The Lazy Genius Podcast - #53: The Lazy Genius Cooks Chicken

Episode Date: February 26, 2018

Cooking chicken is basically required to be a human, so let's do it right! In this episode, you'll get a rundown of the main cuts of chicken available at the store, what grade I give them, and then a rundown of all the cooking methods you can choose. Stuff from this episode: Change Your Life Chicken The Lazy Genius Grills This is the instant-read thermometer I use. Totally worth the thirteen bucks. If you click that link and buy it, you're magically throwing a few pennies my way. I'm grateful. Download the transcript of the episode, especially if you want to quickly refer back to a particular cooking method and remember how to do it! Don't forget that The Swap closes February 28th! Get a handle on your stuff before spring hits, and you'll thank your future self. Interested in learning more about The Lazy Sisters Podcast? Check out our Patreon page. Don't miss out on the chicken cheatsheet! This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm Kendra, and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today's episode is number 53, The Lazy Genius Cooks Chicken. We are starting a podcast series this month on cooking basics. So, of course, we have to start with chicken. Cooking chicken is like breathing. It's an essential life skill. So today in the playbook, we're going to talk about the pros and cons of all the cuts of chicken. an overview of six ways to cook them and my three chicken rules.

It's going to be a longer episode than usual because, oh my gosh, I have so much to say about chicken, but you're going to be a chicken expert by the time this episode is over. Also, there will be a lot of things linked in this episode, so check out the show notes for everything regarding chicken at the lazy genius collector.com slash lazy slash chicken. And if you go to those show notes, you'll see a place where you can get a chicken cheat sheet, the chicken sheet sent to your inbox. It gives a very brief overview of the cuts and which cuts work best with which method of cooking that we're all going to talk about. So if you want to print that out to slide into a cookbook or on your fridge, head to the lazy

genius collective.com slash lazy slash chicken. Last thing, I have two announcements at the end of this episode about the swap, my decluttering ebook, and the lazy sisters podcast, which is coming back. So stay tuned until the end to catch those. Okay, let's get started. So first, let's look at the different cuts of chicken you can buy. Chicken breast with bone and skin. Boneless, skinless chicken breast. Chicken thigh with bone and skin, boneless chicken thigh.

Chicken legs, chicken tenderloins, ground chicken, and then a whole dang chicken. So first, chicken breast with bone and skin. I give this cut a B plus. Here's why. The pros, bones and skin give massive flavor. It's one of the cheaper cuts, especially compared to its boneless, skinless counterpart, and it stays moist, which is tough to accomplish with chicken breast. The cons, it's hard to portion.

One breast is pretty much there for one person, right, because it's on a bone. And if your chicken is industrialized, like mine often is, those suckers are enormous. It's just a lot of chicken for one person. It's also not as versatile in terms of methods of cooking. You're pretty much restricted to roasting and brazing, which both yield delicious chicken, but I mean, you know, it's just too. Last con, it's easy to overcook. This is true of chicken breast in general,

but those pieces with the bone and skin, which do help keep in moisture and give a lot of flavor, still can end up tough. But it sure is pretty when it's cooked. So it gets a B plus. next boneless skinless chicken breast i give it an a minus the pros it is stupid versatile oh my gosh you can do so many things with a chicken breast yes it's healthier if that's important to you it's a lovely blank canvas it can take on most flavors because you're not dealing with the richer chicken

flavor you get from the bone and skin it also is the most commonly available so you can find it anywhere the cons it's so expensive it's definitely the most expensive of cut of chicken. It also is so easy to overcook. You've had many pieces of tough, boneless, skinless chicken, which is so unfortunate because it does cost more many. So it feels wasteful to spend cash on something that rarely seems to turn out well, but because it's easy to find, easy to use, especially if you know how to handle it and extremely versatile, it gets an A-minus. Next up, chicken thighs with bone and skin or just skin. Some of them sell them with no bone, but with skin. That's a solid.

A all the way. I love this cut of chicken. It's what I use for Change Your Life chicken, which I'll link to in the show notes. That's my most popular recipe, almost post in general, like by a mile. It's such a great easy recipe. It will literally change your life because of how delicious and easy it is. And it uses chicken thighs with skin on them and sometimes bone. Either one's fine. I usually use bone, but you know, just so you know. Okay, so the pros. it tastes so good. It's probably the most flavorful cut that doesn't need much more than salt

to taste like delicious chicken. It's also really well priced, way cheaper than a breast cut of any kind. It's super forgiving and hard to overcook. And the final pro, most aren't enormous and are portioned well. The cons. Like the chicken breast with bone and skin,

it's restricted mostly to roasting and brazing. But if you get the kind without a bone that still has skin, you have more options. honestly that's really my only con it's really a stellar cut of chicken next cut boneless skinless chicken thighs this one gets my a plus if I can only cook with boneless skinless chicken thighs to the exclusion of all other cuts of chicken I would happily make it work chicken thighs they get such a bad rap but dude they are basically perfect

