Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Week 11: Poultry
This week we learned about various forms of protein. We always just thought of chicken and turkey but Chef Kristi told us about some other forms such as duck, goose, and even pigeon!!
All muscle tissue has similar composition and structure - about 75% water, 20% protein, and up to 5% fat. The muscle tissue is held together by connective tissue, which plays a big part in how tender your protein is. The amount of connective tissue depends on the age and amount of exercise the animal has had. More connective tissue = less tender.
Poultry is extremely perishable and should be used as soon as possible after purchasing, and never more than four days later. (Unless you freeze it!!) Be sure to always wash your hands and equipment after handling raw poultry! Poultry should cook until well-done and its minimum internal temperature should read 165 degrees F. For small birds you can also test for doneness by the looseness of its joints, if it is firm to the touch, and if its juices run clear.
We made a lot of interesting things this week, like Buffalo wings, turkey empanadas, chicken cordon bleu, and even chicken noodle soup—which was great on a cold day! Hopefully, you can impress your families and friends this Thanksgiving with all of your new cooking knowledge! Have a relaxing and thankful break!
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Today we cooked chicken, my group made sesame chicken. I am a vegetarian so i was unable to try anything during this lab, so it was not my favorite. But everyone else seemed to enjoy the dishes.
ReplyDeleteKayleigh Palmer
Why the long space?
DeleteIn lab this week, we made poultry dishes. My group made pasta with chicken sausage, asparagus, and esparole. The sauce smelled really good, but I'm also a vegetarian and so didn't eat any of the dishes in lab this week (though my table was really nice and let me have the butter lettuce and celery so I wouldn't feel left out while they were eating). It was still a good experience to be in lab and see how things were made and I plan on modifying some of the sauces so I can use them with tofu or chickpea cutlets to make for myself.
ReplyDeleteChicken is one of my favorite foods so it was interesting to try so many different variations of it. My lab table is usually the one to definitely clear our plates, but today we had leftovers, and not because the recipes didn't taste good but because we were all so full! My lab group was responsible for making the turkey empanadas, which I have never heard of before and was shocked when we started added raisins to our dish. Fortunately, it turned out to be a very delicious recipe. Although, I think my favorite recipe from today was the sweet and sour chicken. It had so much flavor and was super tender. I also really enjoyed the lettuce wraps, as well as the pasta that had sausage and asparagus in it (not sure what it was called). Overall, great cooking today everyone!
ReplyDeleteI have been looking forward to this lab for a while now. I make chicken all the time and was excited to learn new and exciting ways to cook poultry. My group made the turkey empanades. I was nervous at first when I looked at the ingredients because it was a very random array of ingredients such as olives, feta cheese, and raisins. Although when I tasted it, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it tasted delicious! The flavors were so strong and flavorful from the chilli powder and cumin. Another one of my favorite dishes was the chicken picatta. The lemon flavored sauce had a nice flavor and texture. I learned a lot from this lab and will definitely make some of these recipes in the near future.
ReplyDeleteIn this week's lab, we made dishes which were focused on poultry. Chicken is one of my favourite choices of meat and I was really excited for the lab. My group was assigned to make the turkey empenades and it was my first time tasting and making it. Initially, the filling for the empanades did not look too appetizing but it definitely tasted really good. We folded the pastries ourselves and although it looked amateur, I hope the taste would have compensated it. Overall, I learnt many novel methods of cooking poultry and making it taste good by simple means.
ReplyDelete-Jessica Ng
In today's lab, my group made the chicken sausage, asparagus, and pasta dish. I'd never had chicken sausage before or the little ear pasta but they were both very good and easy to put together. I'm a huge fan of different types of meat, so I really enjoyed today's lab. The sweet and sour chicken was definitely my favorite dish along with the turkey empanades. I'd never had an empanade before but I definitely can't wait to make it again sometime in the near future. Overall everything was delicious and very well made!
ReplyDeleteLindsey O'Neill
In todays lab, my group made turkey marsala which was a pretty simple recipe. I absolutely love turkey meat, especially turkey burgers, so now I have a new recipe to try out! I'm not the biggest mushroom fan, but once they were cooked in the marsala sauce they were delicious! My favorite dish was the turkey empanadas! I was not a fan of the wings, sesame chicken, and the lettuce wraps. I feel like these recipes need a longer time to perfect them compared to last weeks lab when we ate breads and cakes. I also learned a lot about the safety concerns when cooking with poultry. I realized that I always cook and cut my poultry first and then handle other ingredients, this could be very dangerous and cause cross contamination of bacteria. I need to be more careful in the kitchen at home.
