How to tenderize old chicken. Homemade chicken in the oven: techniques for cooking juicy poultry. Cooking in the oven

The only thing that unites homemade chicken and store-bought chicken is the name. Neither the taste, nor the color, nor the aroma, have any similarity. For me, store-bought chicken only has the advantage of cooking time and the value of the breast, which I often use for salads or chops.

Many people think that homemade chicken has tough and not tasty meat - but this is how to cook...

I suggest baking homemade chicken in the oven and truly enjoying the aromatic, juicy, tender and incredibly tasty chicken meat. In order not to bother too much with the side dish, you can cook vegetables along with the chicken. They will absorb the juice and aroma of tangerine, rendered chicken fat, and become soft, satisfying and juicy.

To prepare homemade oven-baked chicken, prepare the ingredients according to the list.

Wash the chicken thoroughly and remove any remaining feathers.

Cut along the breast and spread out. Wash the inside well again, remove the lungs, leave the existing fat, it will be needed for the juiciness and aroma of the dish.

Combine salt, spices and crushed garlic. Rub the chicken well on both sides with this mixture.

Peel all vegetables and tangerines: peel the pumpkin and remove seeds, cut the pepper and remove the stalk and seeds, remove the white fibers from the tangerine and divide it into slices.

Cut all vegetables into small cubes.

Add salt, season with spices and mix.

Cut the baking sleeve to the desired size and tie it on one side. Place all the cooked vegetables inside.

Place chicken on top. Tie the other side and place in the oven.

Bake for 1.5 hours at 180 degrees.

Carefully remove the baking sheet and cut the sleeve.

Cut homemade chicken baked in the oven into portions and serve hot along with juicy, tender, aromatic vegetables.

Bon appetit. Cook with love.

Boiled homemade chicken is a tasty and healthy dish. Chicken meat contains about 20% protein, and the amount of fat in it is minimal. The dietary characteristics of chicken are used by athletes to build muscle mass. It is ideal for people with dietary restrictions, and for a young growing body it becomes an indispensable ingredient.

The key to successfully preparing homemade chicken is observing certain features of the cooking process. By sticking to them, you will have the opportunity to enjoy a soft, tender and juicy dish.

Product selection

In order for the final result to please you, and you get a truly tasty and beautiful chicken, you should know the criteria for its selection.

When choosing chicken at the market, you need to be extremely careful. On average, the carcass of such a bird should weigh about 1.5 kg. Its meat is dark and dense in texture. The chicken should be without damage, the skin should be light yellow, uniform in color. It is allowed to be slightly damp, but not wet. The sticky layer on its surface is the result of the action of antibiotics, so such a bird should be discarded.


There is a way that will help check the carcass for the presence of chemical compounds. To do this, use litmus strips, which can be purchased at the pharmacy. Just apply it to the meat. The green color of litmus paper indicates the presence of phosphates in the meat.

Preparatory stage

First you need to prepare the chicken for cooking. To do this, rinse the carcass thoroughly and dry it with a towel. It is advisable to scorch it over gas to remove small feathers.

It is also important to decide how you will cook the bird: whole or not. If you need to cook a whole chicken, then remove the entrails from it and then wash it well again. Another option is to cut the carcass into pieces. In this case, it will cook faster.


Main process

After the initial processing, you can proceed to the main stage of preparation.

  • Place the chicken or portions into the pan.
  • Pour cold water over the meat so that it covers the product by 4 cm.
  • There is another option - the meat is placed in an already boiling liquid. However, if your goal is a tasty and beautiful broth, use cold water. To get perfect meat, use method 2. In this case, the protein will not coagulate, and the mass will turn out soft and juicy.


  • After waiting for the liquid to boil, remove the scale. You can drain the first broth completely, refill the liquid and immerse the chicken in it. But keep in mind that in this case, most of the nutrients will go down the sink with the first broth.
  • After the scale has been removed, the broth should be salted and peppered. Add your favorite spices to taste, as well as onions and carrots. Some advise putting them whole, others – sliced.
  • After going through all the steps, reduce the heat and simmer your chicken until done. On average, chicken meat cooks from 30 minutes to 3 hours. As mentioned above, individual parts cook faster than the whole carcass.


