Vegetarian cooking chicken

[Anonymous]

I am following this recipe - https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/223042/chicken-parmesan/

but I am a vegetarian who has never cooked chicken or any kind of meat before. I did this one last week and everyone liked it enough, but my husband said it was dry. I slightly overlapped the chicken slices and will use a bigger dish so they can all lay flat. Any other tips?

[Anonymous]

I know this isn't what you asked but---Ask your husband to make it Seriously--just cook what you know and if he wants meat he can make it himself.

Aside from that---chicken thighs are sooo much better than breast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this isn't what you asked but---Ask your husband to make it Seriously--just cook what you know and if he wants meat he can make it himself.

Aside from that---chicken thighs are sooo much better than breast.

For chicken parm? I haven't eaten meat in 25 years so I don't know. I could ask DH to make it but I love cooking and he works late.....

[Anonymous]

When I have time, I always brine chicken (esp. breasts) before cooking. It really helps keep it from drying out. Just dial back the salt added during cooking a bit to compensate.

[Anonymous]

Use a meat thermometer. I upped my meat game significantly when I started using one.

[Anonymous]

Use vegetarian chicken (like Beyond meat) and you can eat it as well. I'm vegetarian and don't cook meat for my family. If they want to eat meat, they have to cook themselves (or go to a restaurant).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Use vegetarian chicken (like Beyond meat) and you can eat it as well. I'm vegetarian and don't cook meat for my family. If they want to eat meat, they have to cook themselves (or go to a restaurant).

Did you post in the right thread? The OP's asked for tips on cooking chicken, not if she should or should not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Use a meat thermometer. I upped my meat game significantly when I started using one.

+1

Use a instant read meat thermometer. I realized that I wasn't sure if chicken was fully cooked so I usually ended up over cooking it and it turned out dry. Chicken needs to be cooked to 165 deg F, but you have to account for residual cooking (carryover cooking) once you take the chicken out of the oven. I usually take chicken out at 160 and leave it untouched for a little bit with foil on top

[Anonymous]

Also, I see by your recipe that you fried the pounded chicken before baking it. Sometimes with a recipe, you have to tweak the bake time. Maybe when you made the chicken, it cooked a little more in the oil, so that when you put it in the oven (and used the full baking time) it overcooked? No problem. I always have to make a recipe a few times before I get the times right for my stove and oven.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Use a meat thermometer. I upped my meat game significantly when I started using one.

+1

Use a instant read meat thermometer. I realized that I wasn't sure if chicken was fully cooked so I usually ended up over cooking it and it turned out dry. Chicken needs to be cooked to 165 deg F, but you have to account for residual cooking (carryover cooking) once you take the chicken out of the oven. I usually take chicken out at 160 and leave it untouched for a little bit with foil on top

Thanks I took it out last night when the last piece was over 165 on the thermometer. Does that mean all the pink is gone? While one piece was 165 there was another that was 190s. What can I do about that? - op

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Use a meat thermometer. I upped my meat game significantly when I started using one.

+1

Use a instant read meat thermometer. I realized that I wasn't sure if chicken was fully cooked so I usually ended up over cooking it and it turned out dry. Chicken needs to be cooked to 165 deg F, but you have to account for residual cooking (carryover cooking) once you take the chicken out of the oven. I usually take chicken out at 160 and leave it untouched for a little bit with foil on top

Thanks I took it out last night when the last piece was over 165 on the thermometer. Does that mean all the pink is gone? While one piece was 165 there was another that was 190s. What can I do about that? - op

NO, If they’re all equal thickness, you do what you do with any cooking - you rotate the pan or whatever during cooking to account for hot spots in your oven. Try not to layer them unevenly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Use a meat thermometer. I upped my meat game significantly when I started using one.

+1

Use a instant read meat thermometer. I realized that I wasn't sure if chicken was fully cooked so I usually ended up over cooking it and it turned out dry. Chicken needs to be cooked to 165 deg F, but you have to account for residual cooking (carryover cooking) once you take the chicken out of the oven. I usually take chicken out at 160 and leave it untouched for a little bit with foil on top

Thanks I took it out last night when the last piece was over 165 on the thermometer. Does that mean all the pink is gone? While one piece was 165 there was another that was 190s. What can I do about that? - op

NP. Can you figure out why the pieces did not cook evenly? It sounds like that is part of the problem, the piece that cooked to 190+ will almost certainly be overcooked and dry. Perhaps some of the chicken was cooked more in the pan before going into the oven? Different thicknesses? You mentioned overlapping the chicken in the pan - did the edge pieces cook faster? (If I need to overlap, I usually try to overlap around the edges, leaving the center single-layer so that the edges don't overcook before the center is done). Or your oven may have a hot spot - in mine, the back of the oven is hotter, so I rotate the pan halfway through or put the thicker pieces toward the back.

If you can solve that problem, it should help. If you can, check the temp of each piece after about 2/3 of the cooking time. If it seems like some pieces are heating faster than others, try rotating your pan in the oven, or be ready to pull some of the chicken out of the pan while the rest finishes cooking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Use vegetarian chicken (like Beyond meat) and you can eat it as well. I'm vegetarian and don't cook meat for my family. If they want to eat meat, they have to cook themselves (or go to a restaurant).

These products should all be called Beyond Gross.

[Anonymous]

Another vegetarian. My husband knows better than to complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Use a meat thermometer. I upped my meat game significantly when I started using one.

+1

Use a instant read meat thermometer. I realized that I wasn't sure if chicken was fully cooked so I usually ended up over cooking it and it turned out dry. Chicken needs to be cooked to 165 deg F, but you have to account for residual cooking (carryover cooking) once you take the chicken out of the oven. I usually take chicken out at 160 and leave it untouched for a little bit with foil on top

Thanks I took it out last night when the last piece was over 165 on the thermometer. Does that mean all the pink is gone? While one piece was 165 there was another that was 190s. What can I do about that? - op

NP. Can you figure out why the pieces did not cook evenly? It sounds like that is part of the problem, the piece that cooked to 190+ will almost certainly be overcooked and dry. Perhaps some of the chicken was cooked more in the pan before going into the oven? Different thicknesses? You mentioned overlapping the chicken in the pan - did the edge pieces cook faster? (If I need to overlap, I usually try to overlap around the edges, leaving the center single-layer so that the edges don't overcook before the center is done). Or your oven may have a hot spot - in mine, the back of the oven is hotter, so I rotate the pan halfway through or put the thicker pieces toward the back.

If you can solve that problem, it should help. If you can, check the temp of each piece after about 2/3 of the cooking time. If it seems like some pieces are heating faster than others, try rotating your pan in the oven, or be ready to pull some of the chicken out of the pan while the rest finishes cooking.

+1 Trouble shooting to see why there was such variation in speed of cooking will help. If you pounded the chicken, they should all be about the same thickness. Maybe your baking dish is too small. But yeah, 190 F is pretty dry chicken. The only person in the family who will eat it is my ex-vegetarian DH who doesn't actually like juicy meat. Don't worry about the color of the meat, just make sure that all the pieces evenly hit 160ish and then take it out.