some folks don't like the texture but I prefer it by a mile to chicken brass personally okay so the actual pros tasty super super super super forgiving and almost impossible to overcook sheep and can be cooked in pretty much all the ways. I just love it. The cons, for some, it's the texture. If you don't really eat chicken thighs at all, jumping into chicken thighs might be a tricky transition. That's the main complaint. I get that complaint from people a lot when they talk about fies, when I like suggest them,

and they're like, I don't like the way thighs taste. But I say power through. I say power through, and you will find that you eventually will really like chicken thighs. but I personally have zero cons with boneless skinless chicken thighs. It's my absolute favorite A plus plus. Okay, we have four more cuts. Next, chicken legs. Chicken legs get a B.

My favorite pro is how great they are for a crowd. They're usually cheap and often on major sale at a lot of grocery stores. Because they're smaller and all the same size, there's something about them that works great for feeding a crowd for not that much money. They taste good. They're fairly easy to cook. The cons, it's not a lot of meat and warm. piece so you'll need lots of room on your plate to fill it up that also means that despite their

low price you're paying mostly for bone there isn't just there's just not as much meat on on a chicken leg that comes with like a chicken thigh or a chicken breast and they're not super versatile grilling and roasting are your best bet and finally they're one of the hardest cuts i think to know when it's done they're just all those little crevices and a chicken leg that seem to cook at different rates but it still gets a solid B, just for crowd-pleasing for sure. Next, chicken tenderloins. Please get a C, you guys. And I think that's just because I'm not in good mood right now.

In my opinion, I think tenderloins are a huge racket. Like, maybe if I were in a very positive Pollyanna state of mind, my daughter has a fever, so I'm not Pollyanna. But yeah, like, I just think they're a racket. I think chicken tenderloins are out to trick you into spending more money. The pros. They're already in perfect strips for sauteing or frying or whatever you want to do with them, for sure. It keeps you from having a touch raw chicken as much, which I know is a huge bonus for a lot of people.

And they are fairly tender, hence the name, tenderloin. They're incredibly versatile and can be cooked many ways and take on any flavor, just like chicken breast because they're part of a chicken breast. Now, the cons. Oh, the cons. They are exorbitantly expensive. Oh, my gosh. Yes, they are basically prepped for you. but there's also that ligament cartilage piece that's tough and gross you know what I'm talking about

every time I've ever bought chicken tenderloins thinking that somehow magically they're not going to bother me this time and I'm going to be able to use them I also have to cut out that thing that that cartilage thing and it just tears the whole piece of chicken apart because it is so tender yes you can totally just not take it out but then when you bite into it you you know and you have to pull it out of your mouth in front of all the humans I don't know y'all. I'm just not into it. So I feel like with tenderloins, you're paying a lot just for convenience. But you still have to take out the ligament thing. You can just as quickly, if not more quickly, cut a chicken breast into strips and be all set.

Now, if you are a tenderloin evangelist, that is totally allowed. I think you are a wonderful human and I do not judge you. I just know that I personally get enormously frustrated every time I try to cook them and just never will again. They get an F in my own personal kitchen. but I'll give them a general C because that's, that convenience and a lack of caring about white stringy chicken parts might be worth it. Might be worth the price. Okay, two more. Ground chicken.

Ground chicken gets a bee. I use a lot of ground meat, but mostly stick with beef and pork, sometimes turkey. The pros are abundant, actually. Ground chicken is versatile. It's tasty. It's healthy, depending on which parts of the chicken are ground. The biggest con is really that it's more expensive than I'd like. That's really it.

I also think you don't get a lot of flavor from ground chicken and have to do a lot of work to develop that in your saute pan, but it's not possible. I prefer like three other types of ground meat before I hit chicken. But if I see some that's really on sale, I'm certainly going to buy it for sure. I don't have the recipe posted anywhere. So I realize this is not helpful at all. But there's a chicken meatball I make whenever chicken is on sale and it's legit. So basically I buy it just I just buy it for that. Maybe one day I'll have the wherewithal to post that recipe.

I'm just not a food blogger, you guys. I'm getting there. This job is hard. If you've ever wondered, by the way, if you've ever wondered why I don't post more recipes, it's because I don't have time during the day to make a recipe to plate and photograph, which is what food bloggers have to do.

They make the food when it's super not dinner time. I used to post more recipes, but would be taking photos of our dinner and make my kids and husband have to wait until I got a good shot and found good light, and then the food would get cold. And it was the end of the day, and the sun wasn't even in a good place anyway.

It was just a whole thing, and I didn't want my life revolving around that anymore. So that's why there aren't as many food recipes around here. I am hoping, side note, that once my youngest starts preschool this fall, my gosh, I'll be able to create more recipes to actually post for you, including chicken meatballs that I love so much. So thank you for your patience. And finally, so ground chicken gets a bee. And then finally, whole chicken.

