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How to Buy the Best Chicken for Chicken Recipes

Fresh Chicken Buying Tips

If you want to make the best chicken recipes, it goes without saying that you will want to know how to choose the best chicken from the supermarket or butcher. There are many advantages to cooking chicken recipes. Chicken is versatile, economic and available almost everywhere. Chicken recipes include chicken enchiladas, chicken Marsala, chicken noodle soup and many more.

You will need to make sure you choose the right cut of chicken for the recipe you want to prepare. Stewing hens, broilers, capons, and roasters are all used in different types of chicken recipes. Young chickens cook quickly and are tender but older ones need slow cooking else they will be tough. You should go for chicken that is creamy white to deep yellow in appearance. Never buy chicken meat, which is pasty or gray. Check the packaging is unbroken and make sure the sell by date is at least a day or two away.

A bad smell probably means spoilage. Sometimes you might smell something bad when you open a package of chicken. If this happens, leave it on the counter for a few minutes because oxidization inside the pack can cause this. If it still smells bad after five minutes, take it back to the store for a refund. Chicken Types

These are the main types of chickens available from the grocery store or butcher:

Roasters

These are sixteen weeks old and between four and six pounds. They are good for roasting or rotisserie cooking.

Broiler-fryers

These are young chickens and range from a pound and a half to three and a half pounds in weight. They are between seven and ten weeks old and are good broiled, roasted, or fried. Broiler-fryers give mildly flavored, tender meat.

Stewing hens

These are adult chickens between twelve and eighteen months old. They weight between four and a half and seven pounds and are stringy and tough. They make great soups, stews, or bouillon because moist heat type cooking tenderizes the meat.

Capons

These are young, castrated roosters and weight between five and seven pounds. These are fatty, rich flavored birds.

Chicken Cuts

Different chicken recipes call for different cuts. Here are the available choices of chicken cuts:

Whole chickens

These usually come with the neck on and the giblets wrapped and stuffed inside. You can use giblets and livers in soups, stuffing and other recipes.

Chicken pieces

You can get thighs, drumsticks, wings, legs, and breasts. Breasts come either whole or halved. If a recipe calls for a chicken breast, this means you need to use both halves.

Cut up chicken

These are normally broiler-fryers and consist of two thighs, two breast halves, two drumsticks, and two wings. You can also get small broiler-fryers in quarters or halves.

How Much Chicken to Buy

A two or three pound broiler-fryer serves three to five people. A three to six pound roaster serves four to eight people. A pound of chicken drumsticks or thighs serves two people. A whole chicken breast, meaning both halves, serves two people.

Two whole chicken breasts, weighing about twelve ounces each, makes two cups of chopped, cooked chicken. A three-pound broiler-fryer makes two and a half cups of chopped, cooked chicken.