Please Please Help Inexperienced Cook

lewt

can my wife join this thread going by the title?

RacyRed

But lewt, you have already joined it

shell2001

This looks really tasty - may add it to next months meal plan (as will need to order fresh ginger - nowhere to get it from in this town!!). Got thighs and drumsticks in freezer as was on BOGOF at tesco this month.

Thanks for that, off to look at the web-link for more inspiration.

PS - How long does fresh ginger keep for??? Would I store it in the fridge???

kethry

fresh ginger keeps for quite a while, unpeeled, in the fridge, but you can keep it even longer by peeling and chopping it into manageable chunks (i.e. about an inch long) and popping into a bag in the freezer. that way you just defrost as much as you need at any given point. Most recipes call for a "finger" or an inch of ginger anyway, especially when they're talking about root or fresh ginger (as opposed to crystalised or ground).

btw if you ever see a recipe calling for "galangal" then you *can* substitute ginger, i would use a bit more than the recipe calls for as galangal is more gingery than ginger is. You can cut it up in a similar method and freeze it for keeping for a long time.

[i do a lot of far eastern: thai, chinese, indonesian cooking and both are requisite in these cuisines!]

HTH

keth
xx

squeaky

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Batgirl

Rikki wrote:

I would cut the breasts in half so you have your eight pieces. It will keep the cooking times simular. I would cook for the same time covered and then 10 to 15 inutes uncovered. I'd keep an eye on them as they can dry out quite quickly.

I'm assuming the breasts have the skin on.

The chicken is SKINLESS does this make a difference to the cooking time?

hattie_pea

As long as your chicken is covered it'll be fine - the skin really just protects the flesh from burning and keep everything nice and moist.

A trick / point of reference which I find useful for cooking meat is this...

uncooked - like poking you cheek - feels very squishy
nearly there / medium - like poking your chin - umm, less squishy
done - like the end of your nose - firm to touch and doesn't spring back

bit silly but works for me!

Batgirl

Hattie_Pea you are right about that theory Gordon Ramsey uses it too, and if its good enough for him its good enough for me.

Anyway dinner has come and went and it was delicious definatley worth the faff. We had it with roast potatoes but have said next time we would cook the chicken breasts as the receipe says then cut them up and mix with cooked noodles so the noodles get some of the marinade too and it would be a bit like a stir fry. Also the chicken marinated and put on the BBQ would be heaven.

Also if I can cook it anyone can so have a go and tell me what you think.

Batgirl

plumduff-2

Heres a quick question regarding the recipe I found on this site..

Can you use frozen chicken... Not defrosted..?

thriftlady_2

Don't cook chicken from frozen;) You must let it defrost first.