And I give whole chicken a bee too. The pros, it's delicious. It's usually fairly inexpensive. It's simple if you know how to roast it. And it's really pretty if you're feeding a group. The cons. It's terrifying to most people. It's a whole freaking chicken.

What on earth? It also feels risky because you're cooking everything at once one way. So if it messes up, you're screwed. It also isn't great if you're only feeding a couple of people unless you want to use your freezer a lot. and you can basically just roast it. That's kind of it. There aren't a ton of ways to inject a lot of flavors. So if you want a cut of chicken that gives you a lot of options, a whole chicken just isn't it?

Now, some people would say the opposite, because you can break down the chicken to use it however you want. But I'm guessing that maybe two of you have any desire or knowledge when it comes to breaking down a chicken and taking off skin and cutting pieces at the right joints and stuff. Am I right in this? I'm pretty sure I'm writing this. So I give it a B because it is a nice skill to have. And a roasted chicken is one of the most basic yet delightful meals. But you have a lot of roadblocks in your way to get to that place, which is okay. You're not a bad person because you don't know how to roast a whole chicken.

That's why it gets a bee. It's just not for the masses anymore. Funny how decades ago, that used to be all there was. You just got a whole chicken. Times do change, you guys. Okay, so that's the breakdown of all the cuts of chicken and why they might or might not work for you. Can you believe we're saying? That's many words about chicken.

Okay. And don't forget, you can grab that chicken cheese. sheet. I totally want to keep calling it a chicken sheet and the show notes for free. Okay. Now, let's jump into the six methods of cooking. Let's start with the most familiar, probably, and move to the least used. So we're going to go in the order of sauteing, grilling, roasting, frying, poaching, brazing. First, sauteing. Sauteing. Sauteing is cooking chicken, or anything really in a pan over fairly high heat with a little bit of fat some people say that stir frying is different than sauteing because it's super high heat when you stir fry but for the purposes of this

conversation we're going to call it one thing it's fine if it's in a pan with no liquid and a little bit of fat it's sauteing i'm not necessarily going into pros and cons of all these cooking methods like we did with the cuts but there are a couple of pretty specific pros with sauteing it's um it's quick depending on the cut you use and you get beautiful color but only if you don't move the chicken that's one that's maybe actually the most important parts of um sauteing don't move the chicken the more you move it the less color you'll get i mean you move it to flip it but that's the only type you move it you put it in the pan you let it sit there and then you flip it and you let it sit there that's how you get your color so don't touch the chicken um now that is

that is true if you're cooking a chicken breast, a thigh with skin, ground meat, any of it. The less you move it, the more beautiful the color, and the less it'll stick. If you've ever wondered why your chicken sticks to the pan, it's because you're moving it too soon. Also, your heat might be too low, and you don't have quite enough fat in your pan, especially if you're not using some super fancy non-stick skillet. You can cook whole pieces, saute them, but don't saute pieces with bones unless you're just going to finish it in the oven, which feels kind of like a wasteful. Like just put the whole thing in the oven, I guess. Any cut of chicken that has a bone in it won't saute well. You'll have to finish it in the oven,

and that's just annoying. If it has skin, you'll sear the skin first, which means you put the skin side down over high heat and let that skin crisp up. Don't move the chicken. Then flip it over, turn the heat down to medium, and finish cooking. This is if it has skin but no bone, okay? But for the most part, cuts without skin work the best. Boneless, skinless anything work best for saunting. Whole chicken breasts or thighs. And then either of those cuts cut into strips or pieces, that's great. I'm a huge fan of cutting up chicken into bite-sized pieces,

putting them in a freezer bag with any number of maraudes, freezing them, and then having a huge part of dinner done and ready at the top of a hat. It defrost so quickly in a sink of cold water and cooks up in no time because there's so much surface area on those. tiny pieces of chicken. It just thaws really quickly. So if you're sauteing, you're best served using whole or cut up pieces of chicken that don't have skin or bone. Use high heat. Don't skip on the fat if you can and don't move the chicken. Thighs are more forgiving than breasts in this, but both work great. How can you tell if it's done? My favorite method is to poke the chicken with

your finger. What are you looking for? Okay, make it right now, make a clinched fish. fist. Now, use the thumb of your non-fisted hand to push into the fleshy part between your thumb and index finger. Do you feel how it has a little give, but not too much? That's what cooked chicken feels like. If it has no give, it's overcooked. Now, unclinch your fist and feel how it has give, but way more give than when your fist is clenched. That's chicken that isn't done yet. So when you're sauteing chicken, use your hand to test. Clench your fist. and press on that little fleshy part between your index finger and your thumb. Quick tip.