It will take approximately 1 hour to cook a young chicken. You won't be able to cook an old bird that quickly. It takes quite a long time to prepare. On average, this process takes 2-3 hours. Old chicken meat is denser and more stringy, which means it takes longer to cook. To determine whether you are buying an old or young chicken, try pressing on its breastbone. In a young bird it is flexible and springs easily under pressure. Many people prefer broilers to domestic chicken. They contain more meat and the cooking time is much shorter. For example, a whole broiler carcass will cook from 40 minutes to 1 hour. But even such advantages do not justify their quality: as a rule, artificial fertilizers - growth stimulants - are used for their cultivation.

And yet, the main indicator of chicken readiness is not time, but the structure of the meat. After 40 minutes from the start of boiling, pierce the carcass with a fork.


To state its readiness, 2 criteria are required:

  • for it to be soft, a fork or knife should easily pass through its pulp;
  • the meat should be white, pink flesh requires further cooking.

These 2 criteria indicate a properly prepared dish. After the fire is turned off, cover the pan with a lid. Let the broth sit for a while.

You can also boil homemade chicken in a slow cooker. To do this, you will need to divide it into parts and remove the giblets. After this, the pieces are placed in the device’s reservoir. Fill them with water so that the liquid covers the meat by several centimeters. Makes about 2 liters. After this, the lid is closed. Set the “quenching” function, time – 1.5 hours. After 30 minutes, add salt and pepper to the broth. After 1.5 hours you will hear a signal indicating the end of the process.

Don't rush to open the lid. Leave it covered for another 15 minutes. Then feel free to remove the dish and enjoy the warm, rich broth.


What to cook?

Boiled chicken is a product from which a variety of dishes are made: salads, rolls, stuffed carcasses, soups and much more. We invite you to consider several recipes that will delight and surprise you.

Chicken cream soup

We will need:

  • chicken broth – 2.5 cups;
  • boiled chicken;
  • canned corn - 1 large can;
  • potatoes - 2 pieces;
  • onions – 2 pcs;
  • cream 20% – 400 ml;

Cooking steps

  • Chop the onion. Fry it in olive oil. Add chopped potatoes to it.


  • Pour the resulting mixture with broth. After it boils, put the corn in the pan and add salt. Season the mixture with spices: rosemary, thyme, pepper.
  • When the potatoes are soft, turn off the mixture.
  • Blend the mixture using a blender until it becomes homogeneous and puree.
  • Pour in cream. Heat on fire, but do not boil.
  • Season the puree with curry. Divide among plates.
  • Finely chop the chicken and place on plates.
  • This puree soup goes well with croutons or toast.


Goulash for the little ones

Boiled chicken meat is a healthy and nutritious product for a child. In addition to its high protein content, it is valued for its vitamins and microelements: phosphorus, zinc, magnesium and others. It is recommended that children be introduced to this product closer to the age of one year. At the same time, it is served boiled or stewed. Chicken broths are best introduced into the diet from the age of 3 years. Although up to this age it is allowed to use a second or even a third broth.

Naturally, for children's dishes, chicken is used without skin, since it contains a lot of fat. Hams and poultry fillets are considered the most meaty and nutritious.


Prepare goulash for your baby using boiled chicken.

  • Pour 1 cup chicken broth into the pan.
  • Place finely chopped boiled chicken in it (about 0.5 fillets). And also a small amount of already boiled carrots. If desired, it can be replaced with boiled cauliflower or broccoli (1 inflorescence).
  • Separately, in a glass with warm broth or milk, dilute the flour (1 tablespoon) until the lumps are completely dissolved.
  • When the goulash boils, pour in the diluted flour. Stir the mixture constantly.
  • After the goulash thickens, simmer for another 2 minutes and turn off. Adjust the thickness of the dish by adding flour or liquid.
  • If desired, add sour cream, butter or stewed onions to the finished dish.
  • Goulash is served with boiled vegetables, porridge and noodles.


When boiling homemade chicken, be sure to follow all recommendations. After all, properly cooked poultry will become the basis for your dishes. And the taste of your culinary masterpieces will depend on the degree of readiness.

To learn how to quickly and deliciously prepare homemade chicken broth, watch the following video.

