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How to Make Juicy Chicken

Chicken seems to be one of those things that really gives a lot of people a hard time. When you buy it from the store, meat market or wherever you find your chicken it is boring, bland and rather plain by itself. I hope we all know chicken needs to be cooked, you can’t eat raw chicken or even partially cooked chicken, so it must be cooked entirely. This is where a lot of people get thrown, you can grill it, fry it, bake it, pan sear it, braise it, oven roast it and the list goes on. The most common complaint I have with chicken is that it is over cooked then served dry and lifeless, just because it has to be cooked through does not mean it has to be dry, boring and dull.

That’s where this post comes in, one of the best kept secrets in the restaurant world is brining chicken, brine is simple to make, easy, cheap to make and keeps chicken flavorful and juicy. The basic recipe for chicken brine is 8 cups of water, 1/2 cup of salt (if using iodized salt reduce the amount of salt being used) and 1/4 cup sugar – that’s it! I know it sounds simple, even unusual but it works!

The next item is how long you brine your chicken, you don’t want to over do it or it will be so overly salty you won’t enjoy the meal. Below is a rough guide depending on the piece of chicken you are brining.

Whole Chicken 4-8 hours

Half Chicken 3-6 hours

Bone-in Skin-on Breasts 1-2 hours

Boneless Skinless Breasts 30-60 minutes

Legs and Thighs with Skin 45-90 minutes

Skinless Legs and Thighs 30-45 minutes

As you can see it doesn’t take long at all, in particular for boneless, skinless breasts, which I think need the most help when cooking. Just by adding this extra treatment your chicken will retain moisture, flavor and not that it is impossible to over cook and dry out but greatly reduces the chances.

Now comes the real fun with brining, you can mix up the ratio’s a bit to suit your desired flavor profile or even add other components to your brine. For example, some people like less salt, some people like more, I strongly urge people to cook with sea salt (aka kosher salt) if it’s at all possible, it doesn’t have as sharp of a taste and allows you to fine tune your cooking better; if you’re using iodized salt please proceed cautiously when increasing the amount you’re adding. I typically always add some fresh ground pepper to my brine so feel free to experiment with that as well.

You can add virtually anything else that would impart flavor that you’re looking for, such as crushed garlic cloves, minced onions, cumin, rosemary, thyme and the list goes on and on! What ever you would normally cook your chicken with you can probably add to the brine to infuse those flavors into the chicken. I normally don’t go over board with additional flavorings, but it’s fun to try new things.

With Thanksgiving around the corner I’m sure some of you are wondering if you can brine a turkey and the answer is YES! A few years ago we made a fried turkey at my parents house on Thanksgiving and we had brined it for I believer 2 or 3 days prior and it was one of the best turkey’s I’ve ever had – and I love turkey, it’s my favorite meal. With the brined, fried turkey it created this unbelievably amazing crispy, perfectly seasoned skin that I’ve ever had, just think about it takes me to a special place.

After you create the brine just place the cleaned chicken or chicken pieces in it for the times that are listed above, after the time has passed remove the chicken, wash it with clean water once or twice and prepare it as you normally would. I love brined chicken on a grill, but it’s also great pan seared, or virtually any method you wanted to cook it. I don’t think you need to brine chicken if you’re poaching or braising it, you’ll be cooking in flavor with those methods and brine won’t add much but it would make for a great experiment.

You can brine meats other than just poultry, but not all meats respond well to brine, I’ll have a follow up post soon about other meats that are great to try with brine. If you come up with any additional flavorings that you find work well I’d love to hear about it!

SodaStream Genesis – Review

By this point I suspect most of you have seen the SodaStream on display at various big box stores, they typically are at an end cap. I saw them at this type of store and thought to myself, that seems cool but totally useless. I am a soda drinker, I am mildly addicted to Diet Pepsi and in a pinch drink Diet Coke though I often find the off brand name soda’s to be unpleasing. Initially I thought the SodaStream system(s) were a gimmick and the current snake oil of the month, I was mistaken!

My parents drink more soda than I do and they purchased one from a local Bed Bath and Beyond using one of the famous 20% of coupon’s bringing the purchase price to around $80. This kit includes pretty much everything you need to make your own soda, minus the water itself. When I saw it sitting at my parents house I just shook my head and laughed thinking, I guess there is one born every minute. Then they showed it to me and gave me a demo and a sample, I was more interested. Then they explained the environmental benefits on just purchasing the syrup compared to shipping the heavy liquids, this benefit is I think one of the best values with the SodaStream. The energy saved by not shipping water (which is what the bulk of soda is) is huge, this starts with the large distributors, then the retail outlets themselves and finally you when you’re bringing the soda home, all in all it leads to a large decrease in fuel consumed to get the soda from the plant to you.

