken parts, the various pieces will vary in the amount of time needed to be fully cooked, because part size and thickness affects time needed to thoroughly cook the meat. Check for doneness with a meat thermometer.
• Microwave cooking can be used in conjunction with grilling. Raise the temperature of chicken in the microwave until juices are flowing from the meat, and then transfer to the grill to complete the cooking process.

Cooking Time Guidelines

Cooking times for chicken will also vary depending on the appliance and method of cooking used. However, an approximate cooking time for a whole chicken can be calculated as follows. If the whole chicken is unfrozen without the neck and giblets in the body cavity, not stuffed, and placed in a preheated oven at 350º F, the cooking time will be 20 minutes per pound of chicken plus 10 minutes for chickens weighing between one pound and six pounds.

For chickens over six pounds, the extra 10 minutes is usually not required. As an example, a 3 1/2 pound chicken would take (3 1/2 pounds times 20 minutes = 70 minutes plus ten minutes) one hour and 20 minutes. For parts, especially thin parts such as boneless, skinless breasts, the cooking time will be less than for a whole carcass chicken of the same weight.

When Is it Done?

Check chicken for doneness before serving. Insert a meat thermometer into a thick section of the thigh without touching the bone. The internal temperature should reach 180º F for whole chickens or leg meat parts; 170º F for bone-in breast; and 160º F for skinless, boneless breast.

Coarsely and finely ground chicken should reach at least 165º F. Stuffing inside a whole chicken should reach a temperature of at least 165º F; stuffing a 4-pound chicken with traditional bread-based ingredients will add an additional 30 minutes or so to the total cooking time.

If you do not have a meat thermometer, cook the stuffing separately. To check for doneness without a thermometer, pierce the thickest part of the chicken with a fork. It should feel tender and juices should run clear.

Chicken cuts should reach as least the temperatures in the chart below to ensure proper doneness.