Chicken Salt Is the Australian Seasoning You Should Put on Everything

Aussies travel in packs in the United States, so if you meet one, you meet twenty. And when Aussies get together, the conversation inevitably turns to chicken salt, how it’s not available in the States, and how it should be. Everyone wants to export it or recreate it but it turns out that complaining about not having it is easier than doing either. When we were opening Dudley’s Deli we finally decided to make it.

Source: Chicken Salt

Most of us don’t have a hotel pan, and probably won’t buy one for this. A cookie sheet lined with a cooling rack would work well.

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This Three-Ingredient Curry Chicken Is an Easy, Perfect Weeknight Dinner

Feel free to play it by ear if you make this yourself.  Mix some salt and oil (a pinch and 2 tbsp, respectively) with a cup of yogurt and a bit more than a tablespoon (they call for one tablespoon and a teaspoon) of curry powder. Mix to combine, and you have a marinade for your chicken thighs. Then spread out the thighs in a baking sheet and cover them with the spread before putting them in a plastic baggie, but you could probably skip the step (and the dirty dish) and just put the chicken and the spread into the bag, seal it, and toss to coat. Let them marinate for a few hours. Then when you get home from work (or the next day,) bake them at 425 degrees F for about 20 minutes, or until they’re done. That’s all there is to it.

You can even use some of the drippings from the baked thighs to turn leftover yogurt into a flavorful dip you can pair with the meal.

This “Ghost Chicken” Story Is One of Science’s Strangest Urban Legends

I missed this one for yesterday 😦

Today, we remember Francis Bacon mostly for his political and scientific contributions, but the people of Highgate remember him for something else: a scientific urban legend about a food safety experiment that may (or, more likely, may not) have created a ghost chicken.

Source: This “Ghost Chicken” Story Is One of Science’s Strangest Urban Legends

Poultrygeist! 😀

Five Useful Cooking Techniques No One Teaches You

Most of us learn to cook through trial and error, the Food Network, or being forced to feed ourselves when no one else will do it. So naturally, no one’s born knowing how to sauté chicken, or blanch vegetables. Here are some basic (but useful) cooking techniques chefs use every day, but the rest of us rarely pick up.

Source: Five Useful Cooking Techniques No One Teaches You

#6: Sous vide 101.  How much did you know already?  Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” is a good show – last I heard, most was available on Netflix.

This Video Explains What Can (and Can’t) Affect Your Metabolism

The only strictly genetic component to an “increased” metabolism is the amount of “Uncoupling Protein” you have on the inner cell membrane of your mitochondria. The more of this protein you have, the less efficient your body is at turning calories into energy so to speak. The calories are just turned into heat energy. This requires more calories to support body function.

A high concentration of these mitochondria with a high levels of UCP are located within what’s called brown fat. This brown fat is strictly used to generate and maintain body heat. The amount of brown fat that you have decreases with age, contributing to 90 y/o men wearing cardigans in the summer and a slower “metabolism.”

Also, the “eat smaller meals more frequently” is actually a fallacy. Much like “always eat breakfast,” it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Healthy people hear it’s healthy, attach themselves to the habit, and it becomes consequentially associated with health.

Make Chicken Stock in Just 45 Minutes with an Ounce of Gelatin

The most flavorful, full-bodied chicken stock takes hours to make on the stove—usually. Here’s a shortcut that doesn’t compromise on quality: add packets of unflavored gelatin to your stock ingredients and have stock in less than an hour.

Source: Make Chicken Stock in Just 45 Minutes with an Ounce of Gelatin

If you want good flavour – roast the bones, some carrot and some onion @ 450F for a half hour or so, transfer to pot and add the water. Makes it ten times better.  The gelatin is just for the body. The flavour comes from the bones/meat, and pulverizing them extracts the flavor more quickly.

Farmers Stumbled on Genetics That Stop Chickens Loving Their Offspring

Birds have a quality known as broodiness. It means that, after they lay their eggs, they stick around and take care of those eggs. Most commercial chickens don’t have that quality. And it looks like their complete disregard for their offspring results from one genetic mutation.

Source: Farmers Stumbled on Genetics That Stop Chickens Loving Their Offspring

Having raised chickens, both for meat and eggs, I never thought about this.  I’ve certainly seen broodiness in other fowl, like geese and ducks.  You only have to get bitten by a goose once…  Not me, I just watched 😀

Make a Quicker and Easier Version of Bearnaise Sauce with Mayonnaise

A stress-free way to make a classic — and unruly — French sauce that’s a variation of hollandaise.

Source: How To Hack Béarnaise, A Mother Of A French Sauce

I wouldn’t describe a bain marie as a “special piece of equipment.” A metal bowl over a pot of heated water is something most people can manage.

I guess for the sake of product placement, no one mentions or recommends a specific brand.

Actual CDC Warning to Farmers: “Don’t Kiss Chickens”

Sound advice, CDC! But, uh, just why did you guys feel the need to issue this warning in the first place?

It’s because we’re in the midst of a series of small Salmonella outbreaks, with just under 200 cases reported thus far. A handful of these were traced back to frozen chickens, but the vast majority were from live birds, leading the CDC (as is its habit) to put out a series of pamphlets on how to avoid this latest threat.

Source: Actual CDC Warning to Farmers: “Don’t Kiss Chickens”

It’s how those tiny, disease-ridden dinosaurs will retake the world!

Why It’s Sometimes Okay to Eat Chicken That’s Pink After Cooking

Here’s the situation: your thermometer reads 165°, but that meat still looks pretty darn pink. What do you do? According to the USDA, looks can be deceiving.

Source: Chicken Still Pink After Cooking?  Don’t Panic

Just eat it and let’s not be… chicken.