I try to be environmentally conscious, but I also don’t like to be fooled by hype. In this case the environmental benefits seem pretty clear, shipping weight burns fuel, reducing the weight being shipped significantly reduces the fuel burned to get your soda to you – seems about as simple as it gets!

The next benefit of this system is the cost savings, yes they exist too! I was very skeptical about this so I did quite a bit of research, computed what my average soda drinking cost, what it would cost using the SodaStream system and in about 18 months I’ll have broken even on the original purchase price. This break even point varies from one drinker to another, it depends how much you drink, what soda flavor’s you drink, some of them cost more or less than others. The regular soda drinker will break even in 12-24 months of the purchase price. While this is far from a great investment it is a decent way to save a little cash in the long term. To me the real benefit is knowing that I’m being environmentally smart while saving a little money and having fresh soda.

Now let’s get onto the soda making itself, I ended up going with the Soda Stream Genesis. The kit is pretty simple to use, I am typically very handy and intuitive when it comes to building things and putting the Genesis together was no exception. I didn’t even need instructions to put the kit together, it just makes sense. It’s also helpful there are only 4-5 pieces needed to initially construct the kits. From there it couldn’t get much simpler, chill water in the supplied 1 liter bottles – two come with the Genesis kit. Then screw them into the Genesis base and pulse the only button about 3 times or until you hear it make a change in the tone of the carbonation, I believe it uses a blow off valve once a specified pressure is reached within the bottle it stops filling the water with CO2. This makes it simple and very consistent, you never get overly bubbly or under carbonated soda, it’s always just right. To give you an idea of how simple it is, I can typically do this entire process in about 20 seconds from the time I get the bottle from the refrigerator to the point I’m unscrewing it from the Genesis with a full 1 liter of carbonated water.

I used to drink a fair amount of club soda, if I still drank that the savings would be even greater, because at this point you just carbonated your home drinking water and made club soda for pennies. However, most of us purchase this kit to make flavored soda or our own custom concoction. If you’re using the SodaStream Flavorings it’s a breeze and very affordable. Or you can get more creative and find your own extracts, sweeteners or virtually anything else you’d like to make a sparkling beverage. You can even buy the name brand syrups from your local Pepsi or Coca-Cola distributor if it’s a must have for you, the only problem is they typically come in large bags and are difficult to make smaller portions of, they are typically designed to work with commercial soda fountains. When it comes to the flavorings or sources for them the sky is really the limit, let your creativity run wild!

As I mentioned above I’m a diet cola drinker and thankfully the SodaStream diet cola is good, it’s a little earthier than Pepsi but still has that slightly overly sweet taste that I enjoy. What’s odd with my diet soda obsession is that as whole I don’t particularly like sweet things, but back to the soda stream. I’m also a fan of energy drinks when I need a little extra pep in my step, which is more often than I want to think about these days. The problem is they are really expensive, SodaStream has a great RedBull knock-off with their energy drink, again I get the diet and it seems to accomplish the same thing for a fraction of the price. Even though the energy drink from SodaStream is a little more money than the regular flavors it’s still a fantastic deal. If I drank more of that style drink I could probably bring my break even point down to 8-10 months.

Overall my experience has been superb, I have no complaints about the system or idea and now that I’ve lived with it for a few months I enjoy it and it is easier leaving the big, heavy soda at the store. I enjoy some of the flavors more than other’s but overall I think it’s a good purchase for a regular soda drinker. The beauty of the kit I received is that it was a gift – so I’m saving right away and doing good to the environment! If you’re the sort of person who already has everything this is a great new gadget that you’ll use, enjoy and save money in the process – not to mention doing a small part at protecting the environment!

How to Maintain Your Kitchen Knives

With proper maintenance, a little care and some patience a quality set of kitchen knives can last well beyond our lives. In this post I will share with you tricks, tips and even show you what will happen if you do not take care of your knives. In a previous post, Finding the Right Kitchen Knives, I shared with readers some tips on finding a set of kitchen knives that will provide you with a lifetime of enjoyment. In this post I will go over tips, tricks, debunk some myths and share plain common sense to make sure your investment is protected and functioning optimally.

The first thing I will mention falls into the common sense category, always use a cutting board if at all possible. Sometimes you just can’t, cutting a large cut of meat, or whatever else may come along in your culinary travels that would prevent you from using a cutting board. When choosing a cutting board always try to use, wood, plastic or rubber. Using other types of cutting boards, such as glass, metal or marble can actually damage your knives in a very short period of time, this includes cutting on ceramic plates – don’t do it! I had a roommate several years ago who refused to use a cutting board for whatever reason and he damaged one of my knives, below is a close up of the blade from the damage, this is VERY bad, you never want your knives to look like this.