If you're sauteing a whole chicken breast, it's hard to get it cooked evenly because one side is so much thicker than the other, right? My favorite way to combat this is to put the chicken breast between two pieces of plastic or a parchment or in a sandwich bag or whatever and gently pound out the thick part just a bit to get the piece more or less the same thickness. You'll have an equally tender piece of chicken that way, like all the way through the piece. Okay. So that's sauteing.

Next, grilling. Some of you are really confident in grilling, and that's fantastic. I had to lazy genius grilling and I did an entire episode on it, which I'll link to in the show notes, the lazy genius grills. I think is what it was called. I won't say a ton here about that since a lot of basic tips are in that episode. But for chicken especially, chicken with bone is great on a grill. It's helpful to be a little confident in knowing when chicken is done because you might have to play around with the heat. in general it's good to start on high heat

to get those grill marks and keep the chicken from sticking if you have a sugary marinade like a barbecue sauce especially you'll want to turn the chicken fairly often so that sauce doesn't burn but in general you start high and then turn down the heat and flip the chicken every few minutes to get an even cook

so chicken with the bone on the grill usually takes at least 30 minutes dark meat takes longer to cook than white meat but like we said before with the chicken breast with bone, they're so huge sometimes. So it just, it just kind of takes a while. That's why I really, if I'm going to grill a piece of chicken with a bone in it, I really do like to grill chicken legs because it's a little bit easier to tell when they're done. It can cook a little bit more evenly, but, you know, there you go. Let's see. Chicken with a bone on the grill takes 30 minutes.

And if it's boneless, it's half that time, probably, and you probably don't need to flip it as much. unless this again has a sugary marinade that's going to burn. The only cuts that don't make sense here are a whole chicken and ground chicken. Everything else is fair game. If you're unsure how long your cut of chicken takes on the grill, Google that specific cut with the word grill. Like how to grill chicken breast with a bone. And you'll get a better parameter that way based on what cut you're using. Okay, so if you want more about grilling, you can listen to the lazy genius grills.

I'll put that in the show notes at the lazy genius. I mean, you can go to that episode. it's the lazy genus collective.com slash lazy slash I think grill. I think it's what it is, but I'll put the link in this one, which is the lazy genius collective.com slash lazy slash chicken. Okay. Next, roasting. Roasting. I love roasting. Roasting is cooking something in the oven on high heat. So it's indirect heat, but really high. If your oven is set lower than 400, it's not roasting. You might have noticed I didn't include baking as one of the methods for chicken, and that's because I think baked chicken is gross. I hate me so much, y'all. But if you bake chicken at a lower heat, like 350 or 375, it just doesn't

develop enough flavor and can get rubbery. Roasting is definitely the way to go, so don't be scared of it. Change Your Life Chicken, which I already mentioned, a very popular recipe on the blog, which I will link to in the show notes, is roasted chicken. The oven is set to 500 degrees, y'all. High heat is what makes roasting magical. So what cuts of chicken can you roast? Anything with skin and or a bone is best. Both the skin and the bone act as little shields almost from the high heat. If you were to put a boneless, skinless chicken breast in a 450 degree oven, it would cook, but it would be hard to control and probably end up rubbery. So using roasting for everything with skin and or bones is your best bed. Thighs take longer to cook than breast, but not by much. Thighs might take 45 to 50 minutes.

in a 500 degree oven while breasts are probably better um like a little lower maybe 450 to 475 so not not that much different um for like 40 minutes okay so it's like a little little less time and you can maybe do a little lower temperature if you wanted to you can kind of play around with your oven and how you like your chicken cooked and your how crispy your skin is and all the things um and so much of it depends on how large your pieces of chicken are um you've seen those like those pieces of chicken that look like entire chicken. Like those are going to take longer. The clenched fist trick works on all chicken

though, no matter how you cook it. So feel free to poke roasted chicken too. I haven't mentioned yet an instant read thermometer because it might feel too gadgety but honestly y'all they're so great to have around. I will link to the one I use in the show notes if you're interested. It's not expensive and pretty fantastic

and knowing if your chicken is done. The temperature you want is 165 and when you stick the probe into the center of the chicken close to the bone, if there is one, the number will pop up almost immediately. So if it's a few degrees off, it's like 157, pop the chicken back in the oven for just a couple more minutes. Recently, a batch of chicken went up to 20 degrees. It went not up to 20, up 20 degrees in five minutes.

Like that's all. It probably won't take long. And the longer you use your thermometer and get familiar with roasting, you'll have a better sense of how much longer you need. And one of my favorite components of roasting chicken. is that you can roast it in the same pan as a bunch of vegetables and have a killer meal in one pan done all at once. Again, you can check out Change Your Life Chicken to get the basics. I love a roasted chicken.

