stewing hens. These birds are around 18 months old, which
means they're going to be quite tough, but if you use them
in soups or stews, they'll add an excellent flavor.
I've had chicken in the freezer for a year. Is it still
edible?
From a health point of view it would be ok, but the
flavor and texture will have deteriorated and it just won't
be particularly tasty. I stored chicken in the freezer for
a year once as an experiment, just to see what it would be
like. It wasn't awful, but it was kind of flat and
tasteless. I remember wondering if this was what cotton
tasted like - although to be fair, it wasn't really that
bad.
Why are bones sometimes dark?
Darkened bones occur when the product has been frozen.
Freezing causes the blood cells in the bone marrow to
rupture and then when the chicken is thawed, these ruptured
cells leak out and cause visible reddish splotches on the
bones. When cooked, these discolorations will turn from
red to almost black.
Is it true that breast meat is the least fattening part of
a chicken?
Yes. Breast meat has about half the fat of thigh
meat. If calories or cholesterol are important to you,
choose the breast meat. Frank watches his cholesterol and
I've never seen him go for anything but breast meat. Is it
better to cook a chicken quickly at a high temperature-or
slowly at a low temperature?
Both work, but with high temperatures, you run a
greater risk of uneven cooking, with the wings and legs