The shelves of our modern stores are literally bursting with an abundance of chicken meat, here there are whole carcasses, and chickens that have already been cut up, and giblets; We can always purchase both large broilers and tiny gherkins. The only problem is that you won’t be able to buy a real, aromatic, free-range chicken in a modern store for any amount of money. And demand plays a significant role in the absence of this product on the shelves of our stores. Unfortunately, many young housewives consider domestic village chickens to be a product that requires too much time and effort to prepare, and the result is considered too unpredictable. And completely in vain! Those who are older will never forget the taste and aroma of noodles or broth prepared by their grandmother from a chicken slaughtered in the morning. Take my word for it, or better yet check, you will never be able to cook anything like this from industrially raised chicken. And you shouldn’t be afraid that the country chicken will turn out to be too tough; if you follow some rules and little culinary tricks, a country bird dish will turn out juicy, tender, and soft, and its taste and aroma will enchant you once and for all. Today we invite you to figure out and remember with us how to cook homemade chicken.

If you think homemade chicken is only good for broths and soups, think again. One hundred and two hundred years ago, our grandmothers and great-grandmothers, as well as their great-grandmothers, did not know any broilers, raised in almost complete immobility and fed with compound feed. But each yard had its own chickens running around. And they prepared a huge number of different dishes from these domestic chickens. They were boiled, stewed, fried, and baked; they cooked noodles and porridge with them; domestic chickens were excellent for preparing appetizers, first courses, and second courses. And what pies and pies were made with meat and giblets of domestic chickens! Nothing has changed today. You can prepare almost any familiar dish from homemade chicken, but the dish will turn out to be many times more tasty, aromatic and rich in flavor than one prepared from regular store-bought chicken. And this applies not only to dishes of Russian cuisine, but also to many dishes of other national cuisines. For example, chakhokhbili from homemade chicken turns out much more delicious, and how aromatic and rich the lagman comes out of such chicken! Just try to make Indian curry from such a chicken, you will be surprised at how much more delicious this already aromatic and fragrant dish can turn out! What can we say about the fact that if you follow some very simple rules, you can fry homemade chicken in the oven, bake it in a pot with vegetables and spices, and cook it in a jar, adding extra softness and juiciness to it. Can you really list everything? Just believe me, any dish prepared from home-grown, free-range chicken turns out incredibly tasty and aromatic, you just need to apply a little desire and your own culinary imagination.

Today, the Culinary Eden website has collected and recorded for you the most important tips and secrets, coupled with proven culinary recipes that will definitely help even the most inexperienced housewives and will easily tell you how to cook homemade chicken.

1. First of all, let's figure out where we can get a real village chicken. Don’t even look for such chickens in stores, they simply don’t exist there. At collective farm and farmer's markets, buy domestic chickens only from trusted sellers, because, unfortunately, now even chickens are falsified: they dye ordinary store-bought chickens with turmeric and pass them off as domestic chickens, hoping for the inexperience of the buyer. It is best to buy backyard chickens directly from those who raise them. If you ask around, you will probably find someone who knows village grandmothers or good conscientious farmers who raise free-range chickens. Usually you can drive up to such producers yourself, and they will personally slaughter and prepare the freshest chicken for you, and you will be able to see with your own eyes the living conditions of the chickens offered to you.

2. If you do decide to buy chicken at the market, choose your purchase very carefully. First of all, decide what dish you need homemade chicken for. For broths and soups, a laying hen about a year old is best suited. Such a chicken should weigh no more than one and a half kilograms, the legs of such a domestic chicken should be long, the breast bone should be quite tough, the chicken itself should be lean, not too fatty. If you are going to buy a chicken for preparing main courses, then choose a chicken weighing no more than a kilogram, with the breast bone still quite soft, with the legs still bright, yellow, not white. The meat of such a chicken will be soft to the touch, and the bones will be thin and fragile. Modern breeds of broilers raised on free range are often called domestic chickens. Of course, such chickens have more meat, they are fattier and softer than laying hens, and they are much easier to cook. One problem is that even these homemade broilers do not have the same taste and aroma as real country chickens, although they are, of course, tastier than store-bought broilers. Now the choice is yours. Try it and choose for yourself which domestic chickens you like best.