Oh my gosh. Next up. Frying. Now, we're super familiar with frying. Fred chicken is life. But it's lower on this list because you might not do it very often in your own kitchen or at all. And for excellent reason.

All that oil is a beast to deal with. And obviously it's not the picture of health to cover your chicken and eggs and carbs and drop it in boiling fat. But it's so good. Frying chicken does take practice. But for this conversation, let's not talk so much about deep fried chicken, but pan fried chicken strips or like thighs or breasts or something without a bone and skin. Okay. Like chicken figures. That's what it's called.

You can make your own chicken figures. Okay, they don't like flow in a vat of oil, but they cook in a skillet in enough oil to give the chicken a major fried crust. But the oil doesn't cover the chicken while it's in the pan. You still have to flip it. We're talking maybe an inch of oil. You might think I'm crazy because aren't there freezer bags and restaurants full of chicken fingers? Yes. But homemade ones are really delightful and kind of therapeutic to make if you're into that kind of thing.

I'm hoping to post a video soon of chicken fingers. But until that point, until I'm a food blogger, here's the quick rundown. Step one, cut your chicken breast into strips that are all the same general thickness. Different lengths is fine. Mine are usually about the width of my thumb. You just want to keep the width the same, like the thickness the same. Is that, I don't know, is your thumb like a little less than an inch? I'm not good at measuring.

I'm really bad amount. So whatever the thickness, just make sure it's consistent across all the cuts. Need a vehicle that isn't afraid to make a splash? That's the Volkswagen Taos. Capable and confident, the Volkswagen Taos is fit for everyday life. Nimble in traffic, agile and tight spots, and still spacious enough for weekend getaways. While available 4-motion all-wheel drive gives confidence in rain and snow. The capable Taos, you deserve more confidence.

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Step two. Season both sides of that chicken. with a lot of salt. Nobody uses enough salt. So salt it way more than you normally would, and then maybe a little more. And then like a maybe time a little bit more. Okay. Step three, dip the chicken strips in flour that's been heavily seasoned with salt and black pepper. You could get fancy. You can add cayenne or paprika or garlic powder. Garlic powder can be kind of strong, so just be careful. Like start slow with that. Give up that chicken like a tiny shake. Like it's going to go into the flour. You're going to give it a tiny shake to get off some of the extra

flour. And then step four, you're going to dip it in beaten egg. Step five, dip it in Panko breadcrumbs, which are the most delightful Japanese breadcrumbs available at Target and everywhere else now. They become very prevalent. You're so good. My sweet Japanese mother-in-law is very proud that everyone loves Panko breadcrumbs now. And then step six, do that with all the strips. Like, just keep doing that. Keep one hand for touching chicken when it's coated in either flour or breadcrumbs, and the other hand for touching raw chicken and egg-covered chicken. One wet hand, one dry hand.

You'll be so happy to make that distinction. You'll be very thankful that I told you that. Okay, the important thing about frying chicken of any kind, including these chicken strips, is that you don't want to fry too hot, too fast. High heat is great with indirect cooking, like roasting, but when it comes to chicken touching where the heat is coming from, like shallow pan um like when you're frying in shallow oil in the pan um that high heat can make the fibers

and the chicken seize up and become tough so you want there to be a sizzle for sure but not a sizzle you need to be afraid of right often we cook things at either the intensity of a bonfire or like a candle there's not a good middle ground um we need to find a good middle ground you want the sizzle of like a like a crackling fireplace fire. It's not raging. It's not flickering. It's crackling. Can we use fireplaces to describe chicken techniques? I guess we just did. So you'll add oil to your skillet and turn the heat up to high to get the oil hot. How do you know if the oil is ready? Drop a few extra breadcrumbs into the oil. Does it start to crackle? Bingo. If it flickers like a candle, wait another few minutes. If it rages, then turn the heat down, just a hair. And then you'll add your breaded

chicken fingers to the oil with a solid inch between each piece. If you want crunchy, don't crowd the pan. Now, I know I said that you don't want to cook the chicken too high, but also just said to heat your oil over high heat. Here's why. When you add all of those chicken fingers to your skillet, the temperature of the oil will drop. It's better to start the oil too hot so that it drops down to the right temperature than starting your oil where it should be and then putting in the chicken and then it's not hot enough. So just watch your pan. Actually, better, better than that.

Listen, listen to your pan. If the crackle starts to rage, turn the heat down a bit. The first time you cook these, set a stopwatch when you put the first batch in the pan. Once you see lovely golden brown edges, flip the chicken. Notice the time. It'll probably be in like the four minute range. Whatever it is, once you flip the chicken, set a timer for that same amount of time. that'll help you understand your stove, your chicken, and help you cook things pretty evenly as you get started.