ReplyDeleteThis weeks lab wasn't my favorite and I was kind of disappointed by that. My group made the asian chicken lettuce wrap, which was one thing I actually did enjoy. I was nervous for the mushrooms that were put in it because I normally do not enjoy mushrooms, but I think because they were diced up so small they were able to absorb the sauce they were cooked and I did not notice them when I tried the dish. This would definitely be something I would want to make, but I would probably prefer to use white meat instead of dark meat. The only other thing I would want to make from this lab would be the sweet and spicy sauce. I was surprised by which things use light meat and which use dark and wonder if that is necessary to the meal or just a preference.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Albert
This was not the best lab for me. My unit made buffalo chicken wings, which I don't really eat. I'm not a huge meat eater to begin with and some of the food I don't think was cooked all the way through. I learned a lot about safety with handling raw meat and sanitizing afterwards. Even though this wasn't my favorite lab, there were still some interesting dishes.
ReplyDeleteYvonne DeLancett
Although I myself do not eat meat/poultry, I found this lab really fun and valuable. As a nutrition professional, I will have to advice people with all kinds of diets and should definitely know how to handle all kinds of ingredients in a safe and healthy way. I think that the turkey empanadas could easily be converted to a vegetarian dish by using diced eggplant of some ground chickpeas in place of turkey meat...I really would like to try that since the original recipe seemed really balanced with spice, sweet, and salty!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this weeks lab, more than i thought i would. My unit made the sesame chicken which was really good. I liked how we made the topping in the bag and shook the chicken in that. We overcooked it a little but it still ended up tasting pretty good. I really enjoyed the chicken wings and chicken pasta with asparagus. Chicken is one of my favorite foods so it was nice to see all the different things you can do with it instead of just plain chicken all the time. It was also good to learn about all the sanitation necessary when dealing with raw meat and how to thaw it.
ReplyDeleteReading some comments, I've noticed many people are vegetarians... Well this lab I have to say was one of the best labs we've had! Mostly everyone in my class section are not vegetarians and from listening around it sounded like everyone LOVED all the recipes! My group made the chicken cordon bleu and I wasn't too familiar with this recipe so it was cool to actually make it and learn this recipe. Out off all the recipes this one was my least favorite, but I think that's just because this was my first time making it. It amazed me how much the chicken noodle soup tasted just like from the can but obviously 10x more fresh and delicious! I absolutely loved the sticky chicken, I think it was called.. and of course the WINGS! I love hot sauce and I'm always craving wings, so I was very very happy. Cool Lab. Love food. Peace out!
ReplyDeleteDestiny Blount
This weeks lab was definitely interesting. My unit made buffalo wings. I have never made anything before that involved frying the food in oil. I thought it was a relatively simple dish and came out pretty good. Although it wasn't my favorite lab there was a few dishes I really enjoyed. Such as chicken pasta with asparagus.
ReplyDeleteChandler Ray
this week in lab was poultry. I was a little nervous coming into lab because I had never cooked meat before. It was my group's job to make the chicken wings. The hardest part of this was not getting burnt from the oil when trying to fry the wings! However, they ended up turning out well and were a big hit. Other foods, such as the turkey marsala were very good and I would definitely try to cook some of these things on my own
ReplyDeleteLauren Hochreiter-Unit 9-Section 1
This weeks lab was poultry. My group cooked buffalo wings. It took awhile to get the chicken to cook the whole way through while boiling them in the oil and made quite a lot of noise. These aren't one of my favorite things to eat but they turned out great and tasted really good. The other recipes we tried were also really good. There was so much variety for recipes with chicken. Everyone did a great job and it was all delicious.
ReplyDeleteThe poultry unit this week was great, especially since poultry is my primary source of protein. I was secretly hoping we would have a change of plans to a Thanksgiving meal, but I was still pleasantly surprised with this week's agenda.
ReplyDeleteMy group made turkey marsala, which was delish! I was a little confused why we used turkey instead of the traditional chicken, but I guess turkey cutlets don't get used as much as they should!
I had a fun time and am excited to see this week's theme.
I really enjoyed the poultry unit this week. We ended up making Sticky and Spicy Thai Chicken which turned out really good. It was fun making the sauce that would go over the chicken, and I really thought the vinegar was going to be too strong but ended up making a very nice flavor with everything else. It was interesting to see all the other poultry dishes and how they came out. Our dish ended up very nice and tasted very good!
