The Perdue Chicken Cookbook Part 16

30 chicken breast halves 15 chicken drumsticks 15 chicken thighs 8 medium onions, sliced 2 quarts ketchup 1 cup prepared mustard 2 cups vinegar 1 quart maple syrup 1/4 cup hickory smoked salt or to taste 2 teaspoons ground pepper Preheat oven to 350oF. Place chicken in a single layer, skin side up on top of onion slices in the bottom of 2 to 3 large baking pans. If possible keep breast halves in a separate pan from legs and thighs as they will cook more quickly. In a 2 gallon container combine remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Bake chicken, uncovered for 45 to 60 minutes or until cooked through. Check breast meat for doneness after 45 minutes.

TREASURE ISLAND CHICKENServes 30-40 A school-lunch chicken recipe contest produced this one.

The winner adapted it from an old family recipe.

30 chicken breast halves 15 chicken drumsticks 15 chicken thighs 1/2 pound b.u.t.ter or margarine 1/2 cup flour 3/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon dry mustard 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1 quart orange juice 2 tablespoons salt or to taste Preheat oven to 350oF. Place chicken in single layer, skin side up, in 2 to 3 large baking pans. Keep breast halves in a separate pan as they will cook more quickly than the legs and thighs. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt b.u.t.ter. Stir in flour, sugar, spices, orange juice and salt and cook, stirring constantly until thickened.

Pour sauce over chicken. Bake, uncovered, for 45 to 60 minutes or until cooked through. Check breast meat for doneness after 45 minutes.

TEXAS BARBECUED b.r.e.a.s.t.sServes 10-16 Turn chicken b.r.e.a.s.t.s with tongs instead of a fork, which could pierce the meat and cause it to lose some of its juiciness.

1 cup tomato sauce 1/4 cup red wine vinegar 1/4 cup chili sauce 1/4 cup brown sugar 3 tablespoons grated onion 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 1/2 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon paprika 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco (optional) 16 chicken breast halves In a large saucepan over medium heat combine all ingredients except chicken and bring to a boil. Grill chicken 5 to 6 inches above medium-hot coals for 25 to 30 minutes or until cooked through. Turn and baste 3 to 4 times with sauce during cooking.

CHAPTER SEVEN$ CHICKEN FOR TOMORROW$OR NEXT WEEK.

In an ideal world, we'd always have food at its freshest and we'd eat it right after it was prepared. In the real world, though, there are many, many times when cooking ahead is useful. You're giving a party and you don't want to be frazzled the day of the event. Or you've got a busy week coming up and you want to do better by your family than just giving them calorie-laden, greasy take-out food. Or you're having house guests, and you want to spend the time with them instead of in the kitchen. Or maybe there's only one or two of you at home, and you've discovered that it's simpler to make a recipe for four and freeze part of it for use later.

In my own case, my freezer is always full. One reason is that Frank often invites three or four people the last minute, and it helps to have emergency food on hand.

Equally often, after I've made a meal, he'll call at 6:00 p.m. and tell me that we're eating out with one of the poultry distributors or suppliers, and I end up freezing what I've just cooked. As I wrap the food in foil and wedge it into the freezer, I remind myself, "This meal isn't going to waste, it's a head start on a future meal."

When you know the principles for successful freezing$and I'll get to them in a moment$you can freeze just about any of the recipes in this cookbook. The recipes in this chapter are different from the rest because they not only can be cooked ahead, often they should be cooked ahead. Some of them require marination, others improve with age, and still others adapt so well to cooking the day before that they belong in this chapter. Use this chapter for recipes to use when you want to cook a day or so ahead of time, and also, use it for tips on how to freeze foods successfully.

There are just a few principles needed to master the technique of cooking ahead, and once you know them, you'll have faster, better-tasting, healthier and safer meals to show for it.

_The biggest boon to food preparation ahead is the freezer. Everything freezes from the point of view of food safety, but there's a lot of variation in palatability. For best flavor and texture, don't freeze the following foods in your home freezer:

_Milk products $ they'll curdle.