And then you'll know, like, my chicken fingers cook five minutes on each side. And how do you know if they're done? Clenched fist test. Same thing. So truly, as you practice with this one method of frying and start to recognize how heat affects the texture of the chicken and the breading, how sometimes the second side seems to cook quicker than the first, it'll help you become a better chicken friar in general. you won't be as scared to try chicken thighs that have skin on them. Then you'll graduate to bone in pieces.

Chicken fingers are excellent frying training wheels. So give them a try sometime. Again, I'm hoping to have a chicken finger video available sometime in the near future. I just need all my children to be in school for all these videos to happen. My almost two-year-old daughter doesn't like it when I spend the entire morning cooking food and taking videos of it. She just wants me to read her the same Peppa Pig book 27 times because that's, somehow normal behavior. So realize that giving you these instructions with just my voice for now is breaking all the food blogging rules, but y'all I'm not a food blogger. I do hope those soon to

offer videos and to make these processes easier. Okay, two more methods. And both of these are a little unsung. Poaching. Poaching is cooking chicken, almost always chicken without skin or bone, by submersing it in simmering liquid. I love this method because it only requires one pan. I will okay here's another food blogger rule breaking I'm going to tell you another recipe okay so I'll saute carrots and onions add some chicken broth bring it to a boil I will add cut up pieces of seasoned chicken breast so salt and pepper on the chicken breast pieces and then put those into the simmering liquid and gently simmer until the chicken is done essentially that's poaching you can do the same if you make a thick tomato based curry that liquid is way

thicker than just broth, but as long as there are bubbles and enough liquid for the chicken to be mostly submerged, you'll get cooked chicken. Some people like to poach whole, boneless, skinless chicken breast in a shallow pan of water and then shred it and freeze it. I've done that a few times, but I think that poaching chicken in just water doesn't help at all with flavor and trying to poach an entire piece of chicken at once, especially with the lopsided way of the chicken breast, it kind of leads to rubbery chicken. So I would rather use the poaching technique with bite-sized pieces of chicken. They can cook gently without taking so long that the texture gets tough. The biggest rule here, a rule that I'll mention again shortly, don't boil the chicken.

It's the same as with the frying. If the heat is too high, the chicken gets tough. So if you plan on poaching, it shouldn't go higher than a gentle simmer. Like closer to a candle, it's like lower than a crackle, lower than the crackling fireplace. It's like a fire that's just getting started. It's like the gentlest of simmers. A consistent number of small bubbles, but nothing rolling or popping. And your chicken will stay delightfully tender this way. And finally, brazing. Y'all need to integrate more brazing into your lives. I am telling you, braising is magic in the winter. Oh, my gosh. I mean, it's not winter now. Well, it's still winter, but we're moving into the spring, but still. Braising is like the best thing ever, especially in the winter and on cold days. It is one of the most comforting

methods of cooking chicken. It's fine for all the cuts except ground chicken, whole chicken, and tenderloins, because they just fall apart. But it's wonderful for cuts with bones, for sure. Boneless, skinless cuts don't get the full benefit of a long braise because they simply don't need as much time to cook. But for cuts with bones, oh, that's perfection. It's a gentle way of cooking that somehow extracts so much flavor from the meat. So the idea of brazing, is that you, assuming your piece of chicken has skin, and pieces of chicken with skin and bone that are already cut up, so not a whole chicken, are the best for brazing.

So the idea is that you sear the skin side of the chicken, or if it doesn't have skin, like the fleshy side opposite of the bone. If you sear that side on high heat in like a Dutch oven or a heavy sauce pan or something, take out the chicken, put it like on a plate or something away from you with the skin up so the skin doesn't necessarily. or like it's soft again. And then into that pan with like the chicken stuff, you're going to add aromatics.

Aramatics are vegetables that are like onion, carrot, celery, green pepper, garlic, ginger, chili peppers, things that let out a wonderful aroma when they're cooked that's a little bit different from fresh. They're like the base flavor of a lot of things, especially embracing. So you're going to add, so you're to see your skin, take the chicken out, you're going to put your aromatics into that pan with all those like chicken bits you're going to saute them all together and get up all those delicious bits of chicken then you're going to add the chicken back in like on top of those aromatics then you're going to add enough liquid to come up a little bow bit over like halfway up

the chicken cover it and then cook it on low like turn the heat to low um using a slow cooker would count as brazing if you seared your chicken first. So you develop a depth of flavor with high direct heat, and then you add a small amount of liquid to gently cook the meat. Chicken will be done anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour, depending on how big your pieces are, how aggressive your sear was in the beginning, and how fall apart tender you want your chicken to be. One of my favorite ways to do this is two. Okay, sear chicken thighs that have a bone and a skin. So you just steer the one side with the skin on it. Remove the chicken.

