The Perdue Chicken Cookbook

most often go for the roasters.) For a really strong, chickeny flavor, see

if you can find fowl or spent hens or stewing hens. These birds are around

8 months old, which means they're going to be quite tough, but if you use

them in soups or stews, they'll add an excellent flavor.

I've had chicken in the freezer for a year. Is it still edible?

From a health point of view it would be ok, but the flavor and texture will

have deteriorated and it just won't be particularly tasty. I stored chicken

in the freezer for a year once as an experiment, just to see what it would

be like. It wasn't awful, but it was kind of flat and tasteless. I remember

wondering if this was what cotton tasted like -- although to be fair, it

wasn't really that bad.

Why are bones sometimes dark?

Darkened bones occur when the product has been frozen. Freezing causes the

blood cells in the bone marrow to rupture and then when the chicken is

thawed, these ruptured cells leak out and cause visible reddish splotches on

the bones. When cooked, these discolorations will turn from red to almost

black.

Is it true that breast meat is the least fattening part of a chicken?

Yes. Breast meat has about half the fat of thigh meat. If calories or

cholesterol are important to you, choose the breast meat. Frank watches his

cholesterol and I've never seen him go for anything but breast meat. Is it

better to cook a chicken quickly at a high temperature-or slowly at a low

temperature?

Both work, but with high temperatures, you run a greater risk of uneven

cooking, with the wings and legs becoming overcooked before the rest of the

bird is done. Usually we recommend a moderate temperature of 350 degrees

for whole birds and 375 degrees for parts. If you are in a hurry and want to

use a higher temperature, then shield the wings and legs by wrapping them

with aluminum foil if they're starting to become too brown .

How much should I allow for shrinkage when cooking chicken?

For each 3-ounce serving of cooked poultry, buy an extra ounce to allow

for shrinkage and an extra two ounces to allow for bone.

If I want to use different parts of the chicken from what the recipe calls

for, how do I go about making substitutions?

This table should help:

Name of Part

Approximate No. to

Equal One Whole Chicken

Whole breasts

Half breasts

Whole leg (thigh and drumstick)

Thigh

Drumsticks

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