A chicken or turkey cooked all alone?

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Thxs everyone for your input it is very appreciated!!And what i meant was no seasonings or accoutrements or anything at all except water.

Wanted to basically just buy some frozens birds defrost them and cook them all alone except in water maybe in all different ways possible and looking for information on how and how long in the different methods to do this.

So far i hear
baked - is 20 minutes per lb @ 350 and with replies in this post be good idea to buy the meat thermometor instead and also a stove thermometor to make sure ovens working at right temp as nob.

slow cooker - fill with water until half of chicken is covered let cook for about 6 to 8 hours.

Havent heard on how long to boil?If you boil do you need to defrost or just simply add to water?Also same with slow cooker is it really necesarry to defrost before putting into slow cooker?

I assume to peel the skin and toss it away since its unhealty anyways.

Welcome to DC. Color me confused. Can you help us out & tell us what you are preparing or why there must be no seasonings except water?

Re the slow cooker - I have added only a little liquid. NEVER filled the pot with liquid. Absolutely defrost before adding to a slow cooker. Temp changes may crack your crock. Follow the directions for your make/model.

Re the skin - I'm not a big fan, unless it's roasted with seasonings, & I'll take a taste. The skin does contain fat. I usually buy skinless.

As for cooking time, depends on the size of the chicken & your prep/cooking method.

Guessing you want to eat healthy? You can broil chicken breasts with some lemon pepper & some lemon or lime juice. Adding fresh herbs to chicken prep will still keep it light, & low fat/low sodium chicken broth will give the chix some moisture - other than water. If you are boiling try adding a bouquet garni. Hope that helps.
 
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Re the skin - I'm not a big fan, unless it's roasted with seasonings, & I'll take a taste. The skin does contain fat. I usually buy skinless.

The skin contains fat when the bird is raw, but if it's roasted or grilled, the fat is rendered (melted away) and only the crisp skin is left. Practically fat-free.
 
OMG! You and Alix are Skin Pushers! :ermm:





:LOL:

Hey, if there are no takers, I'll take 'em all back!!
img_579902_0_022b1a626b1b3dcc6af47da4bda94f9e.gif
:-p

I've told people that crisp chicken skin goes bad real fast in the fridge, so I have to eat it all now ... it does, you know. It gets all flabby :ermm: Can't waste good skin ;)
 
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Well i basically want it as healthy as possible and to make as simple as possible especially for the first couple times as practice.
Not any experience with buying whole chickens and cooking them and figured buying the whole frozen birds turkey or chicken would be cheaper possibly.

Figured i could simply if in a hurry stop by supermarket run in grab a couple bring them home letem defrost then use what ive read here to cook them.When done i could season with salt n pepper and whatever for however i use the meat at that point.Rice sandwiches bbq sauce whatever.

Figured i learn the very basic way to cook first then get more creative in future receipes with more time to spend on buying seasonings veggies etc.
 
I don't think you'll save money buying frozen chicken - I'm not sure I've even seen frozen chicken in the grocery store. And they will take at least overnight to thaw, so if you're in a hurry, don't buy something frozen ;)

But roasting a chicken is simple, adding a few common seasonings is easy and will make the final result taste better, no matter what it is. All you really need is salt, pepper and oil. There are flavor components that dissolve in oil that you won't get without it, and I think it helps with browning the skin. Also, we all need a little fat in our diet in order to absorb fat-soluble vitamins, like A, D, E and K.

So here you go: One 3 1/2 lb. or so chicken, 1 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper and 1/4 cup olive oil. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, brush chicken with oil, sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. If you have extra garlic, onion, lemon, and/or celery, rough-chop 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 onion, and celery, cut lemon in quarters, and stuff in the chicken's cavity.

Roast on rack in roasting pan for about 1 1/2 hours. If you have an instant-read thermometer, that will help determine when it's done (see above). HTH.
 
Second everything GotGarlic said. If you really are opposed to adding seasonings, at least cook it on a bed of aromatic vegetables, like carrots and celery. They will impart a flavour to the chicken, esp if you steam the chicken over the veges and you can eat the veges as well. All in one cooking. Understand your point about simple techniques for healthy cooking but I think you are not going about it the right way. The chicken won't be as appetizing the way you are suggesting. Listen to GotGarlic.
 
Adding flavor does not have to be unhealthy. It can actually be even healthier than cooking it plain (such as cooking with veggies). Adding salt after the fact will not get you the same result as adding salt during the cooking process. If you cook the chicken plain then you are going to end up with very bland flavorless meat. Adding flavoring after the fact will not make the meat more flavorful.
 
I'll take what GB posted even further. When I was in college, my chef-instructors taught me that if you leave salt completely out of the dish, then add it at the end, you'll actually use MORE salt to make it taste good, compared to if you added some salt before it was cooked.

You might want to run a search for the various threads about brining chicken/turkey. Done correctly, it adds moisture, and flavor, without make the bird taste salty (as long as you don't goof the ratios of salt : water like I did the first time).
 
Thxs everyone eveything you said did go into consideration and i cooked my first whole chicken last saturday 7 days ago now and plan to cook a couple tomorrow.

I did as you all advised and added the oil,salt,pepper before hand and a couple garlic gloves,lemon,half onion,and part cerely stick which was all i had in fridge.I baked @ 350 for 90 minutes and didnt appear to be completely done in center o i cooked an additional 30 minutes and it turned out delicious!

I need to get a meat thermometer and stove thermometer to get more accurate with times.Tomorrow i plan to coom 1 in the slow cooker and from what i read should take somewhere over 6 hours?And the least amount of water to add to slow cooker is a cup or 2?

Again thxs for help everyone!
 
It is surprising just how easy it is to roast a chicken and just how yummy it can taste for very little work. Glad it turned out well for you. If you cut into the chicken in the thickest part of the bird, the juices should run clear when it is cooked.

Don't forget that if you stuff the chicken to remove the stuffing before refrigerating the chicken. Don't store them together.
 
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