The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 720

addflavor).
Alternatively, add
grated lemon zest to
anychoppedherbmix
orspiceblend.

SHOULDIMARINATEMY
CHICKEN?

W

hen I was in college, I remember receiving a

mass e-mail from a housemate that said, “I’m
leavingfortheweekend,butthere’sachickeninthe
fridge that’s been marinating in Italian dressing for
threedays.Somebodyshouldcookit—it’llbesupertender and juicy!” I snapped up the chicken,
planningtouseitasasurefirewaytofinallyseduce
the girl who lived down the hall. She’d be so
impressed by its moistness and flavor that she’d
instantly fall in love, we’d get married (and serve
chicken at the reception, of course), have fourteen
kids,andlivehappilyeverafter.
That I’m now happily married to an entirely
different girl tells you something about how that


worked out. Turns out that you can overmarinate
chicken, particularly if using an acidic marinade
(such as Italian dressing).The acid in the marinade
will cause the proteins to denature, the same way

that cooking them does. Given enough time, the
denatured proteins will squeeze out moisture, and
thechickenwilltakeonadry,chalkytexture.
Just as with steak (seehere), there’s no need to
marinatepoultryforanymorethanhalfadayorso.
Actually, far more effective use of a marinade for
chicken and other poultry is to apply some of it to
theroastingbird10minutesorsobeforeyoutakeit
out of the oven and save most of it to applyafter
resting and carving, when it can really coat every
surfaceanddeliverflavorwitheachbite.

HOWTOREMOVETHE
WISHBONEFROMACHICKEN
ORATURKEY

R

emoving the wishbone before roasting the bird

makes carving it much easier. It’s optional for a
roast chicken but highly recommended when
roastingaturkey.