Sautay onion and garlic, of course. De-glaze the pan, which is a fancy way of saying you use liquid to boil off all the flavorful bits from the pan. So I de-glaze the pan with crushed tomatoes, a little balsamic vinegar. Then I'm going to season that liquid with, and the vegetables are still in there with salt. I'm going to stir. It kind of makes this, like, really luxurious sauce. And then I tuck the chicken back into that sauce. I put the cover on.

and I cook it in a 300 degree oven for about an hour, and it's fall apart. You serve it over creamy, cheesy polenta. Gracious, y'all. It's a delight. But that's the most basic concept of brazing, and it's definitely something you should explore to put in your chicken cooking arsenal for sure. Okay. Now, we have said just a few words about chicken.

We have a few more. I could say so much more. It's a little bit ridiculous. There are so many good things to learn when it comes to chicken. But I think we've said enough at this point. So we're going to finish with three chicken rules. Okay? And we've kind of already talked about them.

Number one, salt early if you can and liberally always. Chicken tastes better the longer it's salted. Like we're talking even an entire day. I'm not joking. If you buy fresh chicken in the morning at the grocery store, season it well with salt when you get home and you'll have the juiciest, tastiest chicken at dinner. And use more than you need, please. Like eventually, eventually you'll find your perfect amount.

But if the chicken doesn't make your eyes roll into the back of your head when you eat it because it's so amazing, then you need more salt. It doesn't make it taste salty. It makes it taste like chicken. It makes it taste more like the amazing piece of chicken it is. So if you're like a generally like a pretty good salter, like you don't need to double it. Like I trust you. But just don't be afraid to add a little bit more than you're used to and just start to notice if you're, um, you're, salt level could like if your flavor gets better because you're up in your salt game a little bit.

So just don't be afraid to aggressively salt your chicken. Rule number two and salted early. Rule number two, pat the skin dry. If you're going to roast your chicken or want crunchy skin without having to fry it, pat the skin dry with a paper towel. It makes a huge difference. And then number three, I already mentioned it, but don't boil your chicken. In any method, involving liquid or a lot of oil. Frying, poaching, the second half of brazing, don't boil. No giant bubbles. No crazy high heat.

Your chicken will seize up and get tough. It's like if you're an introvert who walks into a party, a good host doesn't want you to shut down when you walk in, right? And so that good host will ease you into the room, direct you to a corner with a couple of folks you know rather than into the center of the dance floor. If you're an introvert who immediately gets thrown into the center of the dance floor, you're for sure going to seize up. And chicken is the same way, man. So be gentle with your chicken. Think crackling fire, an easy conversation in the corner, a brisk walk through the snow. Yes, there is energy and there is

activity, but not enough to scare anybody off. Does that make sense? Do you all think I'm crazy? salt early and liberally, pat the skin dry, and don't boil your chicken. Okay, that was so much about chicken. If you want that chicken sheet I mentioned, head to the lazy genius collective.com slash lazy slash chicken, pop in your email and you'll get it right away. It's a chart with the cuts of chicken and the methods best for each cut. So it's basically just a way for you to reference. To be like, oh, so boneless skinless chicken thighs were on sale at the store today. What are the way that I could use them, Kendra, and there's just like a little bullet. Like, this is great for this one. So you can just sort of see. So it really is just like a quick little grid table thing. I don't

know words. Okay. So before we go, a couple things. My lazy genius tip of the week isn't new. If you've been around here a while, I kind of already mentioned it a little bit, but since we're talking about chicken, one of my favorite ways to save time prepping dinner is making up freezer bags of marinade before you go shopping for on-sale chicken. Because a lot of times we do that. Like, you know that chicken's on sale somewhere. Or maybe you're going to a store. Like, for example, my target marks down their meat on Mondays. Like, there are always those stickers of like $3 off this package, $5 off this package. Those are always there on Mondays. And you can start to pay attention to those rhythms. You can even ask the people who work at your grocery store. Like, when do you guys mark down meat? Because that's one of the best ways

that you can save money is to either not eat as much meat or to eat it by only when it's on sale. So if you know that you're about to go buy a bunch of chicken and you're doing one of those like massive like freezer stockpiles, then what I would suggest that you do before you leave for the store is you pull out some freezer bags, like little quart bags. We use quart bags just because that's all we need for our family. But you could use gallon if you're feeding a big old crew. And go ahead and make up some marines. So like an Asian marinade or like Greek salad dressing type situation, like olive oil and lemon juice. barbecue sauce or just kind of whatever you want. You kind of might know the flavors that your family likes the most.