3. Once you have made your choice, examine the chicken more carefully. Next, carefully examine the carcass of the chicken you have chosen. A good domestic chicken will have shanks that look blue and thighs that are yellow due to fat. The skin of a good chicken will be quite thin, slightly transparent, and yellowish. Do not buy a chicken with too white or evenly colored yellowish skin - such a carcass was probably soaked in chlorine or tinted with turmeric to give it a more attractive presentation, but is it worth shopping from a seller who is trying to deceive you from the very beginning? Be sure to smell the chicken you choose! A good country house chicken has a rather thick but pleasant smell. If the chicken offered to you has the usual slightly sweetish, barely noticeable odor, you are being deceived, passing off an ordinary industrial bird as a domestic one. And, of course, make sure of the freshness of the bird offered to you: look to see if its skin is weathered, smell if the chicken has begun to deteriorate, feel if the meat has lost its elasticity - everything as usual when choosing a fresh bird.

4. Once you bring your home-grown chicken home, start preparing it right away. Cut off the head and legs, wash the neck and head thoroughly, scald the legs, clean and cut off the claws. These chicken parts are perfect for making broth and adding extra flavor and richness to it. Rinse the chicken carcass inside and out. Examine it carefully, because even a very well-plucked and singed chicken could still have small feather stumps lost in the deep layers of the skin - just pull them out with tweezers. If you are going to make broth from your chicken, the preparation is complete. If you bought chicken for stewing or frying, soak it for a couple of hours in salted water, this will give the chicken meat additional juiciness and softness. After soaking, rinse your chicken thoroughly again and lightly dry it. Do not soak homemade chicken in milk or water and vinegar! This will deprive it of that charming, rich, thick aroma for which you spent so much effort searching and purchasing a real domestic country bird.

5. Let's start our acquaintance with homemade chicken dishes by preparing the broth, the same aromatic, rich and very tasty chicken broth that your grandmother would be proud of. Place the gutted, cleaned and washed whole chicken carcass in a deep saucepan, add the cleaned legs and head and neck. Fill with cold water so that the water covers the chicken by 10 - 15 centimeters. Bring the water to a boil over high heat, skim off the foam, reduce the heat to the lowest setting, cover the pan with a lid and leave to simmer almost without boiling for one hour. Meanwhile, peel one carrot and one onion. Stick a clove bud into the bulb. Tie together several stalks of parsley and celery with a thread. After an hour, add prepared onions, carrots, a bouquet of herbs and a couple of bay leaves to your broth. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for another hour and a half. Do not add water while cooking the broth, this will deprive it of its strength and rich aroma! Salt the broth 20 - 30 minutes before it is ready. When the broth is ready, remove the vegetables, herbs and bay leaf from it, and leave the chicken to cool. Remove the chicken from the broth that has cooled to room temperature and strain the broth. This broth can be served separately or used as a base for soup, noodles or lagman. If you want to save the broth for the future, pour it into plastic containers and freeze it; believe me, a supply of such tasty and aromatic broth will always come in handy in your kitchen!

6. The chicken remaining after cooking the broth can be used in soup or salad, it can be served cold with horseradish, you can prepare many different delicious snacks from it, or you can bake it whole with garlic and sour cream. Try it, it's very tasty! Mix one glass of good thick sour cream with six crushed cloves of garlic, 1 teaspoon of your favorite chicken spices and ½ teaspoon of salt. Let it sit for 10 minutes. Brush the resulting sauce onto the boiled homemade chicken, outside and inside, and place in a greased baking dish. Place a few pieces of butter on top of the chicken. Bake in an oven preheated to 180° for 20 - 30 minutes until golden brown. Serve with boiled potatoes and pickles.

