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Author Topic: How do they cook the chicken?  (read 22,912 times)

AI Summary
The discussion centers around the cooking methods for chicken in British Indian Restaurants (BIR), with several participants sharing their experiences and techniques. A common theme is the preference for simmering chicken gently in sauce rather than frying it, which helps maintain tenderness and the distinct shape of the meat. Some users also explore marinating chicken in vinegar for added moisture and flavor, while others discuss the use of pre-cooked chicken for convenience. Overall, the community agrees that simmering chicken in sauce is a key technique for achieving the desired texture and appearance typical of BIR dishes.

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Offline Muttley

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How do they cook the chicken?
« on: January 11, 2005, 11:59 AM »
A while back I was thinking about the chicken pieces you get in BIR's nowadays (at least down here in the South, it's almost invariably chicken breast), and I realised, that they do not fry the meat at all.

When you get a BIR chicken dish, you can quite clearly see the shape of the chicken as it has been cut from a breast fillet. If you fry one of those, the shape of the piece of meat will change as the fibres tighten, no matter how gently you do it.

I tried this the next time I made a dish with a sauce. Just cut? the chicken into pieces and added them, uncooked, to a very, very gently simmering sauce.

The result was very tender chicken with exactly the texture you get in a BIR. This is one aspect of BIR cooking that I think it is well worth emulating.

Of course, chicken breast is not the best flavoured meat, so it's probably better not to use it exclusively.

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Offline Curry King

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Re: How do they cook the chicken?
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2005, 12:19 PM »
That Sounds similar to Kris Dhillion's method:

How to Prepare the Chicken

This is the basic method of preparation which is common to most recipes in this chapter.
Preparation and cooking time: 25 minutes.
For 6-8 persons you will require:

5 large chicken breasts (approx 2lb or 900g with skin and bone removed)
6 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon turmeric
4 tablespoon of the reserved uncooked curry sauce.

With a sharp knife remove all fat and membranes from the chicken portions and cut each into eight equal sized pieces. Wash and drain.
Place the remaining ingredients into a large saucepan and mix well.
Cook on medium heat, stirring continuously until the sauce starts to darken in colour (approx 4-5 minutes).
Add chicken and stir until all the pieces are well coated with the sauce.
Turn down the heat and continue cooking with the lid on for 15-20 minutes, or until the chicken is tender, stirring frequently.
Remove chicken pieces (leaving behind the sediment) and place them in a clean container. The cooked chicken can now be used immediately for many of the chicken curries or cooled and refrigerated for up to four days.
Freezing. Freeze for up to 2 months.


cK
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Offline Muttley

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Re: How do they cook the chicken?
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2005, 12:37 PM »
That's interesting.

So in a resturant, they'd have a load of cooked chicken etc, and would just need to takes some basic sauce, add any extra vegetables (already cooked), the finishing spices and some chicken, and let the chicken warm through.

It's becoming clearer and clearer how they manage  the almost miraculous range of dishes so quickly from (often) such small kitchens.
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Offline Mark J

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Re: How do they cook the chicken?
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2005, 02:14 PM »
Each dish will take 5-10 minutes for the chef to cook from start to finish, its all done with base sauce and pre cooked ingredients
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Offline Rama

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Re: How do they cook the chicken?
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2005, 09:13 PM »
Having successfully gained entry to the kitchen of my local Takeaway I can tell you that they cook the chicken in a sauce very similar to the basic sauce.  Loads of oil, onions, garam masala, turmeric & cinnamon sticks.  This is all stored in a container then chicken removed to add to pan.  I will try and find more details.
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Offline Muttley

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Re: How do they cook the chicken?
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2005, 11:08 AM »
A further thought on this.

After I started cooking the chicken by just simmering it very gently in the final sauce, I found the chickenwas much closer to BIR style.

I wonder, though, do they cook the breasts (which they now seem to use exclusively) in one piece and then cut them up?

I find the definition of the pieces in a BIR much sharper than the results I get by simmering cut pieces. Doesn't make any difference to the taste or texture, but I think getting the appearance just right is quite important to getiing that 'resturaunt' experience with the dish.
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Offline DARTHPHALL

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Re: How do they cook the chicken?
« Reply #6 on: February 19, 2005, 12:09 AM »
In 3 of my local take-away`s the chicken pieces in the tindaloo are a hell of a lot hotter than the actual gravy,does any one else have this ? ,i assume they are put in a hot chili marinade  ,anyone got any ideas  ???
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Offline semiskimmed

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Re: How do they cook the chicken?
« Reply #7 on: May 07, 2005, 07:43 PM »
Chicken- one restraunt up here places the chicken breasts in a large pot of vinegar.  As i hope you all know chicken is a very perishable meat, it may contain salmonella, e.coli etc so by placing it in vinegar it creates an almost pickling effect, the acid of the vineagr reduces the water availabilty whihc cannot be utilised by microorganisms.  The vinegar also softens the meat and gives an incredible soft moist texture to it.  I urge you to try it with a few chicken breasts, just soak them for  say 4-8 hours or so?  Let me know what u think.  I love the result.
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Offline Mark J

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Re: How do they cook the chicken?
« Reply #8 on: May 07, 2005, 07:51 PM »
Thats very interesting, how do you cook them after they have been soaked in vinegar?
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Offline semiskimmed

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Re: How do they cook the chicken?
« Reply #9 on: May 08, 2005, 04:35 PM »
Mark- you just use the chicken as you would normally, i.e depending on the dish chop into chunks and place in curry sauce to cook, the texture it has is lovely.  So just treat it as raw chicken and cook accordingly.
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