Today I had to throw out our entire dinner for the first time in a long time because it was DISGUSTING.
I bought raw chicken tenders.
Marinated them about 5 hours in a store-bought honey-mustard marinade.
Put them in oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes on a small bed of rice.
The texture of the chicken was horrible. They were juicy and cooked through (not pink), but tasted raw... almost jelly-like in texture. Inedible. So much wasted food.
What did I do wrong?
Also, I have some of the raw chicken leftover that I was going to fry up tomorrow but now I wonder if I should just toss it. It smells okay.
I'm going to guess that the moisture in the rice kept the chicken tenders from getting much above boiling water temperature. They would have ended up basically being steamed for 15 minutes. Probably need to cook them separately, maybe sautee or broil them to get them up to a temperature that sears the outside a bit and firms them up.
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean they were undercooked? They weren't pink.
Deletewithout sticking a thermometer into them, pretty hard to tell if they were cooked safe to eat. I'm guessing safe but unappetizing, but it's just a guess...
DeleteGuess here is that internal temperature was probably about 145-150 which will give you visually cooked but underdone chicken. A kitchen thermometer will give you the best cook results (FDA says 180 for chicken but 160 appears safe for white meat and gives us a good donenesss)
ReplyDeleteI've never baked tenders, but I do cook chicken in the oven often and 15 minutes sounds like not enough time to fully cook. Perhaps the marinade had something to do with the color of the meat not looking pink. I just looked up a recipe for baking tenders that had them covered in a 425 oven for 25-30 minutes. Don't toss the rest of the tenders, see how they are when you fry them.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rachaelrayshow.com/recipe/15328_Baked_Chicken_Tenders/index.html
ReplyDeleteRachael Ray led me astray!
Well now that is interesting! Your "chickencident" has me also looking into marinating as the possible culprit...and several times I've read some marinades will break down the chicken meat if used for long soaks.
DeleteYea that could be!
DeleteThe chicken was fine last night.
it depends on how thick your chicken tenders, maybe rachael ray's recipe is for very very thin chicken tenders.
ReplyDeleteHi Dr. Fizzy,
ReplyDeleteLove the cartoons.. you're definitely making me think about PM&R.
Anyway, your chicken wasn't cooked hot enough, you want more like 450 - 475 for 10 - 15 minutes. The rice didn't do you any favors either, sucking up heat and giving off moisture. Better to cook them separately on a rack, so they can get exposed to the hot air in the oven.
You could have tried frying them off in a pan to save them, I think they'd still have ended up soggy though.
I wouldn't trust RR or anyone else on Food Network other than Alton Brown. You're much better off taking direction from America's Test Kitchen.
Thanks for all the great cartoons and insight into your speciality. I hope your next attempt at chicken tenders is more fruitful.
Definitely sounds like over-marinating.
ReplyDeleteHi Dr. Fizzy,
ReplyDeletePerhaps is was the over marinating plus cooking the chicken over the rice...Maybe grill the chicken separately next time? Use tenderizer and just a bit of marinade? What do I know, my husband is the Chef around here!
Yup - over marinating. I did it once to a steak and rendered it inedible because of the texture. Tender is one thing, but tender-like-gefilte fish is just yuck. Now, if I marinate at all, I keep it to only 30 min, which I know is an over reaction, but so be it.
ReplyDelete