farmers who grew the Perdue chickens; and systematically
going through the thousands of recipes that Frank has in
his files, trying a different one each night.
Dinner that night wasn't the show piece I would have
liked to create, but it was good enough and Frank happens
to love his own Tenders so the chicken part of the meal was
a success. In the time since, I've tried to live up to the
second part of the promise, the one about learning how to
serve the best chicken every time.
In this book, I'd like to share with you the most
useful cooking tips and the most appealing, most
successful recipes developed by Perdue Farms over the last
twenty years. The first chapter contains the kinds of
information I wished I'd known from the beginning. You
don't need to read this chapter, because chicken isn't that
hard to cook; but there are tips in it that can save you
time and money and that can enable you to cook with greater
confidence. This chapter also has the latest tips on food
safety.
The remaining chapters are organized, not by method of
cooking or whether the food is an appetizer or salad or
whatnot; but rather by the kind of occasion you're facing.
You want to put some spark and variety into every day
meals? You want to make the most of your microwave? Or
you're in a hurry today? Maybe you need something that
will please kids? Or you're dieting? You've got a bunch
of leftovers? You have to cook for a hundred people
tomorrow night? I tried to think of the kinds of
situations in which you could need recipes and then I
organized Frank's recipes around them. Jean Brillat-