Underdone "Astronaut" Chicken Advice

[kib]

I occasionally get lazy and buy a cooked chicken from Costco - "Astronaut" because of the plastic capsule it comes in, which makes a great incubator for seedlings, btw. They're a great bang for the buck if I turn a blind environmental eye, but they're huge and consistently still pink toward the center.

I find that baking them long enough to reheat and cook them through leaves the breast overdone and dry. Does anyone have a better technique? Carve and then bake? Stuff them with something hot first? Microwave for a few minutes before baking?

[CathyA]

I would first call Costco and tell them their chickens are undercooked. Could you steam it?

[mschrisgo2]

Yikes! Yes, do let Costco know!. That is a very high sale item where I live and I've never heard that anyone got an under-cooked chicken. (partially cooked chicken is ripe with salmonella, the health dept would have a fit!)

[sweetana3]

Costco has cooking chicken down to a science. They use temperature and pink at the bone is not a true indiciation of "doneness". I buy Costco over Sams because Sams Club cooks them to death and they are so dry and oversalted that the meat is almost unusable.

[Williamsmith]

Aren't there any local farms you can do business with? When is the last time you have actually participated in the processing of the chicken you eat. Do you trust complete strangers to provide your food for you?

[kib]

Costco has cooking chicken down to a science. They use temperature and pink at the bone is not a true indiciation of "doneness". I buy Costco over Sams because Sams Club cooks them to death and they are so dry and oversalted that the meat is almost unusable. Thanks for this. I have wondered if wasn't the case, because they ALL seem to have that pinkness.




Aren't there any local farms you can do business with? When is the last time you have actually participated in the processing of the chicken you eat. Do you trust complete strangers to provide your food for you? It's a rare person who knows everyone who comes in contact with their food. That would be very nice, but it's both time consuming and expensive - as in, about 400% more expensive. I don't always eat that way, and I'm not going to apologize for it.

[SteveinMN]

Do you trust complete strangers to provide your food for you?
In the case of rotisserie chickens I do (http://www.kadejan.com/about/). In fact, our co-op sponsors one or two days a year when they bring in the largest suppliers of produce, meat, poultry, and dairy, so you actually can meet the Thorfinnsons and the Dehns and the Diffleys that supply our food. We're not "buds" but I do trust in the co-op process. And I'm not about to start subsistence farming on a city lot or acquiring a cow (If even I could here).

[Williamsmith]

I would just clarify as follows.....one doesn't need to participate on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Simply participate one time and learn what it feels like to take the life of another living thing in order to fulfill your predator needs. I mean actually kill the thing. Not only does it make you want to use every bit up possible but it will more to the point here inform you of what a properly cooked xyz looks and tastes like. Then when you do go into a WalMart and look behind the glass at the xyz in the plastic container served up by a completely unknown stranger who got it out of a frozen box brought by a completely unknown truck driver from several hundred to a thousand miles away....you will feel a little more confident in what that xyz thing really is.

[sweetana3]

Did that for years in Alaska. Dont want to do it again. But I can sure process any fish with the best of them.

[kib]

I would just clarify as follows.....one doesn't need to participate on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Simply participate one time and learn what it feels like to take the life of another living thing in order to fulfill your predator needs. I mean actually kill the thing. Not only does it make you want to use every bit up possible but it will more to the point here inform you of what a properly cooked xyz looks and tastes like. Then when you do go into a WalMart and look behind the glass at the xyz in the plastic container served up by a completely unknown stranger who got it out of a frozen box brought by a completely unknown truck driver from several hundred to a thousand miles away....you will feel a little more confident in what that xyz thing really is. Oh, I have done that. Grabbed, swung, chopped, gutted, scalded, plucked, roasted and eaten. Delicious. Just to be clear, I'm no fan of factory farming for ethics or for flavor. But sometimes life intrudes on the best of intentions.

[sweetana3]

I do draw the line at farmed fish. They all taste the same. Would rather have wild caught salmon or trout when it is in season or frozen.

[catherine]

I would just clarify as follows.....one doesn't need to participate on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Simply participate one time and learn what it feels like to take the life of another living thing in order to fulfill your predator needs. I mean actually kill the thing. Not only does it make you want to use every bit up possible but it will more to the point here inform you of what a properly cooked xyz looks and tastes like. Then when you do go into a WalMart and look behind the glass at the xyz in the plastic container served up by a completely unknown stranger who got it out of a frozen box brought by a completely unknown truck driver from several hundred to a thousand miles away....you will feel a little more confident in what that xyz thing really is.

So, does this mean you are vegetarian, or you have the right to be an omnivore because you've killed the animal you've eaten at least once? Just curious, because that's one of the key reason I became a vegetarian years ago: I figured if I couldn't personally kill an animal in order to eat it, I shouldn't have someone else do my dirty work.

Like kib, I'm not 100% pure about my mindful eating habits, but try to get close to it. I occasionally eat rotisserie chicken. But most of the time, I only purchase and eat poultry from a local humane poultry producer, and maybe once every 4 months I'll have beef from a local producer.

I guess you're surprising me again, Williamsmith. I didn't expect that side of you, for some reason.

Back to the OP: I've never thought to "finish" a chicken in my microwave, so I'm glad the question has been clarified, and it seems I don't have to.

[Williamsmith]

So, does this mean you are vegetarian, or you have the right to be an omnivore because you've killed the animal you've eaten at least once? Just curious, because that's one of the key reason I became a vegetarian years ago: I figured if I couldn't personally kill an animal in order to eat it, I shouldn't have someone else do my dirty work.

Like kib, I'm not 100% pure about my mindful eating habits, but try to get close to it. I occasionally eat rotisserie chicken. But most of the time, I only purchase and eat poultry from a local humane poultry producer, and maybe once every 4 months I'll have beef from a local producer.

I guess you're surprising me again, Williamsmith. I didn't expect that side of you, for some reason.

Back to the OP: I've never thought to "finish" a chicken in my microwave, so I'm glad the question has been clarified, and it seems I don't have to.

Catherine,

I like the way you put your convictions to the test in real applications to life. And I like that you go about it thoughtfully.

as far as my surprise statements.....I did say I was trying to get back to what I used to be but there is a real struggle between what I believe and what I feel. My life experiences have overwhelmed my ability to be naive.

[ApatheticNoMore]

every time this prepared chicken topic surfaces, I eventually get an overwhelming craving for prepared astronaut flavored chicken and eventually I end up getting it (ordinarily I barely eat chicken, subsist of fish and smaller amounts of red meat). Ok I have two smoked prepared chicken legs I got now (I can't really eat a whole chicken myself).

[JaneV2.0]

I buy them, eat some of it, then throw most of the meat and the carcass into the Instant Pot with a tablespoon of vinegar (to get the minerals out of the bones), and cook it for about an hour and a half. Then I strip the meat off and make a soup that lasts for days.

[kally]

I guess in the end people eat what they feel comfortable with. Asking questions and beginning to look at our food and the quality and the source is a very good thing.

[sweetana3]

I just finished my last serving of chicken noodle soup made with the leftovers of a Costco Chicken. Yummy. Of course it was made even better with dried shitake muchrooms and lots of sweet carrots and Amish noodles. The Amish noodles dont get overdone when the soup has to be reheated.