insead_hec

On (non)rinsing chicken

I was taught always rinse the chicken before you cook it. As it turns out, when you rinse the chicken, the bacteria goes into the sink. You touch the faucet. You touch the handles. It might splash onto the counter next to it. So it - really, we found that it's much safer to not rinse the chicken. Of course, you want to cook it very well.

What is the best way to prepare meat for freezing?

Make sure that first of all the meat is dry before you freeze it. So the first thing is to pat it dry. The second thing is you want to seal it really well - double layers of plastic and then in foil, is the recommended practice in the "Test Kitchen." And then you want to put the individual pieces you then can slip that into a zipper-lock plastic bag. So you've got two layers of plastic wrap, one layer of aluminum foil and then you've got a sealed, plastic bag with individual pieces so they're not all piling up on each other and sticking to each other. And so that's the best way to freeze meat.

On defrosting meat in a hurry

This only applies to small pieces of meat, so a chicken breast or an individual steak — it does not apply to a roast or a whole bird. But if you want to put it (still wrapped in foil and in a bag) in hot tap water, put it in a bowl and fill it with hot tap water — it only takes 30 minutes, so there's not enough time for the bacteria to start growing as opposed to if you just throw it out on the counter and it has been eight hours sitting on the counter defrosting. In about 30 minutes, if you're talking about a 6- or 8- or even 10-ounce piece of meat, it's going to be thawed enough that you can go ahead and cook it. ... It's [a] much better way than if you do it in the microwave.

On purchasing "water-chilled" vs. "air-chilled"

After the chicken has been plucked, in the processing they need to chill the bird and they can either do it by putting it in very cold water, or putting it in a very cold refrigerated area.

If they do it in the water, the bird picks up a lot of water weight — 5 to 10 percent additional water weight. And so in addition to paying for a lot of water, which doesn't seem like a very good deal, that water washes out the flavor and [the meat] is very bland. So one of the things that we recommend in the Test Kitchen is that you look for an "air-chilled" bird. ... If you read the label carefully, you can see those words on there

On the myth that searing seals in the juices

People think it's true because when you're searing meat, you're kind of tightening the exterior so ... [they think] that it's trapping that juice inside. But actually the opposite is happening. Any time you introduce meat or poultry to really high heat, whether it's a very hot oven or right on the stovetop, that contraction of the meat fibers [is] squeezing out liquid. So the higher the heat, the faster this happens. ... If you sear something over high heat, you'll have a much drier piece of meat or poultry than if you cook it at a more moderate temperature.