7. Homemade chicken baked in the oven with apples and lemons turns out very tasty. Thoroughly rinse and soak a domestic chicken weighing about two kilograms in cool salted water for two hours. Remove chicken from brine, rinse and drain. Cut the chicken along the breast and open it like a book, beat it lightly with a culinary mallet, rub with your favorite spices, crushed garlic and salt. If the chicken is not fatty enough, put a few pieces of butter under the skin. Cut three sour apples into large slices, removing the core and seeds. Cut one small lemon into thick rings. Grease a baking dish with oil, place apples and lemons on the bottom, place the chicken on top, back up, add a couple of glasses of chicken broth or water. Bake in an oven preheated to 180° for one and a half to two hours. Make sure that the chicken does not burn; periodically baste it with the released juice and fat. Don't dry out your chicken! If the broth has completely boiled away, and there is still quite a bit of time left before the end of baking, feel free to add another half glass of broth or water.

8. Homemade chicken cooked in the oven on a can turns out juicy and soft. Only, unlike store-bought chicken, in the case of homemade chicken you should not use beer or other liquids with a strong aroma, because the beauty of homemade chicken is in its own rich smell and taste; it is enough to get by with plain water or chicken broth. Soak for an hour in salt water, rinse and dry one domestic chicken weighing up to one and a half kilograms. Mix three tablespoons of sour cream with three tablespoons of softened butter, one crushed clove of garlic, salt, black and red pepper to taste. Rub the resulting sauce over the chicken. Fill a liter glass jar three-quarters full with warm water or broth. Carefully place the chicken on top of the neck of the jar, like a glove, tail down. Place the jar of chicken on a baking sheet and place in an oven preheated to 180°. Bake for one and a half hours. If the chicken begins to brown too quickly on the top or wings, cover it with foil.

9. Roasted homemade chicken in pots turns out very tasty. Wash and chop one chicken weighing up to one and a half kilograms into small pieces. Cut two large carrots into cubes. Chop one large onion and two cloves of garlic. Cut 600 g into large pieces. potatoes. Cut two sweet peppers into small pieces. Heat a large cast iron skillet or heavy bottomed skillet over high heat. Place chicken pieces in small portions in a dry frying pan and fry until golden brown on both sides. Transfer the finished chicken to a separate dish. When all the chicken is fried, add the garlic and onion to the remaining fat in the pan and fry until translucent, then add the carrots and fry over medium heat until golden brown. Transfer vegetables to a separate plate. Add a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil to the frying pan, heat it up and add the potatoes. Fry over high heat, stirring frequently, until golden brown. When the potatoes are fried, add the fried vegetables, chicken, bell peppers, ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, a pinch of ground black pepper, and salt to taste. Stir and simmer everything together for 10 minutes. Then add 1 tbsp. spoon of tomato paste and simmer, stirring, for a couple more minutes. Remove from heat. Place one bay leaf in portioned ceramic pots, arrange the chicken with vegetables and add chicken broth to three-quarters of the volume. Place the pots on a baking sheet, cover with lids and place in an oven preheated to 180° for one hour. Once the time is up, remove the pots from the oven, remove the lids, sprinkle the roast with your favorite grated cheese and return to the oven for another 20 minutes.

10. It’s very easy to prepare delicious homemade chicken in a jar. Chop the chicken into small pieces, cut a couple of cloves of garlic into petals, chop one small onion. Mix everything, add a couple of bay leaves, salt and black pepper to taste. Mix again and fill a liter jar with the resulting mixture. Cover the jar tightly with a sheet of foil, place on a baking sheet and place in a cold oven. Do not add any water or broth to the chicken - it will stew in its own juices! Turn on the oven and bring the temperature to 160°. Simmer the chicken in a jar in its own juices for two hours, turn off the oven and leave the chicken in the cooling oven for another 30 minutes. Serve with boiled potatoes or rice.

And on the pages of Culinary Eden you can always find even more interesting ideas and proven recipes that will tell you how to cook homemade chicken.

Step 1: Prepare the chicken.

Usually, good homemade chicken can be found at the market or in a specialized store, where it is usually sold already gutted. Therefore, all we have to do is thoroughly rinse and dry the bird carcass, and then cut it up for ourselves. For this dish, we will simply flatten the chicken, much like we would cook tabaka chicken.
First, use a sharp knife to cut along the spine of the chicken. It is best to do this using a sawing motion, gently crushing the light chicken bones.


After this, you can easily open the bird carcass like a book.


Turn the flattened chicken skin side up and press down until you feel the bones begin to break. This will allow you to completely open the chicken carcass and now nothing will prevent it from baking both outside and inside.

