Lots of people love to eat chicken. Yet not all know how to cook chicken. Probably the most popular part to cook for is chicken breast. Chicken recipes are among the top favorite dishes wherever on earth you come from.

Boneless chicken breasts are the commonly used chicken cut for most of the recipes. You can cook it directly if you want but other prefer to poach it first to have a more flavorful and delicious chicken recipe.

So much for that, I will be covering today the steps on how to cook chicken. Let us say these steps are the very basic things you need to do.

1. Defrosting. Let us take for instance you bought a chicken from a grocery store which is frozen or simply you have a frozen chicken. To remove the ice you have to soak it in water for an hour or two before cooking. Otherwise you can use your microwave. However, microwaved chicken is not good, they say.

2. Wash or Rinse. Whether your chicken is not frozen or you have just soak it in water for hours prior to cooking, you still need to wash the chicken with water. Simply because the water it has been sitting might have that non pleasurable smell or odor. It may later affect the chicken’s taste. Moreover, it is essential to always wash food when you are in the process of preparation to avoid cross contamination.

3. Poaching. Depending what recipe you desired you can either marinate or poach your chicken. You can’t marinate a chicken if you want to use it as salad spread or breading. Marinated chicken is best for chicken adobo (famous Filipino marinated chicken recipe). You can read the steps on how to poach chicken in my other post.

4. Marinating. I really love flavorful chicken recipes. And I bet you know whats the secret, marinating. In our house we don’t use those instant marinating powders and any marinating finish products. We are just simply using soy sauce, lemons, garlic, onions, black pepper powder and a bit of MSG. You can marinate your chicken inside your refrigerator for 4 to 8 hours. However if you don’t have a fridge simply cover it or simply store it inside a Tupperware box or any storage boxes for an hour or 2 before cooking.

Now we are done with the first part, the chicken preparation. Now let us move ahead. Let us check some of the most coveted tips on how to cook chicken.

How to Cook Chicken Adobo

Probably my country’s prime chicken recipe followed by Chicken Inasal (Grilled Chicken) is the very famous Chicken Adobo. It is, in fact my favorite chicken recipe. There are lots of version on how to cook chicken adobo. Below is my version on how to cook chicken adobo.

What you need:
1. Chicken cut
2. Onion ring. You can choose any color but I preferred using red onions. (Optional)
3. Garlic
4. Soy sauce
5. Calamonding or Vinegar
6. Cooking oil
7. Ginger (Optional)
8. Black Pepper
9. Bay leaves
10. Ajinomoto (MSG)

Some cooks do not really add onion ring and ginger. But promise, I have tried cooking chicken adobo without them and to compare its more flavorful and delicios to add red onion and ginger.

Instructions.

1. Saute garlic and red onion.
2. Add chicken cuts once garlic is golden but not burnt. Mix a bit then add some soy sauce.
3. Lower the heat to medium and wait until it boils. Add pepper, ginger and bay leaves.
4. Add a bit of water. Be sure not to add too much water. Bring to boil and add a dash of salt and ajinomoto (MSG) to flavor.
5. Wait until it boils again then add either calamonding juice or vinegar.
6. Let the sauce be absorbed by chicken. Once small amount of sauce is left, almost dry but not totally dry, you can now turn off the heat.
7. Get some rice and coca cola then enjoy your meal.

I will be posting more tips on how to cook chicken recipes sooner. Keep posted.