Tough poultry or cooking wrong?
 

i quite often find that when i bake a turkey breast or a roasting
chicken the meat turns out tough.

Is it the bird or am i overcooking or undercooking?

Thanks for any help.

cal

=86 cal wrote:
> i quite often find that when i bake a turkey breast or a roasting
> chicken the meat turns out tough.
>
> Is it the bird or am i overcooking or undercooking?

It's unlikely to be the bird, especially if this happens frequently.
If the juices run clear, not pink, it's fully cooked. If by tough you
mean dry and even stringy, then it's overcooked. Have you tried using
a thermometer to judge when it's done? -aem

On Tue 05 Apr 2005 11:10:59a, † cal wrote in rec.food.cooking:

>
> i quite often find that when i bake a turkey breast or a roasting
> chicken the meat turns out tough.
>
> Is it the bird or am i overcooking or undercooking?
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> cal

Could be any of those things, but more likely either under or overcooking.
You didn't give us much to go on. How have you been roasting it? Open pan,
covered, what temperature, basted, how many minutes per pound, etc.?

--
Wayne Boatwright
____________________________________________

Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day.
Sam Goldwyn, 1882-1974

Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> On Tue 05 Apr 2005 11:10:59a, ? cal wrote in rec.food.cooking:
>
>>
>> i quite often find that when i bake a turkey breast or a roasting
>> chicken the meat turns out tough.
>>
>> Is it the bird or am i overcooking or undercooking?
>>
>> Thanks for any help.
>>
>> cal
>
> Could be any of those things, but more likely either under or
> overcooking. You didn't give us much to go on. How have you been
> roasting it? Open pan, covered, what temperature, basted, how many
> minutes per pound, etc.?

Yes, a recipe/method would be very helpful to assessing the problem.

Jill

=86 cal wrote:

> i quite often find that when i bake a turkey breast or a roasting
> chicken the meat turns out tough.
>
> Is it the bird or am i overcooking or undercooking?
>

You're doing something wrong :-)
You aren't giving us much to go on, but my bet would be that you are
overcooking because if you were undercooking you would be complaining
about the thigh meat being raw.

I roast a chicken almost every week and have tried cooking them low
and slow and I have done them hot and fast, and it doesn't make a big
difference unless it is a larger bird, in which case low and slow is
the way to go. Breast meat tends to get dry and tough if you overcook
a bird.

I like the hot way to do small chickens. I season the cavity with S&P
and toss in a clove of garlic and a slice of lemon, then rub the
outside with olive oil and season with more S&P. Put the bird on a
rack in a baking pan with about 1/4 inch of water and pop it into a
425 degree oven for 1 1/2 hour. If the water runs out add more.

When the chicken is done, remove the garlic and lemon and tent the
bird. Squeeze the lemon and mash the garlic into the drippings and
thicken for gravy. Cut the chicken into serving pieces and serve on a
platter.

""? cal"" > wrote in message
...
>
> i quite often find that when i bake a turkey breast or a roasting
> chicken the meat turns out tough.
>
> Is it the bird or am i overcooking or undercooking?
>
> Thanks for any help.

Cold be either. Moist people follow the meat thermometer recommendation to
180+ and over cook turkey. Take it out at 165, let it rest 15 minutes.

"? cal" wrote:
> i quite often find that when i bake a turkey breast or a roasting
> chicken the meat turns out tough.
>
> Is it the bird or am i overcooking or undercooking?
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> cal

You might consider brining the chicken/turkey before cooking.
Especially breast meat, which can easily dry out if you're not
careful.

--
"Life is hard. Life is harder when you're stupid". - John Wayne

"Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with
bloodshed" - Mao Zedong

'99 FLHRCI

Remove 74 before replying

In article >,
(? cal) wrote:

> i quite often find that when i bake a turkey breast or a roasting
> chicken the meat turns out tough.
>
> Is it the bird or am i overcooking or undercooking?
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> cal

Impossible to say unless you explain exactly how you cook the fowl.
What temperature are you using? Are you using boneless cuts of turkey
or chicken? Covered or uncovered? How long have you cooked the meat?

"? cal" > wrote in message
...
>
> i quite often find that when i bake a turkey breast or a roasting
> chicken the meat turns out tough.
>
> Is it the bird or am i overcooking or undercooking?
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> cal

the most common cause of tough baked poultry is overcooking in dry heat -

use a new thermometer (one that doesn't require poultry to be 190-200 F
internal) - and follow the guidelines on the bird package.


>

From: (--)

>the most common cause of tough baked
> poultry is overcooking in dry heat -
>use a new thermometer (one that doesn't
> require poultry to be 190-200 F internal) - and
> follow the guidelines on the bird package.

I`ve had good results with every bird I`ve cooked that had the little
pop-up thermometer in it, and it takes out the guesswork. I don`t know
what temp they are supposed to pop out at, but I don`t recall a dryness
problem happening. I do a lot of basting of the bird - perhaps that
helps.