Step 2: Prepare the garlic.



Peel the garlic cloves and chop them using a fine grater or press, turning the ingredient into a fragrant paste.

Step 3: Prepare the apples.



Rinse the apples, rubbing them thoroughly with your hands. Dry the fruit with a towel and divide into quarters. Using a knife, cut out the cores with seeds and get rid of the tails. Cut the apples into as small slices as you see fit, but don't overdo it.

Step 4: Homemade chicken in the oven.



Set the oven to preheat to 180 degrees Celsius. At this time, rub the chicken carcass with salt, dried herbs, spices and garlic, not forgetting to coat the inside as well. Place the apple slices in the center of the baking sheet, and place the chicken on them, turning it skin side up. Pour some water into the bottom and place everything in a preheated oven. Homemade chicken takes a little longer to bake than regular chicken. And to get an appetizing golden crust, sometimes open the oven and use a spoon to pour the fat that flows to the bottom of the pan over the chicken. Important: Please note that there is no need to lubricate the baking dish with anything, since enough fat will be rendered from the poultry.
You can check the bird's readiness with a toothpick or fork. Just pierce it in the most fleshy place. If the juice running out of the puncture is clear or not there at all, then everything is ready, but if it is pinkish or burgundy, then you need to continue baking the chicken further. Usually, it only takes me to bake 1.5-2 hours, depending on the size of the carcass.

Step 5: Serve the oven-baked homemade chicken.



As soon as you take the finished homemade chicken out of the oven, it is ready to be served immediately. But it’s best to first cut the steaming carcass into portioned pieces and place them in separate plates with a side dish. But you yourself know exactly what to do next with the delicious, crispy bird. So enjoy the taste of wonderful homemade chicken with your family.
Bon appetit everyone!

Choose chicken seasonings that you like and that you usually use.

This chicken is just as good if baked with potatoes, tomatoes, onions, or even just lemons.

Water can be replaced with chicken, mushroom or vegetable broth, then the chicken will acquire the appropriate aroma and become even more appetizing.

Ingredients:

  • chicken- 1.5 kg
  • bulb onions- 2 pcs
  • olive oil- 3 tbsp. spoons
  • lemon- 1 PC
  • garlic- 3 cloves
  • sage- 1/2 teaspoon
  • thyme- 1/2 teaspoon
  • rosemary- 1/2 teaspoon
  • oregano- 1/2 teaspoon
  • parsley- 1/4 teaspoon (dried, ground)
  • pepper- 1/4 tsp (fragrant, ground)
  • salt- taste

Prepare the chicken:

To prepare the dish, first prepare the chicken. Rinse the bird thoroughly under warm running water, inside and out. If the chicken is not cleaned, remove all the innards and rinse again. Place the carcass on a cutting board and dry it with a paper towel.

Set the chicken aside while you prepare the marinade for baking.

Marinade

Place all the spices and herbs in the required quantity into a deep bowl, add vegetable oil and salt to taste.

Mix all ingredients well. The chicken marinade is ready.

Now you need to heat the oven to 180°C.

Prepare the stuffing for the bird.

Filling

Peel the garlic and onions and rinse under cold water, and also rinse the lemon.

Chop the onion into fairly large pieces, finely chop the garlic cloves, and cut the lemon into 4 parts.

Place these ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

How to cook chicken:

    Take the chicken and place it breast side down in an oiled roasting pan.

    Lift the top skin near the thighs and brush the meat with a generous portion of the herb and spice marinade.

    Turn the chicken breast side up and coat the meat under the skin and the entire top and sides with the marinade.

    Place the roasting pan with the chicken in the preheated oven for 1 hour.

    Every 15 minutes, using a tablespoon, baste the chicken with the juices that will be released from it during baking.

    Once the allotted time has passed, remove the bird from the oven and cover with a sheet of foil so that there are no gaps between the pan and the foil. Place in the oven for another 30 minutes.

    Test the chicken for doneness using a fork or toothpick.

    Place the finished dish on a beautiful plate, place herbs and chopped fresh vegetables around the chicken, and serve as is.

    An excellent side dish for poultry would be baked or boiled potatoes.

Chicken baked in the oven is ready! Bon appetit!