Grilling Chicken

With summer weather here, many of us turn to our BBQ's at dinner time. I found this wonderful article on grilling chicken and wanted to share it with you:

We all know that everybody enjoys grilling, some of us believe that it is an art. Commonly, we are mistaken in grilling with raw chicken, charred steaks and burnt burgers. One of the hardest meats that are to be grilled is the chicken. It is very hard to grill the chicken perfectly; it is always overcooked or raw. Who would want to eat a burnt or a raw chicken? For you to perfectly grill a chicken, here are some tips for you to try when grilling marinated chicken.

· It is always preferred to use low fire in grilling in order to avoid burnt meat. Wait until the chicken is tender and moist before adding any sauces. In order for you to know when the meat is tender and moist, it is when your chicken is nearly cooked. This way there would be no more fire flare ups since it is the sauce that produces them.

· For you to keep the chicken moisten, constantly apply an apple juice. It is not advisable that you use wine on grilling marinated chicken. This is one of the reason fire is produced while grilling. One of the main reasons why meats are obtaining burns is because of the sugar mixed with the sauce. But if you apply your sauce when it is nearly cooked, it will not burn. But if you would want not to use sugar, you could always use rubs. This is a good way to avoid burns in your meat.

· If you have a hard time in telling whether your chicken is almost cooked for you to apply the sauce, you could always purchase a meat thermometer. It's a very handy gadget in grilling; it gives tone alert when the meat is almost cooked. This way you will not have undercooked nor overdone meals. This also saves more of your time, if you are grilling and at the same time need to do other chores.

· You could leave the griller and wait until it gives the tone alert. Grilling marinated chicken is the main reason why our meats produce some very nice flavors and it makes our meats juicier.

· Marinating gives flavors to your meat, it is composed of seasoning, acid and oil. The usual used acids are citrus juice, vinegar and wine, this tenderizes the meat by breaking down the hard fibers from the meat. Oils sucks up the seasonings that were placed into the meat, which then making our meats so juicy and moist. Grilling marinated chicken is truly a very good way to have a delicious meal. Here are some tips in marinating:

· It is better to marinate meat with a big surface area because it can easily absorb the marinade. But, when marinating a very compact meat, it is advised to do it by injecting it into the meat or just cut through the meat then massaging it with the marinade with your hands.

· If you are marinating a large size of meats, longer time is required for it to absorb the flavor. For such small sizes, it is between 30 minutes and one hour.

· If you want your grilling marinated chicken to be brown, take the meat out of the marinade then dry it, then you could already brown it.

· If you want to save energy in cleaning, better use Ziploc bag in grilling marinated chicken, but a baking dish or glass bowl would also work.

· When marinating the meat, turn it several times and it is preferred to be put in the refrigerator.

· Reusing the marinade for another stock of meat is not good. If you wish to reserve some for your dipping sauce, better do it before marinating it with the meat.

Grilling marinated chicken can really give you a perfect meal anytime!

Richard Myers is the founder of The Grilling Coach. For more information, you can reach him at: http://www.TheGrillingCoach.com

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Audrey :)
http://mytupperware.com/audreyoka