The Perdue Chicken Cookbook

by Mitzi Perdue

PREFACE WHY I CHICKENED OUT

Want to know a high stress situation? Try being a food writer and cookbook author, and then marry Frank Perdue. You come home from the honeymoon, everything has been wonderful and then…it's time to Cook the First Meal! Frank wants to eat chicken and you're supposed to be a good cook.

I remember that afternoon so vividly. I knew he'd be coming home around six and that he'd be hungry. Now up until that day, I had always felt fairly confident in the kitchen. After all, I love cooking and trying new recipes is my favorite pastime. But cooking chicken for Frank Perdue? I began to get stage fright. As I was trying to find where the pots and pans were in his kitchen, I started calculating that there were probably few people in the world who've eaten chicken more times than my husband. "He's been eating chicken almost daily for his entire life" I thought, "he likes it, he cares about it, and my cooking is about to be judged by a world class expert."

As I rummaged around looking for the right herbs and spices$and couldn't find the ones I liked $ my stage fright grew worse. "This man must be one of the world's greatest experts on cooked chicken," I thought to myself. "He's attended dozens and dozens of chicken cooking contests, he's been part of hundreds and hundreds of taste testings for Perdue products. Everywhere he goes, people know he likes chicken and the best chefs and hostesses in the world have served it to him." In my mind I ran through some of the times when together we'd driven an hour out of the way to go to a restaurant that cooked chicken particularly well, and how he always seemed to have lists of the restaurants he wanted to visit.

Help! My stage fright was getting still worse. The thirty year old oven didn't seem to be heating right, but I couldn't be sure because there wasn't any oven thermometer. The "elbow test," which our grandmothers used to use before the days of thermometers (you stick your elbow in the oven and feel how hot it is), told me that things weren't right, but I didn't know how far off the oven was so I didn't know how to compensate. As I rubbed my elbow with my other hand, I thought of Frank's reputation for being demanding. If you've seen the ad that we call "Boot Camp," you know what I mean. (He plays the part of a drill sergeant in this ad and teaches the new Perdue recruits the 57 quality points that they have to inspect — and then he's all over one recruit for missing what seems like an invisibly small hair.)

It's a funny thing, but when you start losing your confidence, you start asking some basic questions about what you're doing. Part of me was saying that cooking chicken is pretty simple; after all, I'd been doing it for most of my life. But another part of me realized when attempting to cook chicken for Frank the first time, that I knew very little of the basics of cooking chicken. Like, for example, what makes a chicken tender? How do you really know when it's done$and not over done? How do you get the best flavor? Should you salt before or after cooking?

In desperation, I made a two-part promise to myself. First, I'd let myself take the easy way out that first meal, and not even try to cook the chicken myself. Instead, dinner would be a never-fail salad, pasta (Frank loves pasta), plus store-bought fully-cooked Perdue Tenders. In return for letting myself off so easily, I'd make it my business from then on to learn how to make the best chicken every time. That meant asking Frank every question that popped into my head; checking with the food technologists who work for Perdue; getting tips from the farmers who grew the Perdue chickens; and systematically going through the thousands of recipes that Frank has in his files, trying a different one each night.

Dinner that night wasn't the show piece I would have liked to create, but it was good enough and Frank happens to love his own Tenders so the chicken part of the meal was a success. In the time since, I've tried to live up to the second part of the promise, the one about learning how to serve the best chicken every time.

In this book, I'd like to share with you the most useful cooking tips and the most appealing, most successful recipes developed by Perdue Farms over the last twenty years. The first chapter contains the kinds of information I wished I'd known from the beginning. You don't need to read this chapter, because chicken isn't that hard to cook; but there are tips in it that can save you time and money and that can enable you to cook with greater confidence. This chapter also has the latest tips on food safety.

The remaining chapters are organized, not by method of cooking or whether the food is an appetizer or salad or whatnot; but rather by the kind of occasion you're facing. You want to put some spark and variety into every day meals? You want to make the most of your microwave? Or you're in a hurry today? Maybe you need something that will please kids? Or you're dieting? You've got a bunch of leftovers? You have to cook for a hundred people tomorrow night? I tried to think of the kinds of situations in which you could need recipes and then I organized Frank's recipes around them. Jean Brillat- Savarin, the famous French gourmet, once said, "A chicken to a cook is like a canvas to a painter." Enjoy the recipes and tips that follow, and may they help you to feel the creativity and confidence that make cooking fun and eating a joy!

YOU DON'T HAVE TO WING IT!
LET FRANK TAKE YOU UNDER HIS.
Everything You Wanted or Needed to Know about
Cooking Chicken

Frank gets roughly 40,000 consumer letters a year. Half of these are requests for pamphlets, but many of the others are requests for information on selecting, storing, serving, or cooking his products.

