A chicken or turkey cooked all alone?

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eckstg

Assistant Cook
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
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6
I was wondering if its ok to just simply cook a chicken all by itself with nothing else added but maybe water?Any ways this could be done i would like to know of like if in a roaster,crockpot,baked in oven, or boiled on stovetop.

I read somewhere you average the cook time in the oven to 20 minutes per lb at 350.Also i read in a crockpot you could just add a little water and let cook for 8 hours before it finishes.Also if its frozen i read you could take it out of freezer and just let it sit for 1 day in frige to be long enough to defrost.Are these correct?
 
That's the beauty of poutry! Aside from thawing method (shhhh everyone) you can do whatever you want with it!
The easiest I'd say would be to roast it in the oven. A whole chicken w/ nothing else would make the skin a little icky IMHO. I think you're right on your time / temp. A better gauge would be internal temp. I go to 165 in the thickest part of the breast. I'm sure someone will tell my I do that wrong but whatever....
At least rub some olive oil, salt an pepper on it. Maybe put a cut onion, a carrot, and a celery stalk in the cavity. Keeps it moist and adds some flavor.

I don't think it would thaw in 1 day in the fridge. I give a chicken about 2 1/2 days to defrost. A turkey about 4.
 
If you start the chicken off breast down, you may not need to add any fat. however, I would usefully add some fat over the top to start the roasting. You could also poach the chicken by itself - I personally would add aromatics to the poaching water (bouquet garni, onion or celery).
 
An internal thermometer is ideal. However, you can poke in the thick part of the thigh area with a knife, if the juices run clear, it's done.
 
I agree with the above posters and strongly recommend the use of a meat thermometer. Oven temps vary despite what it says on the dial (also strongly recommend an oven thermometer. They are cheap and help prevent under and over cooking). And ovens have hotter and colder areas. It is the temp of the bird that is important.

Also, like suzi, will roast a chicken with onion, carrot and celery in the cavity, whole or cut into large chunks is fine.

Will roast a chicken on a bed of mirepoix cut fairly chunkily (doubt that is a word, but I hope you know what I mean).

Think it gives a nice taste to the boid and keeps it off the baking pan (course you could always put it on a rack). Love to eat the veggies the juices have dripped on. Not good for the diet I guess.

Have put butter under the skin (you separate the skin from the meat with your fingers and push the butter, thinly cut, in the space), and that works well. Have added butter mixed with veggies from the food processor under the skin but the results were not esthetically pleasing. No one seems to want to eat chicken with green stuff under the skin. Why? I am not sure. But the chicken sure tasted good.
 
I was wondering if its ok to just simply cook a chicken all by itself with nothing else added but maybe water?Any ways this could be done i would like to know of like if in a roaster,crockpot,baked in oven, or boiled on stovetop.

I read somewhere you average the cook time in the oven to 20 minutes per lb at 350.Also i read in a crockpot you could just add a little water and let cook for 8 hours before it finishes.Also if its frozen i read you could take it out of freezer and just let it sit for 1 day in frige to be long enough to defrost.Are these correct?

I'm guessing we are misunderstanding you. Do you mean that you want to cook the chicken with no flavorings, salt, pepper, etc? Or that you want to cook it without accoutrements like potatoes and carrots, or garlic or stuffing?
 
I'm with June. My initial impression was that you didn't want to stuff it or put any veggies with it. Is that correct or did you mean seasonings?

And just an FYI, just plain old roasting leaves the skin nice and crunchy and tasty. Not icky at all. My kids fight over it.
 
^^^^
I am having brain issues today.
I meant to say that throwing in in the crock pot alone would make the skin wierd.
I've been known to skin a whole roasted chicken and run away with my takings!!!
 
Mmmmmmmmm skin gooooood. Jeekinz, you clearly haven't lived. Go skin a roasted chicken and savor.
 
How could you eat plain ol' chicken anyway? :( I mean, throw some BBQ sauce on it or something.
You slice it and cut it in pieces and serve it with anything you like! Just about my favorite thing to cook and eat in the whole world.

OR you could slice it up and make awesome sandwiches.

IMHO there is no such thing as "plain ol' chicken," unless it's the boiled bird that's just come out of the soup pot. but I like that, too! :rolleyes:
 
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.
 
Skin is only unhealthy if you have the fat with it. You can crisp it up, removing the fat and it's just skin.

You can poach or steam the chicken as well without anything added.

May I ask what is motivating you to only use water and no seasonings? Not everything that you can add to the chicken is unhealthy. Just curious.
 
Skin is only unhealthy if you have the fat with it. You can crisp it up, removing the fat and it's just skin.

You can poach or steam the chicken as well without anything added.

May I ask what is motivating you to only use water and no seasonings? Not everything that you can add to the chicken is unhealthy. Just curious.

I'm curious about that, too, because even though you can season it later when you do something else with the meat, the final result will taste better if it was seasoned while cooking.

One of our experienced members (Goodweed, maybe?) posted a response to another thread recently and said that boiling chicken was not a good idea - can't remember why exactly, but gently poaching is a better method, and you can add calorie-free flavor that way with things like lemon juice, wine, herbs, peppercorns, etc.
 
Boiling chicken will make it dry and tough. Simmering is beter.

I am also curious why you don't want to add any flavor up front. Doing it after will not give you the same result.
 
I posted in another thread, but I cooked a 6.5lb turkey breast in a crock pot for easter....salt pepper,and rubbed it with onion soup mix and THATS IT...no water. (it was defrosted already) 1 hour on high the rest on low....it wont "brown" but it will be good.

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