Help! Cooking n00b, can grow chicken, but cant cook it!

silkiechicken

Staff PhD
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16 Years
Jan 25, 2007
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Everett WA/Corvallis OR
Ok, so at this very moment, I am trying to cook chicken thighs from the store. I put them in the pan and tossed on some garlic, spices, oil, and added no water. Now that it's cooking, there is about 1/2 inch of water in the pan that came out from the meat. I have I think 12 pieces in this pan.

This time around, I will be pouring out the liquid. But in the future, how do I pre prepare the meat so not so much water seeps out when it cooks? I don't really have this problem when I cook up my own birds, but these are the commercial type. Or is this something that I just didn't notice before!
 
All of the chicken meat I buy in the store is LOADED with H2O.

I haven't found a solution yet other than overcooking a little.
 
I'm not the best chicken cooker either. I usually bake it in a sauce to avoid the water issue. I made Cream of Mushroom Chicken & Rice Bake last night and the chicken was nice and juicy
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Good luck with your cooking!
 
That's just the way it goes...

Make sure the pans you use have high sides and look forward to a spattery mess unless you put a tent of tinfoil over them.


or......



Place between two absobent towels....sit on one of those bouncy balls with the handles and bounce up and down on the towels on your bouncy ball....like this:

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me,
g
 
When you cook commercial chicken that's had water added to it, well, the water comes out!
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Seriously, they're legally allowed to add a certain percentage of water to chicken and they do.

If you cook it with a lid on it, the water can't evaporate, so it just collects in the pan. To brown it nicely, you can leave the lid off. Then you have to deal with spatters.

Spatters can be reduced with a spatter shield, a screen that goes over the pan, but still lets steam escape. You can also try leaving the lid askew, although some water still collects in the pan with this method. You can try the previously mentioned tenting with foil method.

You can also cook the chicken with a lid on and boil off some of the excess water at the end, reducing the liquid.

Good luck!
 

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