Essential I Be Cooking!: Post a Pic of What You're Cooking Thread

BlackDiBiase

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Sounds like court went well. Congrats bro

no bro, it was a hearing i am scheduled january 15th. smmfh. i thought it was over last wednesday but i got to deal with this grey cloud into the new year.
 

Ezekiel 25:17

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Here's some quick chicken breast I cooked. I'm getting better, smashed it with a mallet, cooked on 5 mins each side, came out perfect:obama:


2 things though. I'm burning them, could it be the butter or Olive oil? I know butter burns easy. Or am I just cooking too high? And I feel like there's not enough flavor, what are y'all doing for more flavor on basic chicken breast? All I been using is Mrs. Dash + NoSalt. Might have to jump on the Marinate game, which I haven't tried and my blood pressure is on the high side do brine may be out of question




upload
 

Ezra

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Both butter and olive oil have a low smoke point so they’re gonna burn at high heat. You can cook them at a lower heat, take them off the skillet the blast the heat on the skillet sear them quickly to finish them off.



Chicken breast are pretty flavorless so that’s a challenge. Try a marinade if you’re avoiding sodium. Check the label if you buy it at the store. Most have a lot of sodium in them. Probably better off making it from scratch.
 

Caca-faat

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Here's some quick chicken breast I cooked. I'm getting better, smashed it with a mallet, cooked on 5 mins each side, came out perfect:obama:


2 things though. I'm burning them, could it be the butter or Olive oil? I know butter burns easy. Or am I just cooking too high? And I feel like there's not enough flavor, what are y'all doing for more flavor on basic chicken breast? All I been using is Mrs. Dash + NoSalt. Might have to jump on the Marinate game, which I haven't tried and my blood pressure is on the high side do brine may be out of question




upload


First thing first, put on some music, a podcast anything you can listen to that you will enjoy. The tv will be a distraction, good podcast will help an arduous task go by much quicker, this is a good time to fine tune your singing voice.

Always wash your chicken. I'm not here for none of this not washing your chicken business.

  • Make sure before you do, take all the dishes off the dish drainer.
  • You are not to wash your chicken under a running tap under any means, always use a deep bowl and place it in the sink.
  • Fill it with water first then cut a lime in two and squeeze the whole lime in; a lemon is fine if you have it, but depending on the size half a lemon will do. Then put the whole fruit in, seed skin and all.
  • Place the chicken in the bowl and let sit for 30 mins or so. The muscle of the chicken will start to look a bit opaque as the acid starts to cook the meat.
  • Then drain off as much of the water into the sink while using your other hand to prevent the chicken falling into the actual sink. If the chicken has the skin on it then you can squeeze off the excess. Discard the citrus.
  • Wash your hands and transfer the chicken to a large ziplock bag. I use a zip lock bag because it's easier to store in the fridge and makes it easier to marinate the meat as well as I do it straight into the bag.
There are a few ways to marinate a chicken
  1. Brining it- great for whole poultry and large pieces of meat.
  2. Using a wet rub - does the job, but not good for fried chicken as all the seasoning burns, so you would have to scrape it all off before hand.
  3. Using a dry rub - a good all rounder
I'm only going to focus on one here because the marination process can be specific to the dish you are cooking. So google the dish you want to make and follow that recipe. The fault with that is that I find recipes are for a generic audience so never has quite enough seasoning so I always add extra.

NB: 1. Marinating or seasoning your meat is not purely about it's salt content.
2. There are more ways to add salt to your dish than adding salt itself. Soy sauce and ketchup contain umami which is gives food a richness, with
3. Umami makes food taste richer, gives it depth. Sometimes food taste bland but it really needs, a lil soy sauce, ketchup or tomato paste for that kick of umami. Please Google it.
4. For any dish you are making that has gravy cooked with the meat; you will usually add fresh (as opposed to dried) aromatics during the cooking process. Dry aromatics when raw, wet aromatics during cooking.

I never measure anything I just add till I feel like it's enough. Cooking by feel is a much more personal experience that's where your granny adds that love ingredient. It is the best way to learn organically and develop your chefs palate.

When marinating your meat, always put oil on your meat 1 tablespoons or so depending on the amount of meat you are cooking. It makes the dried seasonings more spreadable.

I always have the spices listed below and this would be what I would usually go to in some way, shape or form.
  • Soy sauce
  • Fresh onion
  • Fresh Garlic
  • Fresh Thyme
  • Fresh ungrated whole Nutmeg
  • Paprika
  • Dried Rosemary (I only use this with lamb)
  • Onion powder
  • Garlic powder
  • Celery salt
  • Whole allspice berries
  • Whole clove
  • Whole cardamom
  • Jamaican curry powder
  • Whole scotch bonnet
  • Whole Escallions
  • Dried ginger powder
  • Chinese all spice
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Vinegar
  • Mustard Powder
With the items listed above everything can taste better. Except Chinese food, dont fukk with Chinese food. Dont try and black it up, it doesn't work, buy authentic ingredients like Sioxing Rice wine, oyster sauce etc.

SALT
Salt is easy to get carried away with. So to avoid any mishaps I try to use alternative methods of adding salt e.g soysauce when marinating meat. But if you do use table salt only use a little when marinating but I tend to add it during the cooking process where I can taste and adjust where needed to my palate.

Be careful of dried ready made seasonings that are labelled chicken, fish or beef they usually contain salt and you dont want to add extra salt on top. Not good for your blood pressure, read the back of the packet. The higher up salt is on the ingredient list the more the product contains. This is why I buy the pure ingredient, pure garlic powder, pure onion powder.

With your chicken now in a ziplock bag. You can add whichever of the dried seasonings above depending on what dish you are cooking and what the recipe calls for. You can also just fling most of them on the meat and it will be fine.

Once you have flung all your dried seasonings in seal the bag and massage the meat, making sure all the knooks and crannies are covered. The warmth of you hands will help to warm up the meat allowing it to accept the seasoning better. Roll the parts of the bag between your fingers. Roll it on the counter with mild pressure, shake the bag up moving the pieces around. The oil will help to form a smooth pliable paste. If the seasonings isnt spreading add more oil. Then put the whole zip log bag into a plastic bag to avoid leakage and that's it.

Remove from the fridge if marinating overnight to allow the meat to come up to temperature.But you can cook the meat with about 45 mins of marination if done in a hurry.
 

Ezekiel 25:17

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Both butter and olive oil have a low smoke point so they’re gonna burn at high heat. You can cook them at a lower heat, take them off the skillet the blast the heat on the skillet sear them quickly to finish them off.



Chicken breast are pretty flavorless so that’s a challenge. Try a marinade if you’re avoiding sodium. Check the label if you buy it at the store. Most have a lot of sodium in them. Probably better off making it from scratch.


I kinda read into it some, but I think it's the seasonings that's burning. Gonna have to change my seasoning strategy
 
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Skooby

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not sure if it shows up but I made sweet potatoes, steak/onions and Brussels sprouts
Nah, didn't show up.
 
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