So go ahead and make up those marines and put them into the bags. And then just leave the bags out on the counter, like open and lined up. They don't fall as much if you flip open. Like if you turn them inside out like you're putting a pair of socks together in the laundry. Like it just creates more of a structure in the bag. And then it's easier to put the chicken in it too. But go ahead and get all of your bags of marinade ready. And I'd like to go ahead and put them on a show.

sheet pan um so that i can transport them to the freezer more easily as well so like take your freezer bags make your marinade up in those like um glass measuring cups or just pour them from the bottle if you buy a bottle marinade totally great dump them into the bags that are on a sheet pan flip flip up in your bags put your bags on the sheet pan flip them open put the marinade in all of them and then go to the store when you come back you've got your you get a big cutting board out on your knife and you just open up those pieces of chicken you can put whole pieces of chicken in there but we cook with bite size so often that it just makes more sense for us to go ahead and bite size them up. So you just cut up a chicken, put a handful in a bag. Cut up some more chicken, put a handful

in the bag. Like it always, it already has a place to go. And then you just wash your hands and you zip up all those chicken bags. Then you take them outside. You do need to label them. Please label them before you add the marinade to them because then it gets hairy. So yeah, go ahead and make sure you can have a sharpie close by. But that is my favorite, one of my favorite things to do, especially if I know I'm coming home with a load of chicken, is to have the location of that chicken ready to go. So I'm not scrambling. And it happens really quickly.

Like it's, there's something about certain tasks feel like they take longer when they happen certain times of the day. Like cutting up chicken and putting it in a bag doesn't take a different amount of time. Like before, like making up that marinade doesn't take a different amount of time before I leave for the store versus when I get back. from the store with the chicken, but there's something about getting home from grocery shopping

that feels a little bit more frantic, especially when you're like, it's chicken. It's going to kill us if I don't get in the refrigerator in two seconds. So like there's just something about reducing your stress level. You're not necessarily reducing the amount of time that it feels like it, because you're reducing the stress level. So that is something that's super helpful for me that once, I mentioned it on Instagram like a while ago before I was leaving for the store and I was like, here are all the paronades, ready to go. And a lot of you have started doing that. You told me that it made a big difference. So I just want to put that here on the podcast so that you can try that for yourself if you especially are a on sale meat buyer person. Okay. Now, that was fun. Why'd the chicken

crossed the road, you guys, to get away from me talking so much about chicken. I hope that you learn something in all these words and it was a lot of words. And I would love to hear any thoughts that you have about these words in the comments of the show notes or this Thursday, Instagram. I'll be there live. I'm at the lazy genius on Instagram. And I'll be there live on around 1215 Eastern to answer as many of your chicken questions as I can. Okay. Also, the last couple of announcements that I mentioned at the start of this episode. The swap, which is the lazy genius guide to decluttering for life, is available for two more days. February 28th is the last day to order. And it's going to be gone for at least a year.

because I'm working on some other things for you, and it's just going into temporary retirement. So if you have questions about the swap, about what it is, how it can literally change your life, then head to store. Dot the lazy genius collective.com. There's a video and FAQs

and all the things you'll need to decide if it's right for you. And then final announcement, my sister and I are relaunching the Lazy Sisters podcast. We are going to be making those episodes available on Patreon. which if you're unfamiliar with Patreon, it is a way, it's a platform for people who are entrepreneurs

and creators who don't have a boss who have to make their own paycheck to basically have people who support them in like listening and engagement to support them with money too. So some of you have been begging me to get on Patreon for a long time. You're like, when is the lazy genius going to get on Patreon? Please take my money, which is the kindest thing in the entire world. So this is a really kind way. If you are interested in supporting the work from the Lazy Genius Collective, being a patron and joining our Patreon campaign is a great way for you to do that. It's just $3 a month.

That's all it is. And you get Lazy Sisters content. And if you have not listened to the Lazy Sisters podcast, there's some old episodes or like archive. We'll use archive. That's more fancy, right? You can listen to archived episodes on the website. the lazy genius collective.com slash podcasts and you can listen to some of the favorite ones and kind of

get an idea. Also, I'm going to drop like a preview of the first Patreon episode, the first like new lazy sisters podcast episode because we are kind of changing our format a little bit, which I'm really excited about. And so that will drop into this feed this week. So if you're curious about what you might be getting, then you will know. It's just going to land in your phone and your podcatcher like this episode, like this podcast does, and you can listen to it and see what you think. But if you were interested in checking out the Lazy Sisters podcast and what Patreon is and all that good stuff, you can go to patreon.com. That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N-S-Lase the Lazy Genius. So Patreon.com slash the lazy genius. And this week I will also be sending out like email to the

mailing list about kind of some information about that as well, so you don't miss it. So if you are not on the mailing list. I would love for you to be. It's like the best place to connect with me for sure and to make sure you don't miss a thing, including things. I don't share it anywhere else. So that is, you can join that at the lazy genius collective.com slash join. I think that's enough for all the places that you could type into your search bar and your computer. Okay, we are going to be done. Thank you for listening to this episode. I hope that you are so inspired to cook chicken. Be sure to go get your chicken cheat sheet and have a better handle of how to cook your chicken and what to buy and all the things. I'm so glad you're listening.

And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter, lazy about the things that don't. Bye, guys. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that more dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A-plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.