I Feel Like Chicken Tonight

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been pretty busy as my studies are coming to a close, and final exams are right around the corner.

Today I'm writing about chicken, a food that is eaten all over the world and has been enjoyed for thousands of years.

Preparing and handling chicken properly is important because salmonella bacteria is almost always present in raw chicken and can still be found in a chicken meal if the meat is under cooked or if the cooked meat comes in contact with raw meat or anything that came in contact with the raw meat. Millions of people have gotten salmonella poisoning, and children, babies and the elderly can risk dying from salmonella infection, so it's very important that raw chicken is handled carefully and cooked thoroughly.

• If you cut or trim raw meat on a cutting board, wash it with soap before you put anything else on the board, like fruit or vegetables for example.
• Wash anything that comes in contact with raw meat (dishes, forks, knives, tabletops, etc.) before using it again.
• If you have a meat thermometer and you're cooking chicken, 165 degrees Fahrenheit is the internal temperature cooked meat should reach to make sure all salmonella bacteria has been killed off.
• Washing raw chicken before cooking it does not cleanse it of any bacteria. Only extreme heat can truly kill bacteria from a raw chicken.
  

A couple of times when I've eaten at restaurants I've had to send the chicken back because it was under cooked. Keep in mind that restaurants are sometimes under pressure to make a lot of meals quickly, depending on how packed the place is. Keep that in mind the next time you stop at your favorite diner during lunch or dinner rush. I've found that the safest meal you can eat is the one you make yourself. I often soak my chicken in some seasoning and lemon juice.
As I mentioned in a previous post, lemon juice tenderizes the raw meat, making it easier to cut and easier to cook. Lemon also makes the chicken hold more flavor than salts does, good news for anyone like me who is on a low salt diet.

Chicken can be cooked numerous ways: it can be baked, friend, broiled, grilled, shredded, chopped or just added to a nice soup for those cold winter days. Chicken is also tasty chopped up in salads. Even chicken bones (although you can't eat them!) can make an excellent chicken broth. I know chicken stock is sold already made in supermarkets, but if you're cooking an entire chicken, why throw the bones away before getting some use out of them?

Chicken stock mini-recipe:

• chicken bones
• 1 large chopped onion
• 2 medium-sized carrots
• 2 stalks of celery
• one pot filled with enough water to drown all your ingredients.
  

Place all the ingredients in the pot and let it cook for one hour, then strain the stock from its ingredients and let it cool down. The carrots and celery can be chopped if they don't fit into the pot whole and can obviously be used along with the onion in a soup or meal later. I use my homemade chicken stock in my mashed potatoes because it is healthier than using butter or even margarine. You can even pour hot chicken broth over mashed potatoes and stuffing. Also when I get sick or have a sore throat I drink a nice warm glass of chicken broth and it makes me feel better. Of course, broth is the main ingredient in chicken soup and chicken stew. Unused chicken stock can be stored in a refrigerator for about a week, or can be frozen for months. Some of you may be wondering what the difference is between chicken stock and chicken broth; stock is made with chicken bones only whereas broth is made with actual meat which may or may not have bones.

Here are a few links to chicken-related web pages I've found useful:

• Traditional Bone Broth in Modern Health and Disease
• Food Network Chicken Recipes and Meals
• USDA Chicken Fact Sheet
• Mike the Headless Chicken (that one I inserted just for fun)
  

So I will leave you with my ten most favorite ways to serve and enjoy chicken.
1. Grilled chicken Sammy (that's a sandwich for all you who don't watch RR)
2. Baked chicken
3. Chicken roll
4. Chicken Caesar salad
5. Chicken vegetable soup
6. Fried chicken
7. Chicken rice soup
8. Creamy chicken with white rice
9. Chicken fingers
10. Chicken with broccoli served with white rice

How do you like your chicken? Let me know in the comment area of this post and I'll try and come up with a recipe for it, or a twist on that recipe, if you already have it.

Besos

yields 25-30 besos

Here's a sweet Valentine’s Day treat that that will make your buck stretch and make your sweet heart keep coming back for more. I named these cookies besos (it means “kisses” in Spanish) because whenever I make them I think of my one true love D. All I can think about is his eyes lighting up whenever I walk in the room, especially if I’m cooking! It's like meeting him for the first time all over again. And these cookies will make your special someone react the same way. Besos are also great to give away as presents for Valentine's Day.

You will need:

• 1 cookie sheet
• A rolling pin
• Any romantically-shaped cookie cutter
• Wax paper

Ingredients:

• 1 20 oz. bag of Hershey milk chocolate kisses
• 1 32 oz. tube of pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough
• Any size bag of romantically-themed cookie decorations
• Cooking oil, preferably in a spray can
  

A note on cookie cutters and decorations: These days, there are a variety of romantically-shaped cookie cutters that are obviously most appropriate for Valentine’s Day. For example, there are some cutters in the shape of a heart with an arrow through it, cupid, a pair of lips, Xs and Os, etc. It’s also a good idea to be cutters in different sizes. I highly recommend Country Kitchen Sweet Art, where cookie cutters are as cheap as $1.25. They also sell some very nice edible decorations; I bought their mini hearts edible confetti and their red lips confetti sprinkles.

I actually forgot my cookie cutters when I made the batch in the photos. The next batch of besos will look much better when shaped and decorated for Disco Crisco Twister in two weeks.

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Because you’re going to shape the dough and not just slice little discs of dough from the tube, it’s best to simply cut open the tube, lay out the dough on a large piece of wax paper and cover it with another piece of wax paper so the dough won’t stick to the rolling pin when you flatten it. Once flattened, peel the top layer of wax paper off and push the cutter down into the dough. Spray the cookie sheet with cooking oil and place the shaped cookies on it. When you run out of available space on the dough for your cutters, simply join together all the excess dough, cover it with second wax paper and flatten it again with the rolling pin. Keep this up until you have run out of unshaped cookie dough.

In the event that you end up with a piece of dough that is not big enough for the cookie cutter, simply roll it up in to a ball and slap it on the sheet with the rest of the cookies. After the cookies are baked, gobble up that little cookie ball so no one else will ever know of its existence. Unwrap your Hershey’s kisses and place one in the center of each cookie. If you are using sprinkles or some other sugary decoration place them on the cookie before baking them.

For chewy cookies leave the cookies in the oven for about 8 to 10 minutes. But if you like your cookies with a crunch then leave it in for about 10 to 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the sheet or on a plate before storing them away or the cookies will stick together. I usually store my cookies in a tin with wax paper between them. The cookies should hold up for about two weeks or so.

Everyone loves my besos, even furry blue monsters!