Dissecting Chickens

I’m a little late posting from my class last Wednesday. Busy weekend I had. I won’t go into too much detail about the weekend, but let’s just say, The Food Dude had his first official stalker.

It was more like the beginning of the Cable Guy. Fortunately I was able after 5 hours to sneak out the back door and never have to see the guy again.

Wednesday’s class dealt with Standards For Controlling Production Volume in a restaurant setting.

So as not to bore you I won’t go into too much detail. But overall there are 4 Tools that are used to ensure a restaurant can prepare the same meal every day at the same level of quality regardless of location or person preparing the meal.

The 4 tools are:

Product Specification Sheets
· Spot checks help assure that ingredient quality standards are met

Preparation Sheets
· Help assure that Par levels for basic items are available

Standarized Recipes
· Help assure that quality requirements will be attained

Menu Descriptions
· Help assure that food items meet standards when served to customers

All of this information is used to assist in creating of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) SOPs are used so that everything done in a restaurant is consistent.

We applied SOPs to a very basic function, Breading of Meats.

S.O.P. for Breading

(Season as you go) = (s)

Pan Product (s) ---> Flour (s) ---> Egg Wash ---> Bread Crumbs (s) ---> Pan Product

We also learned how to make a standard chicken stock:

Chicken Stock (1 Gallon)

4-5-6 pounds chicken bones
1 lb Mire Poix (50% Onion 25% Celery, 25% Carrots – All Medium Dice)
1-11/2 Gallons Cold Water
Sachet d’ Epice

Bring to boil, reduce heat to low simmer (barely bubbling) and simmer for several hours. Cool in Fridge and then remove fat residue.

Sachet d’ Epice
3-4 Parsley Sprigs
1 Stalk of Thyme
1 Bay Leaf
1 tsp Peppercorns

Place in cheesecloth tied into a pouch with butchers twice

If you add 1 piece of Celery Stalk you now have Boquet Garni

Additionally once you have your chicken broth you could make a Roux and slowly add the broth to make a nice chicken gravy.

Roux = 50% Fat + 50% Flour (By Weight)

We also learned about the difference between Sous Vide and Cry-O-Vac.

SOUS VIDE - Anything in a plastic pouch that has special plastic which won’t melt when cooked in water.

CRY-O-VAC – Thick plastic, air sucked out. Different type of plastic then Sous Vide.

Lastly we attempted to dissect a chicken into 8 pieces. 2 Legs, 2 Thighs, 2 Breasts, 2 Wings. I have cut up chickens many times before but to learn the “proper” way left me feeling a little inadequate. It will take some practice but it was fun, none-the-less.

Until Next Time.....Cook On!!!

The Food Dude