ReplyDeleteI really liked the lab this week because we tried different types of ways to make chicken. I eat chicken many times a week so it was interesting to learn different varieties of cooking chicken. My unit made the sesame breaded chicken which was fun to make since I never tasted that recipe before.
ReplyDelete-Stephanie Sarra
Holy Poultry! That's all I can say for this week's lab. All of the dishes that the groups made this week were delicious once again! My group and I made chicken pescata this week, which took awhile to make do to the fact that we had to sautee both sides of several pieces of chicken. But the wait was well worth it! Another great thing about this week was that a lot of the dishes dealt with chicken which I make all of the time. Now I have some fresh new ideas to keep my meals interesting!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for this lab I had strep throat and was unable to cook. However, I did learn a lot from reading the lab manual and from what Chef Kristie told us at the beginning of class. I even was able to tell my parents how to take the temperature of the turkey this weekend! My group made the asian chicken lettuce wraps, which I've heard people enjoyed. It was very interesting to learn about all the different kinds of poultry!
ReplyDeleteThis lab was a lot of fun and definitely gave me some new ideas for cooking chicken. Unfortunately I was allergic to most of the dishes but the buffalo wings and chicken noodle soup tasted even better than the places that cook them day in and day out. Every recipe that I was allergic to I can substitute similar ingredients in for to make at home in a way I can eat - so I'm going to try that over winter break. I can't wait for the next lab!
ReplyDelete-Georgia Foulds
This lab was great for me because I eat chicken a lot and now I have new ways to cook it! I really really did NOT like the buffalo wings that my group made. I think we did everything correctly, I just don't like greasy food and buffalo sauce. However, at least I know how to make fried chicken wings for a superbowl party!
ReplyDeleteGabby Keeley
This lab was very interesting to see all the different ways you can cook chicken! I eat chicken a lot so now I have a bunch of new recipes I can make. My favorite recipe was the chicken in the lettuce cups. I have had this at a restaurant once and I loved it! The group that made the dish made it very well. I will definitely try this recipe when I am home for winter break. The chicken pescata was also really good!
ReplyDeleteFallon Bader
This lab was great. My group was in charge of making the Thai sticky and sweet chicken. In all honesty it was my favorite dish. While making it I was very unsure of what it would taste like. One of my group members and I were not found of putting fish liquid into it. Towards the end we carmalized the stock and laid it on top of the chicken. It was amazing.
ReplyDeleteThis weeks last was so much fun! It was interesting to be cooking meat instead of in past weeks we really had not experimented with any kind of animal product. We had to start by making the sauce for out chicken and then cooking the chicken and then adding the sauce to it. It was very interesting to see the different ways that chicken could be cooked. I really liked the epanadas!
ReplyDeleteThis week during lab my unit made Thai Sweet and Spicy Sticky Chicken. Although I did not enjoy this lab as much as the past ones, I still found it really interesting and all of the foods turned out really well. I had never really had any experience cooking with chicken previously so it was cool to learn about it.
ReplyDeleteThis week, my unit and I made chicken cordon bleu. I had never seen this made from scratch before, so it was cool to learn the whole process. I don't eat meat, so unfortunately I couldn't try anything, but it all looked delicious!
ReplyDeleteThis week was especially interesting to me because my family used to own a chicken restaurant where I started working when I was 13. Obviously, chicken was a staple food for me growing up. However, there were a bunch of recipes this week that I had never made before, including chicken cordon bleu which was what my unit made. Everything was delicious and I will definitely be making more of the recipes!
ReplyDeleteI love to eat chicken and is the choice of meat I chose the most when making meals or eating out. My unit made chicken noodle soup and it was delicious. I love my fried chicken and I know always eating fried food is not good for you so it was interesting to learn new ways on how to cook chicken.
ReplyDeleteThis lab had to be one of my favorites so far. The chicken dish had to be my favorite ! Alot of the receipes were new to me and I love trying new and different things.All the different ways of cooking mad it way more interesting than it usually is!
ReplyDeleteSection 02 Unit 9
As a semi-vegetarian, I really only eat Chicken and fish. So therefore, I LOVE CHICKEN! MY unit made a chicken sausage asparagus pasta which was actually pretty good! My favorite though was the chicken noodle soup! Great lab over all!
ReplyDeleteI loved to see all the different ways that chicken could be cooked and how it can be incorporated into soup, pasta, etc. My group made sesame chicken that was baked. I really liked it but if I were to make it again I would definitely use more sesame seeds!
ReplyDelete