Eat chicken healthily and enjoy its benefits

If you are a non-vegetarian planning a surprise party for your family or a few guests, how can you avoid chicken? It is less fatty comparing beef and mutton, takes less time to cook too. That makes chicken, everyone’s favourite. Also it makes less health related problems if taken in a controlled manner. So, through this column let me tell you a few things to note before you prepare and eat chicken.

Things to note when you preserve chicken

1. Cleaned chicken, uncooked chicken and marinated chicken – you can place these items in your freezer under 4 degree celsious for two or three days. Use special food grade containers for this purpose. These containers should be flat, shallow and should have a tight lid.

2. You can use fried/cooked chicken for three or four days, if placed inside freezer.

3. If you want to keep chicken curry in refrigerator for further use, cool it within 2 hours of preparation and place it in your freezer. Use it within three or four days.

4. Before using frozen meat (cooked) boil it for 3-5 minutes. Freezer controls the growth of bacteria and fungi like staphylococcus aureus, salmonella and listeria. But they multiply pretty well in normal temperature, resulting in food poisoning. So it’s better to boil well, cooked chicken before consuming.

5. Cut chicken pieces should never be kept open for more than one hour in normal temperature. Either cook it soon, or place it in freezer. In normal temperature germs multiply easily and enzyme variations may occur.

Things to note while preparing chicken

1. Except chicken, in all types of meat fat and flesh are seen together. In chicken, fat is more concentrated beneath the skin. So, if skin removed, chicken is healthy to eat. It’s easy to peel of the skin, starting from neck thus removing excess fat.

2. Clean the skinless chicken well using fresh water and remove its feathers. Then use turmeric powder and salt to clean it well.

3. It’s better not to fry already fried chicken. It makes chicken more dry resulting in the formation of acrylamide, a chemical substance causing cancer. Also, heating oil again is harmful to health.

4. Chicken is not preserved the same way like beef (boneless pieces). Since its flesh is soft and filled with bones it’s not at all tasty to preserve chicken this way.

5. Grilling and barbeque method of preparations are best for chicken as it drinks less oil. But never overcook them; if so acrylamide content is higher.

6. There is an easy way to know if chicken is fresh or not. If chicken is damaged it becomes soft and you may feel change of taste and odour while preparing the dish.

7. Fish needs 15-30 minutes after marination. Keep chicken half to one hour after marination (based on the size of pieces). Red meat like mutton and pork need at least 2 hours.

Healthy eating and enjoy your chicken dishes

Chicken stock prepared using chicken pieces and bones, is a best medicine to increase appetite. It digests easily giving extra energy. 25.4% of chicken flesh is protein. So, including chicken in your meals adds extra tissues and muscles to your body. Chicken breast is best for those who are interested in body building. It contains fewer fats and more proteins. But never use dishes like chilly chicken regularly. For a normal person 50 gm chicken is enough, if included in daily diet. But for persons who do a lot of physical work, 100-150 gm can be included in regular diet.

Image source: Pixabay   

Read a few more interesting articles related to how to preserve vegetables, fruits, other food products and much more. Here is the page link. Click on the images in the gallery to read.