These letters are tremendously important to Frank. Often I've been with him when he has a few extra minutes, such as waiting for an airplane, and he'll dash to a pay phone to answer one of the letters with a phone call. He also likes to attend store openings or conventions or other public places because he genuinely wants to hear what people are thinking. One of the marketing men once told me that he was embarrassed about a day he had planned for Frank because it included meetings with people who owned just a few stores. When I passed this on to Frank, he answered that these were some of the best meetings because the owners of the smaller stores were so close to their customers. He went on to say that the reason he likes to visit butchers (and in New York, he's called on as many as 30 in two days) is that these men are close to the needs and wants of their customers and he can learn things from them that he'd learn in no other way.

I've heard that there's almost no other head of a Fortune 500-size company who would spend as much time with the people who buy his products. People are often surprised that a man with his responsibilities would take the time for this much face to face contact. But the fact is, learning what people care about is almost a religion to him.

Here are some of the questions that people either write to Frank or ask him in person. In answering the questions, I've either used the information I've heard Frank give, or else I've checked with the Perdue food scientists or home economists. What should I look for when I shop for chicken? Whatever city we're in, whether it's on the East Coast, or Puerto Rico, or even London or Moscow or Tokyo, Frank visits supermarkets the way other people visit museums or monuments. He notices the following kinds of things himself and would recommend that you do also when selecting chicken.

_Give the package a little squeeze. Are there signs of ice along wings, backs or edges? Frank explained to me that some chicken producers blast their birds with air as cold as -40o F, but he never does. Freezing causes a breakdown in protein, loss of natural juices, and reduced tenderness. Also, when you cook a frozen bird, the bones and nearby meat may turn an unappetizing dark color.

_Look at the thickness of the meat in proportion to the bone. If, for example, the breast looks scrawny, you're paying a lot for bone rather than meat.

_Read the labels so you know what you are getting. Many different parts and combinations are available, and some look surprisingly alike even to Frank's trained eye. The label tells exactly what is inside.

_Ask questions. If any meat or poultry product doesn't look, feel, or smell just right, check with the professionals behind the counter.

_Notice the pull date. Most stores are scrupulous about removing chicken before the pull date expires$but sometimes there's a slip-up.

_Was the chicken well-cleaned? Or are there little traces of feathers or hairs? These can look really unattractive when the bird is cooked.

_Is the chicken stored correctly on the chilling shelf, or are the trays of chicken stacked so high that the top ones aren't kept cold? When that happens, the shelf life of the top ones is seriously shortened.

_Is the meat case kept so cold that the fresh chicken is frozen and ends up with ice crystals on the tray? If so, complain to the manager.

_Look at the ends of the bones. Are they pink or are they turning gray? Generally, the more pink the bone ends are, the fresher the chicken. How should I store chicken at home?

Chicken, like all meat, is perishable. It should be stored in the coldest part of the refrigerator (40o or below), sealed as it comes from the market, and used within two or three days of purchase. Should I freeze chickens?

Frank doesn't recommend freezing poultry. However, if
a bird must be held beyond three days, freezing will keep
it wholesome.
How do I freeze poultry?

When freezing is necessary, seal chicken or other poultry in an airtight container, heavy plastic bag, plastic wrap, foil or freezer paper.

Try to have the wrapping tight against the chicken because any place where it isn't, small ice crystals will form. That means moisture has been drawn from the meat, and where that's happened, the meat will be tough and breading won't stick.

Frozen uncooked chicken can be stored up to six months; frozen cooked chicken should be used within three months. (Personally I try to avoid freezing chicken since I know that freezing makes the chicken less tender and less juicy. Still, in spite of good intentions, I sometimes end up doing it. I've learned to make it a point to have a wax marking pencil and freezer tape handy, so I can label the package with the date and contents. I wonder if you've found, as I have, that it's unbelievably easy to lose track of how long things have been in there.)

Do not stuff poultry before freezing, and freeze cooked birds and stuffing separately. Can frozen chicken be thawed and frozen again?

Each time you freeze chicken, you sacrifice quality. If carefully handled, however, it is safe to defrost uncooked chicken and to freeze it again after cooking. If frozen after cooking, do not thaw and freeze again. Why is chicken sometimes implicated in illness?

In a warm, moist environment, illness-causing bacteria can grow in high-protein, low-acid foods such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs and milk. But there is no reason to become ill from eating or serving these foods, if they are cooked thoroughly and served or refrigerated immediately. To prevent transferring bacteria from one food to another, use warm water and soap to wash hands, utensils and work surfaces before and after use. What makes chicken tender — or tough?

