Flash in the Pan

Until I read this story in the Financial Times I didn't realize that the EU had banned imports of US chicken for 11 years. Apparently there's a common practice in this country to wash chicken in a chlorine solution, and EU regulations require cleaning chicken meat in drinkable water only. Sometimes it takes hearing about an international trade dispute to realize that you want to avoid a product from your own back yard. Just another reason to stick with kosher birds or the equivalent - and maybe to press US authorities to indicate how chickens are processed. I don't even know whether chlorine would actually rule out kosher.

Then again, we've had some unpleasant experience with kosher birds - namely Empire brand - over the years. Just recently we picked up a couple at a Trader Joe's, got them home, started unwrapping one, and found that it smelled bad. The store was fabulous about handling the problem, not only taking the bird back, but bringing my wife out to check for a replacement and letting her open and smell it before taking possession.

Unfortunately, this isn't the only time we've brought Empire birds home to find the aroma off-putting. We also had this problem a few times with The Butcherie, a kosher food store in Brookline, Massachusetts. Does it mean that the better taste that goes with a kosher treatment also brings a higher risk of a problem? If anyone has an answer, I'd be glad to hear it - and I think I'll check with some sources to see if I can provide some educated information.

Labels: chicken, kosher, poultry

Tyson Foods, which, I think, is the world's largest chicken producer, was advertising that some of its products were raised without antibiotics. Au contraire, said two huge competitors that went to court to challenge the statements. As it turns out, "raised without antibiotics" might have been right had they been talking about the drugs as neighbors. But according to the Washington Post story about Tyson's loss on appeal, there was a type of antibiotic in the chicken feed and before hatching, eggs got an injection of antibiotics:

Dave Hogberg, Tyson's senior vice president for consumer products, said it is a common industry practice.

Hogberg said injecting eggs with antibiotics did not undermine the "raised without antibiotic" label because the term "raised" is understood to cover the period that begins with hatching.

Guess "raised" doesn't count food, either. Unfortunately, some large companies are willing to capitalize on consumer concerns about food without going to the length of actually doing anything about their practices. Guess they've been listening to the concept of marketing being about perception for a bit too long.

Labels: chicken, marketing, news, Tyson

I was in the mood to cook something different and had noticed at a local store some muffins with sliced almonds on top. We had about ten chicken leg and thigh combinations defrosted, so I thought that an almond-crusted chicken, baked like oven-fried types (get rid of the oil) might be good. So I checked online - lots of recipes that seemed to work on the 1) dredge in flour, 2) dip in egg, 3) cover in nuts approach, like you might do for pan-fried chicken. Here's roughly what I did (what, me take measurements?):

Ingredients

• 5 lbs. chicken parts, bones in
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 12 ounces sliced almonds

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil (or use a cooking spray on) a large roasting pan, or two pans that will fit the chicken and your oven at the same time.
2. Take three wide containers. Mix flour, salt, and pepper in one. Beat the eggs with milk in the second. Crush almonds with your hands and place into the third.
3. Rinse chicken and pat mostly dry. In turn, dredge each piece in flour, coat with egg mixture, and roll in crushed almonds. Place in pan.
4. Place pan in oven and bake about 40 minutes, or until almond crust is golden brown and chicken cooked through.

I served it with a cream sauce (kicking myself here, because I used milk and not the chicken stock in the fridge that I had made from carcasses) into which I added a couple of handfuls of chopped cilantro.

Labels: chicken, entree, nuts, recipe

Yesterday, I stopped off with my daughter after her early morning paper run for a snack and decided to pick up something to make for dinner. I remembered that we had some beets and then I noticed the fennel, and I decided that roast root vegetables would be a great dish. I cannot recommend this highly enough - the beets especially. The heat seems to tone the beet sweetness down just a bit. I trimmed the stems, cut the globes into pieces, tossed with some olive oil, sprinkled some kosher salt, and put them, in a roasting pan, into a 425 degree oven. One lesson learned the hard way: peel them first. I was used to peels slipping off after boiling beets, but it doesn't seem to work that way after roasting.

The fennel got the same treatment, and the anise taste worked well with the beets. In addition was some briefly sauteed (until wilted) Swiss chard. There was a roast chicken for which I sauteed chopped leek, threw in flat parsley, and added some stock I made from the chicken innards. I blended the lot for a leek sauce, though I can see now that it's a bit mild on its own, and could have used a dash of something hot.

Labels: chicken, roast, sauce, technique, vegetables

I was in a Stop & Shop yesterday, considering a purchase of beef broth as a braising medium for a pot roast (and not having anything else on hand). I looked at the Nature's Promise store brand and noticed a sodium amount significantly north of 700mg per serving. That's over 30 percent of an adult's needs.

Hitting the 600mg to 700mg range seems to be standard with chicken and beef broth. But why? Clearly you can make it yourself with far less sodium by not adding salt. You'll get some, but there's a limit of what can come out of even a kosher chicken. It makes me wonder whether there is any flavor in these commercial offerings, or if salt is all they have going for them?

Labels: beef, broth, chicken, Nature's Promise, sodium

Produced by MBA Poultry, Smart Chicken is a brand of chicken and chicken parts marketed as a premium choice raised without antibiotics or hormones and packed with no water. We've had the organic version in the past, which my wife dubbed nearly as good as kosher. For her, that's saying quite a bit. So we thought that the vegetarian-fed, non-organic version would be good. Wrong.

We had purchased some and put it into the freezer, usually a safe enough thing to do. After defrosting the package of plump leg quarters, I baked the chicken without adding anything. The meat was spongy, like you might expect from a Purdue chicken, and nowhere near the quality of the organic. My guess is that their touted cold air processing doesn't do much to the texture, as the two types of birds receive the same handling, yet the difference would have been obvious in a blindfold test.

If you're thinking of trying Smart Chicken, my suggestion is to purchase the organic or else pass it by and pick up a kosher bird.

Labels: chicken, product, review, smart

At a riverside festival in western Massachusetts last weekend, I had a chance to try samples of a number of products that were new to me. Over the next week or so I'll mention more of them, but let's start with Myron's 20 Gauge Sauce from Myron's Fine Foods of Millers Falls, Mass. Here's a combination of ingredient list and description from the company's site:

Low sodium, naturally brewed soy sauce (water, soy beans, wheat, salt), red wine, natural brown sugars, fresh garlic, olive oil, rice vinegar, juniper berry and Myron's distinctive blend of unique spices. It has a deep and slightly malty flavor base, a piquant/sweet, pungent and peppery bite and subtle "evergreen" (juniper) flavor points.

It's supposed to be for wild game and fish, but I tried some chicken that had marinated in the sauce before grilling. The description is close enough, though far more subtle than I would have expected from something intended for game, and pleasant. The company's site indicates distributors carrying the products, though not retail outlets. However, you could ask a local spot to place an order, or you can purchase a 2-pack of 16-ounce bottles for $24.45, including handling and continental US shipping via UPS ground.

Labels: chicken, fish, game, Myron's, sauce