Conference turris::cooks

    My father was a chef and this is the way he always pre-cooked chicken
    to be used any way you wanted the next day, i.e. salads, fried,
    pies, etc.
    
    Put whatever amount of chicken you want (boneless,skinless or whole
    with skin and bones) cover with cold water, add whole onion (size
    and amount depending on how much chicken)  I usually use one large
    onion for about 6 lbs of whole fryers.  Add 2-3 carrots, about 4-5
    stalks of celery, salt and white pepper to taste and boil until
    tender.  The degree of doneness depends on what you intend to do
    with the chicken meat.  Remove from liquid and refrigerate over
    nite, save the liquid.  Remove bones and skin the next day and voila
    you are ready to do your thing.  Whenever he fried the chicken he
    would make a white sauce with the liquid to serve as gravy.
    
    Hope this is helpful,  Julia

    You can also microwave a whole chicken.  Skin the chicken, and remove
    all the fat that's in big chunks.  Put the chicken in a large covered
    dish.  Microwave until done, turning 1/4 turn every 5 minutes or
    placing dish on turntable.  A standard size chicken takes about
    20 minutes.  An oven-stuffer takes about 30.
    
    Fast. Easy. Does not heat up the kitchen very much.
    
    --Louise

    Thanks for the suggestions.  Louise, how long would you suggest
    cooking 1 1/2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts?
    
    Julie

    I am not sure - my microwave is an old old amana radar-range,
    and it only has one power level.  Check in your microwave
    cookbook.  If you don't have one, cook the chicken, checking
    every 3-5 minutes, until a fork poked in releases clear, not
    pink/red, juice.  You'll only have to do the frequent checking
    the first time, expecially if you write down the time it took
    to cook so you'll have the information for the next time.
    
    --Louise

Chicken breast also is perfect meat to poach.   
Slide breast meat pieces into a shallow pan with an inch or 2 of simmering
chicken broth, onion, carrot, pepper mixture.  Cover and simmer approx.
6 minutes and test for doneness by poking the biggest piece, at the
biggest point with a fork.  If the liquid runs clear, they are done.
Cool in the broth, skin, and use as desired.

    Well, I went to school for this but we were taught many different
    ways for poultry.  I use a good wine (white/dry/oak flavored), some
    shallots, a clove ( or so depending) of garlic and some freshly
    grown herbs.  Not boiled.  I always have chicken broth in the freezer
    for soups and what not.  There are different renditions however
    not by par-boiling.  You lose so much flavor.  I even go as far
    as to prepare the chicken/turkey for salads in the same fashion.
    I've been told that I make a flavorful/elegant salad.  If anyone
    would like anymore info just write to the node above.
    
    
    G.B.

    Thanks for all the responses.  I ended up microwaving the chicken
    as Louise suggested.  For 1 1/2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken
    breast, it took approximately 10 minutes to cook.  The chicken
    enchiladas were fantastic!
    
    Julie

    My husband and I are playing chef at a family reunion and are
    responsible for barbequeing about 30 pounds of chicken breasts.  Rather
    than lose my husband for the whole day to a hot grill, I suggested that
    we cook the chicken in advance, then sauce it and throw it on the grill
    to cook the sauce and heat the chicken.
    
    Needless to say, he thought this was a wonderful suggestion!! ;-)  Of
    course, when he asked me how we should cook the chicken ahead, I had no
    answer.  :-o  I searched the file and this looked like the most likely
    topic, but I am not sure that the methods described here apply.  Can
    anyone help me?  The reunion is on Saturday, so I need help FAST. (BTW,
    we will be using breasts with the bone in, and thighs and drumsticks.)
    
    
    -jer

The easiest is to cook it in the barbeque sauce.  Put a layer or two in a deep
rectangular pan, cover with sauce, seal with foil, and bake until just done.
You don't want it falling off the bone, yet.  At the bbq, set the pan at the 
side of the grill and place the pieces onto the grill to heat and crisp them.

The sauce really penetrates the meat his way, and gives it a great flavor.
You can also add chunks of onion and garlic to the roasting pan before baking
to add some extra zip.

What i usally do is wash the chicken, Then layer the chicken in a 
microwaveable dish so that it is usally about 2
layers deep and then apply my favorite barbeque sauce so that all the
chicken is well coated. I then throw it in the Microwave for about
20 minutes.  After this I take it out to the barbeque and reapply 
barbeque sause as needed then let it cook until it is done.

Every weekend this last summer I usallly had either a chicken or Steak barbeque. and
The chicken seemed to go over well.

By the way some people par boil the chicken instead of Microwaving it.


Brian

    Mmmmmm, that sounds great - I'm definitely going to try it the
    next time we bbq chicken. 
    
    If you've got different bbq sauces, or some folks who don't like
    any sauce you can also par-boil the chicken earlier in the day to
    partially cook it.  This is what I usually do so by the time it's
    off the bbq the chicken is cooked completely but the sauce isn't
    burned black.
    
    Conni
    
    

 I agree with the par-boil contingent. This works out really well, particularly
if you use a tomato based barbecue sauce.

 Boil the chicken for 20 minutes to a half hour. You can throw in a couple
of pieces of carrot and or celery, a bay leaf and some pepper corns if you want.
A splash or two of white wine doesn't hurt either. :-) You'll end up with
excellent stock when you're done, so you kill two birds with one stone.

 Once the chicken has been par boiled, you can store it in the fridge for
later use. When it's time to eat, toss the chicken on the grill and let it
start to warm up before putting any sauce on it. After the chicken has been 
turned once, then you can start putting sauce on it. The reason you put the
barbecue sauce on after the chicken has been heated up some is that if you
put a tomato based sauce on right away it will burn before the chicken is
heated through. (I don't know about you but I like the charcoal in the
grill and not on my plate.)

 The Doctah

    I *always* precook my chicken slightly in my pressure cooker.  Grill
    time is shorter.  No case of burn on the outside/undercooked on the
    inside.
    
    Rgds,
    marcia

    I wanted to check in and let all of you know that the family reunion
    came off well, and the chef was very grateful for the suggestions you
    made.  
    
    What we did was this-- we baked the chicken with a sprinkling of
    seasoned salt until it was about 2/3 done.  (We bought the bags of
    flash frozen chicken at the Price Club and baked it from the frozen
    state for about 45 minutes.)  Then, at the barbeque, he just finished
    the cooking over the coals.  (By the time it was hot through, it was
    done.)  Then he  sauced it liberally, allowed it to color up
    nicely and served.  It worked like a charm and he got to enjoy visiting 
    with his family instead of spending hours charring chicken!
    
    Thanks again for your help.  I knew I could count on you all.
    
    -jer

    
    I always precook my chicken for BBQ by first frying it.  Delicious.