Frank does his best to make Perdue chickens as tender as possible, but there's also a lot you can do.

_Don't let chicken dry out in the refrigerator; dry chicken is tough chicken. Keep it wrapped in the package it comes in until you use it.

_Avoid freezing it. When the juices inside the cells freeze, they act like little spears and they'll rupture some of the cell walls. When you defrost the chicken, you'll lose some of the juice and the chicken will be less tender.

_Cook chicken to the proper temperature, using a meat thermometer or pop-up guide. Cook bone-in chicken to 180 degrees and boneless chicken to 170 degrees. Undercooked chicken will be tough and rubbery because it takes a fairly high internal temperature to soften the proteins in the muscles and make them tender. But don't overcook chicken either, because moisture will start to steam off, and the more chicken dries out, the tougher it gets.

_Keep the skin on chicken during cooking. The skin helps keep juices in, and tenderness and juiciness go hand in hand. I've tried this both ways, and the difference is significant. (When you cook chicken with the skin on, approximately half the fat from the skin is absorbed into the meat; if calories and cholesterol are very important to you, you might want to remove the skin before cooking even if it means a less tender result.)

_When microwaving any chicken product, cover with a loose tent of waxed paper to prevent drying.

_Some authorities feel strongly that you should not salt the chicken before cooking because salt draws the juices out during cooking and toughens the meat. In my experience, there is a detectable difference in tenderness between salting before cooking and salting afterwards; the chicken that I salted afterwards was slightly more tender. Still, I would guess that most people, myself included, wouldn't notice a big difference unless they were specifically paying attention to it. The difference doesn't jump out at you as it does with overcooking or freezer burn.

_Fry or roast breast pieces rather than microwaving them if tenderness is a top priority for you. Microwaving is significantly faster, but there's a greater risk of toughness when you microwave breast meat. Breast meat is fairly dry to begin with, and you don't have a whole lot of latitude between overcooking and undercooking. With breast meat, there's a trade-off between the speed of microwaving and the reliability of frying or roasting.

Why are some chickens yellow skinned and some white?

A chicken's skin color comes from the diet it was fed and the same bird could have a white skin or a yellow skin, depending on what it ate. The diet that produces a yellow skin is more expensive than the usual diet, but the people at Perdue Farms feel it's worth it because a yellow skin color is one of the fastest ways Frank's inspectors have of finding and disqualifying an inferior bird. If a bird is sick or off its feed, it doesn't absorb nutrients well and won't develop the rich golden color that is characteristic of Perdue birds. Also, if part of a bird's outer skin is "barked", that is, rubbed off due to rough handling during processing, the Perdue inspectors can detect it more easily than with a white-skinned bird. Detecting and removing and chicken with a barked skin is important because damaged skin shortens the shelf life and dries out and toughens the meat. No white colored chickens get by the inspectors. Sometimes when I open a package of chicken, there's a pungent odor that doesn't smell spoiled, but it's definitely unpleasant. Should I throw the chicken out?

If the odor lasts only a matter of seconds, your chicken is probably fine. Meat is chemically active, and as it ages, it releases sulfur. When you open a bag that doesn't have air holes, you may notice the accumulated sulfur, but it will quickly disperse into the air. In fact, I've heard of cases where a wife will lean over to her husband and say, "Smell this, I think it's gone bad." He'll take a deep whiff and find nothing wrong with it. She'll take another sniff and then wonder if it was her imagination. It wasn't. It's just that once the package was opened, the sulfur smell faded into the air like smoke rings.

If the chicken still smells bad after a couple of minutes, that's an entirely different story. The problem is bacterial spoilage or rancidity or both. Return the chicken to the store where you bought it and write to Frank. If a chicken's been around too long you can smell it, and if you can't detect it at room temperature, you probably can as it cooks, since rancidity is more obvious at higher temperatures. Rancidity can occur without bacteria if the freezer where the meat was stored wasn't cold enough or if the product was kept there for a very long time, such as more than six months for uncooked chicken, or more than three months for cooked chicken. (By the way, I don't like to focus on this unpleasant stuff, but I do want you to get your money's worth when you're buying chicken.) Are chickens given hormones?

Never. I remember when I lived on the West Coast, there was a small company that advertised that its chickens were grown without hormones. I thought this was unethical, because it implied that other chickens were grown with hormones. The fact is none are. Can I cook frozen chicken, or do I have to let it defrost first?

In a pinch, go ahead, but allow extra cooking time. For the best texture and tenderness, however, you're better off starting from refrigerator temperatures; you can be more sure of getting an evenly cooked product. How long can I keep chicken at room temperature?

