Topic: chicken is cooked?

[sapna]

am a vegetarian, and have started to learn to cook meat, how do you know when its cooked? sorry this Q is for any chicken curry

[Peripatetic Phil]

am a vegetarian, and have started to learn to cook meat, how do you know when its cooked? sorry this Q is for any chicken curry

With experience, by feel : you just squeeze a piece of the putatively cooked chicken and the degree of resistance that you experience is a measure of the degree of cookedness (up to a point, after which it starts to fall to bits, of course).  But it is very hard to describe how firm a piece of chicken should feel to indicate that it is properly (and safely) cooked, so it may be better to give you some time estimates.  Kris Dhillon recommends pre-cooking chicken pieces for 15--20 minutes, and then giving them a further 10 minutes in the sauce; I generally reduce the initial cook to 10--15 minutes.  Of these, the first stage is a very gentle simmer, then the first five minutes of the "in sauce" cook are at a gentle to rolling boil, then the final five are at a more moderate heat.  Try these time estimates, feel how firm the pieces of chicken are after each stage, then ask your non-vegetarian guest to tell you how well cooked the chicken is and bear this in mind next time you try to judge the feel.

** Phil.

[Vindaloo-crazy]

Or precook your chicken in bitesize pieces for about 10 mins in boiling, salted water, make sure one piece of bigger than the others. Cut this piece in half to confirm that the chicken is cooked through.

[Cory Ander]

Welcome to the forum Sapna,

For BIR curries, off the bone chicken breast is common, so you will probably be cooking bite-sized chunks.  These will only take a few minutes to cook (whether you fry them or precook them by boiling them).  Don't overcook them because they will become dry and tough.  5 minutes, or so, will suffice.  When it's white, all the way through, it is cooked.  Chop the largest chunk in half and check.

For larger pieces (e.g. on the bone thighs/wings/breasts), prick them with a fork (or similar) all the way to the bone.  If they ooze red liquid, they are not cooked.  If they ooze clear liquid, they are cooked.

For whole chickens, etc, you can either use the above method (i.e. pricking) or, better still, use a thermometer to check the internal temperature.

[Stephen Lindsay]

Hey Sapna

There's nothing worse, in my opinion, than overcooked chicken in a curry. It becomes dry and stringy. Bite size pieces can take anything from 10 minutes to 20 depending on how high the heat is but the cutting in half test suggested by Vindaloo-crazy and CA is what I would do to begin with. After you have made a few curries you'll know by expereince when it is cooked.

By the way I also love non-meat curries, especially made with pulses.

[peterandjen]

Cut the fattest lump in half and check its white all the way through. Chicken turns white when cooked.
If the meat is even slightly pink, cook it longer.
For whole chicken, i pull one of the legs away from the carcass and using a knife slice into the leg along the bone, if you see any blood or pinkness cook it longer.
You can also slice into the breast along the back bone and check that the meat along the ribs is well cooked.
Pork also needs to be well cooked with no pinkness.