_Boiled eggs $ the whites get watery.

_Custards $ they'll lose texture, get lumpy.

_Mayonnaise $ it may separate.

_Most foods that you fry at home (except french fries and onions) $ they can get an unattractive "warmed- over" taste. It's actually the fats turning slightly rancid.

_Cooked potatoes $ they darken and get an unattractive texture. (If you're going to freeze stew, add cooked potatoes later on when you're reheating the stew.)

_Fresh greens, celery, and carrots $ they get limp.

_Fresh tomatoes $ their high water content causes them to collapse when thawed. (However, you can freeze tomatoes if you're going to use them in a cooked form, such as in a pasta sauce.)

_Gravy $ the fat will separate out and puddle.

(If you must freeze gravy, cut way back on the fat when you're making the gravy, and stir constantly when you're reheating it so as to keep the fat from separating.)

_Heavily spiced foods $ most herbs, salts, onions, fade away, but garlic and cloves will seem more intense. Pepper has a tendency to turn bitter. Curry takes on a musty flavor.

_Synthetic flavors $ use real vanilla rather than synthetic because synthetic vanilla can have an off-flavor after freezing.

_Highly salted foods $ salt tends to attract moisture and uneven freezing may result because salt slows down the freezing process.

_Even if you're freezing food for only a couple of days, be careful of packaging. Air that's in the package will affect the color, flavor and texture. The container should be air tight, or the food will get freezer burn and lose nutritional value, and palatability.

_It's critical to have a both your refrigerator and freezer cold enough. The best indicator of a good freezer temperature is brick-hard ice cream. If ice cream stored in your freezer is soft, turn the control to a colder setting.

As for the refrigerator, check the drinking temperature of milk. If it's very cold, you've probably hit 40 degrees, which is what you're aiming for. If the milk isn't cold enough, or if it sours too quickly, move the control to a colder setting.

_Here's a great tip if you're freezing chicken in a polyethylene bag: lower the bag, with the chicken in it, into a pan of water to force out the air. Be sure the bag opening is above water. Press entire surface area of bag to squeeze out air bubbles. Twist end of bag and fold over. Secure with fastener and label.

_Here's a convenient way to freeze ca.s.seroles for later use that Joy Schrage from Whirlpool Corporation told me:

1. Line the ca.s.serole dish with foil, leaving 2" collar all around.

2. Add ca.s.serole ingredients and bake.

3. Cool and freeze in uncovered ca.s.serole

4. When frozen, lift ca.s.serole and foil out in one piece

5. Cover with foil or place in a polyethylene freezer bag. Press air out, then seal tightly, label, date and freeze. Place in a polyethylene freezer bag.

6. To thaw, take frozen ca.s.serole out of bag and foil, and place in the ca.s.serole dish it was originally baked in.

This type of freezing frees the ca.s.serole dish for other uses while the ca.s.serole is in the freezer.

_Homemade "TV" dinners: Place leftovers in serving portions on sectioned plastic trays. Cover, chill, tightly with plastic wrap and seal. Then wrap entire tray in foil.

Label, date and freeze. To reheat, remove foil, puncture plastic wrap to make steam vents, and heat dinner in microwave.

_To keep chicken pieces from sticking together in your freezer so that you can take out just the quant.i.ty you want without prying several pieces apart or thawing more than you need, do the following:

1. Spread pieces in a single layer on a cookie sheet

2. Place unwrapped in freezer

3. Once frozen, remove chicken pieces from cookie sheet, and store in polyethylene freezer bag

5. Place bag in freezer, label and date

_Freezing tip - use freezing tape to seal freezer wrap or suitable plastic wrap. Freezer tape is made with a special adhesive designed to stick at low temperatures.

_Whole birds to be roasted should be thawed before cooking. Broilers, and birds to be cooked by other methods can start being cooked when thawed enough for pieces to separate.