From the point of view of food safety, you're taking a risk if you leave it outside the refrigerator for more than two hours. Unfortunately, bacteria grow and multiply at temperatures between 40 degrees and 140 degrees, and they flourish at room temperature. To avoid food borne illness, all foods of animal origin should be kept either hotter than 140 degrees or colder than 40 degrees. If you know you won't be returning home directly after shopping, bring along an insulated bag or box to keep cold foods cold until you can get them into the refrigerator. Do I need to rinse chicken before cooking?

Advice on this has varied over the years, including the advice Frank gives. The latest research shows that from a health point of view, washing is not necessary. Any microbes that you'd wash off will be entirely destroyed by heat when you cook the meat. It's actually far more important to wash your hands, your cutting board, and your utensils since they won't be sterilized by cooking. How do I get the best flavor?

That depends on whether you're after a mild and delicate flavor, or a strong and robust flavor. The younger the bird, the milder the flavor. A game hen, which is five weeks old, will have the mildest flavor of all. A broiler, at seven weeks, will still have a quite mild and delicate flavor; a roaster, on the other hand, is usually about five weeks older than a broiler and it will have a much more pronounced "chickeny" flavor. (Frank and I enjoy chicken at all ages, but if we had to choose on flavor alone, we'd most often go for the roasters.) For a really strong, chickeny flavor, see if you can find fowl or spent hens or stewing hens. These birds are around 18 months old, which means they're going to be quite tough, but if you use them in soups or stews, they'll add an excellent flavor. I've had chicken in the freezer for a year. Is it still edible?

From a health point of view it would be ok, but the flavor and texture will have deteriorated and it just won't be particularly tasty. I stored chicken in the freezer for a year once as an experiment, just to see what it would be like. It wasn't awful, but it was kind of flat and tasteless. I remember wondering if this was what cotton tasted like - although to be fair, it wasn't really that bad. Why are bones sometimes dark?

Darkened bones occur when the product has been frozen. Freezing causes the blood cells in the bone marrow to rupture and then when the chicken is thawed, these ruptured cells leak out and cause visible reddish splotches on the bones. When cooked, these discolorations will turn from red to almost black. Is it true that breast meat is the least fattening part of a chicken?

Yes. Breast meat has about half the fat of thigh meat. If calories or cholesterol are important to you, choose the breast meat. Frank watches his cholesterol and I've never seen him go for anything but breast meat. Is it better to cook a chicken quickly at a high temperature-or slowly at a low temperature?

Both work, but with high temperatures, you run a greater risk of uneven cooking, with the wings and legs becoming overcooked before the rest of the bird is done. Usually we recommend a moderate temperature of 350 degrees for whole birds and 375 degrees for parts. If you are in a hurry and want to use a higher temperature, then shield the wings and legs by wrapping them with aluminum foil if they're starting to become too brown. How much should I allow for shrinkage when cooking chicken?

For each 3-ounce serving of cooked poultry, buy an extra ounce to allow for shrinkage and an extra two ounces to allow for bone. If I want to use different parts of the chicken from what the recipe calls for, how do I go about making substitutions?

This table should help:

Name of Part Approximate No. to Equal One
Whole Chicken Whole breasts 3

Half breasts 6

Whole leg (thigh and drumstick) 6

Thigh 12

Drumsticks 14

Wing 14

Drumette (upper part of wing) 24

When using cooked chicken, allow one pound of whole
uncooked chicken for each cup of cooked, edible chicken
meat.
How do you truss a chicken?
HERE HAVE ILLUSTRATION SHOWING HOW

What's the best way to carve a chicken?
HERE HAVE ILLUSTRATION SHOWING HOW

Some of your recipes call for roasters. I don't live in an area where Perdue chicken is sold, and I haven't been able to find roasters in the stores. What exactly is a roaster, and can I substitute a broiler?

A Perdue Oven Stuffer Roaster is a 12 week old bird especially developed for a broad breast. Roasters are bigger than broilers, and have a more favorable meat to bone ratio than broilers. Because they are older birds, they also have a much deeper, richer flavor. You can use broilers in roaster recipes, but plan on the chicken's being done sooner and having a noticeably milder flavor.

Frank, by the way, is the man responsible for creating the roaster market. Back in the early 1970s, when few people had ever heard of a roaster, he was the one who worked to breed these broad-breasted birds, and who put the effort into advertising so people would learn about the new product. He surprised his colleagues by how determined he was in his developing and marketing efforts. One of the men who worked with Frank told me that he was amazed that Frank, who will hang onto an old pair of shoes to save $50, was willing to spend millions to let people know about the product, and further, he did it without a qualm, because he had such belief in it. If you haven't tried an Oven Stuffer Roaster and you're visiting the East Coast, try one, and you'll see why Frank believed in it so much.