Damaged Kitchen Knife Blade

As you can see there are several large and small pieces of the cutting edge missing, this was as a result of not using a cutting board, instead the center metal portion of the kitchen sink as his cutting board – for your sake, for your knife’s sake please don’t do that! The good news is the damage above can be fixed, though it should never have happened to begin with, more on the repair later in the article.

Another simple rule I like to adhere to, this is more of a cautionary measure, hand wash knives immediately after use. Don’t leave them in the sink and don’t put them in the dishwasher. Knives are typically very easy and quick to wash by hand, so this is not a big time consuming task. The reasons not to leave them laying around seem pretty obvious, first of all you are significantly more likely to have an accidental injury if they are just laying around, quality kitchen knives are razor sharp. Secondly, there is a greater chance of damaging the knife itself if it’s laying around, something could fall on it and bend the blade or hit the blade and damage it similar to what you see above. Bottom line, most quality knives are dishwasher safe, but I think it’s unwise to clean them that way.

Using a knife steel is one of the most misunderstood and incorrectly performed tasks in the culinary world. It’s a very simple task to perform with 10 minutes of practice and is one of the best things you can do to maximize the lifespan of your knife’s edge. Before I share the examples with you, please understand that a knife steel is not a blade sharpener as most people understand it, it is a blade “re-aligner” meaning it will keep your blade sharp, but it will not make a dull blade sharp. The damaged blade above can not be fixed with a knife steel. There are so many great examples online of how to use a knife steel I won’t bore you with it, but rather link you to it. Here’s a fantastic write up on how to use a knife steel. If you are more of a visual person here is one of my favorite blogging Chef’s, John Mitzewich, demonstrating how to use a steel and explaining visually what I mentioned above about it not sharpening the knife.

With a little practice you’ll become a whizz at using a steel and it’ll become a regular habit every time you use your knives, which is a good thing! Because I used a steel since my knives were new, with the exception of the knife above none of my knives have ever needed to be sharpened, they are all still extremely sharp and after 6-7 years the most used knives are to the point that I am thinking about finally actually sharpening them.

Sharpening a knife requires a stone, in the world of fine kitchen knives that typically means a whetstone or oilstone, these are flat, typically rectangular stones that you would use dry or apply oil or water to depending on the type of stone. This is one area that there is a huge range of variables on and there is no black and white answer, some stones are better with moisture others are better dry, some feel using a stone with a liquid lubricant can create an uneven edge because it suspends the fine blade particulate and creates uneven spots on the blades edge. Which ever direction you go in, the process is very similar to using a knife steel, here’s a link to learn more about using a knife sharpening stone. This is one area you may want to pay a professional to sharpen them if you have any doubts, the good news is much like with using a knife steel with a little practice and patience you can get very good at this too.

The only other tips I have to maximize the life of your knives is to be gentle with them, they are tools that are designed to be used, but don’t confuse that with abusing them. Don’t violently stab, or chop things chaotically, be graceful and calculated when cutting and you’ll become more efficient and effective with your knife skills. With practice and time you’ll become faster and more confident. Keep in mind the chef’s you see online cutting super fast probably cut more food in a day than the average at home chef does in several months. Be safe, use your head and don’t be afraid to keep pushing the limits with your knife skills, it’s a very rewarding skill set.

Monkey Bread

All families have family traditions, or at least I hope they do! For my family Monkey Bread is one of these traditions. A little background on our family history and then I’ll jump into the heart of the article, delicious, gooey monkey bread!

My Grandmother used to make monkey bread for the family at gatherings, it was always a crowd pleaser, easy to eat, the perfect combination of gooey sweetness, to crunchy yumminess. Another nice trait about monkey bread is that it’s a very informal dessert, you don’t need any sort of serving tools, you don’t even really need a plate, you can grab a few tasty morsels and continue on with what your doing. Or you can sit down with whomever you are sharing it with and literally break bread.

As I grew older my brother and I would help my Grandmother making it, I was young and didn’t remember exactly what was involved with it until just a few years ago. I was visiting my Grandmother about 5 years ago and we got to talking about cooking and food in general. I mentioned how I always loved her monkey bread and was curious if she remembered how to make it, and she just started rattling the directions from her head, I quickly wrote everything down and took all of the notes so I had it directly from the source with all of the information.

