chicken v pizza

pollyanna24

Had a complete disaster in the kitchen tonight.

Chicken tonight. Chicken just wasn't cooked in the middle (I used drumsticks).

So annoyed. Rice was cooked, so was green beans. Everyone was hungry.

In the end, chucked the lot away and ordered pizza for £15!! :mad:

The sauce had spilled all over the bottom of the oven, I'm just not destined to cook chicken (I am the same poster from a few weeks ago who had a disaster with Chicken Tonight and drumsticks in the slow cooker).

My 18 yr old brother in law helpfully pointed out I should have browned the chicken first! How does he know this? Is he right?

elsien

Sorry to hear about your disasters - maybe if it happens again, you could zap the chicken bits in the microwave to finish them off. It's saved my life before now.

Browning it might make it look nicer to eat, but I wouldn't expect it to make much difference on the cooking front.


Is your oven at the right temperature - sorry if that sounds obvious, but if its an older cooker and a bit temperamental?
Also, if it's overflowing from the dish, maybe you've got too much in one dish, so it's not cooking through evenly - try putting a bit less in each dish.

As your brother in law is such an expert, he can do the next one for you.
Keep us posted on his efforts.

Good luck

pollyanna24

Haha :rotfl: Him, cook for me! The first thing he said to me when I got in was "I'm hungry" even though he'd been sitting on his rear end for a few hours beforehand. :T One was not best pleased.

Think I might just give up with chicken legs. Think the bowl wasn't big enough probably, but I only have so many pyrex dishes with lids. I stuck the oven on the temp the jar told me, but I've only been in this house 7 months and maybe I haven't got used to the funny fan electric oven thing yet!

Pizza was rather scrum though. :rolleyes:

Numptie

I had something similar this week when chicken thighs were still bloody in the middle. Think I will score them with a knife to help with cooking then brown them off first.

**purplemoon**

Was the chicken at room temperature before cooking or straight from the fridge? Believe it or not this makes a big difference and can sometimes add half an hour or more to cooking times if using straight from the fridge.

wendym

I'm really sorry about your disaster/learning experience. My daughter recently had to order (and pay for) pizza for guests who were expecting chilli (she had soaked but not boiled the kidney beans).

I think recipes using chicken thighs usually underestimate cooking times, and slow cookers are in this case tricky.

Next time, you could cook it on the hob, and hang on to the left-overs to make soup.

phizzimum

the best laid plans eh?

the other day we had company so I planned a nice simple sausage casserole in the slow cooker. Wouldn't all fit in the slowcooker so I put in on low on the hob. After several hours the sausages still hadn't cooked so I ended up cooking them under the grill. I'd turned the veg off as I didn't want the sprouts to overcook but forgot to turn them back on so the brussel sprouts were like marbles.

The meal was pretty horrible (fortunately our good friends were very nice about it), so don't worry it can happen to any of us!

culpepper

If the chicken isnt cooked in the middle you can just cut the chicken up and cook the bits a bit longer in the oven(under the grill).
If it was frozen ,it might not quite have thawed in the middle.Cooking directions usually recommend washing it inside under the tap,if you put your hand inside you can feel any still frozen areas.
A microwave will cook a whole chicken in 30-45 mins depending on the power rating.
If its completely overcooked and dried out, you can salvage it by mincing it up and having it with a gravy inside a pie or pasties.