With the newly acquired recipe in hand I stopped by the grocery store to round up all of the ingredients, this is one of those rare occasions that I used a recipe. My grandmother was kind enough to send me home with a spare bundt cake pan which is my preferred vessel for baking a monkey bread in. I got home and got to work right away!

Here is the ingredients list:

2 – 7.5 oz Buttermilk biscuit tubes.

1 cup granulated sugar (more on this later)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 Tablespoon Water

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 pinch salt

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Preparation of monkey bread goes something like this, but feel free to personalize it to suit your tastes. In a large mixing bowl combine the sugar and cinnamon. If you are using raisins put them in the bottom of the bundt pan, ungreased. Quarter the individual biscuits, I find it’s best to get a very sharp knife and take the entire tube of biscuits and cut down it lengthwise so you have two half moon lengths of dough. Then lay them on the flat part of the half moon and cut down the length of biscuits, do this to both half moon sections and you’ll have effectively quartered the biscuits. After you do this a few times you get very good at it and it goes very quickly. I have a friend who enjoys the process of making monkey bread and he prefers to hand tear the biscuits. There is no wrong way to do it as long as you make them a little smaller. As you cut the pieces toss them in the cinnamon and sugar mixture, gently stir the pieces so they are entirely coated.

I find it’s easier to do the biscuit pieces tossing using about 1/4 of the total biscuit pieces at a time, you can do them all at once but it’s just quicker and seems to do a more thorough job when you do them in smaller groups. After they are coated with the cinnamon and sugar mixture place them in the bundt pan on top of the raisins. The main thing to take care of here is to make sure you don’t pack them down and make sure that you fill the bundt pan evenly. This recipe typically fills up 1/2 of a normal sized bundt pan, that is 100% normal.

Once all of the biscuit pieces are tossed with the cinnamon and sugar and in the bundt pan you’ll notice you have sugar left over, this too is normal.

In a small saucepan, combine the water and butter and slowly melt the butter. Once the butter is melted entirely add the remaining sugar and cinnamon mixture to the party and slowly bring the heat up. Be sure to stir almost continually as you bring the heat up, you want to stir this until all of the sugar is dissolved in the butter and the grittiness vanishes, you’ll notice it starts to froth a little bit while doing this, once that starts it typically means it is ready. Remove it from the heat and allow it to cool for a minute or two. Carefully cover the top of the biscuit pieces in the bundt pan with the melted butter mixture, paying particularly close attention to the sides, I find it’s best to use a tablespoon and spoon it on.

Preheat your over to 350° F once preheated bake for 30 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when you see the bits on the top (which becomes the bottom) are lightly brown and crunchy looking. Once that happens take it out of the oven and before it cools, flip it onto a plate, it should look something like this:

A few tips for making this, I typically use 3/4-7/8 cup sugar, I tend to like things less sweet than most. I’ve also found different people like their monkey bread a different ways, some like it softer and less done (then bake it for a little less time) while others prefer it crunchy and more done (in which case you bake it for a little longer). I’ve also done experiments replacing the raisins with dried cherries, fresh blueberries, fresh peaches, fresh apples and the list goes on! I typically use less cinnamon when using fruits other than apples. Also be cautious about fresh fruit adding too much liquid, I find it’s best to cook the fruit in the butter sugar mixture first and then assemble the monkey bread. It adds a little bit extra work but produces better results.

I’ve even experimented with savory monkey breads, removing the sugar entirely, replacing the raisins with parmesan cheese, then add finely chopped fresh garlic to the butter mixture, you could easily add some italian seasoning, parsley or marjoram – the options are limitless. I’ve even seen a recipe for a mexican monkey bread that is like a whole meal all in a monkey bread!

I’ve also done testing replacing the bundt pan with a ramekin or other cooking vessel, they always seem to cook less even unless the cooking container is on the small side, for example if you were making single serving sized monkey breads. I also want to stress that you should use the water, this is an old pastry chef’s trick, water in the oven when baking pastry and bread is what gives it a crusty crust. If you prefer it softer throughout omit the water and you’ll get less of textural difference, it will be softer throughout. You can also mist the monkey bread with water while baking for even more crunch in the crust. Some bread shops keep bake pans with water in them steaming in their ovens to provide the famous bakery crust. I know it sound counter intuitive but that is a great baking tip snuck into this post!

Monkey Bread is a great comfort food that I enjoy sharing with family and friends, it always brings a smile to people’s faces and despite the simplicity of this dish it is extremely well balanced and incredibly enjoyable. After you prepare it a few times you probably won’t need a recipe and you’ll start trying new things, as long as you follow basic rules of cookery you’ll be rewarded with a delicious, homemade monkey bread.

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