A small plea for help
Ashley sent this note in looking for some guidance from the CFED Community:
Hey everyone! I need a little help. So, here is the deal. I have been a vegetarian for 17 years. (Yup- since I was 8 years old, and no, nobody else in my family is a veg. I was just an independent little 8-year-old.)
However, I am trying to do this challenge as a non-vegetarian. In fact, I just ate chicken for the first time on Saturday. The problem is, I have no idea how in the world to cook or care for meat. Right now I am sticking to just chicken, turkey and fish as I am not ready to take on the world of red meat yet. Therefore, I am hoping some people out there can answer some of my questions and help me figure out what I am doing.
- How long can you have raw chicken in the fridge before it should be cooked or frozen? Fish and shellfish?
- Once you unfreeze the chicken, turkey or fish and cook it, how long can it be in the fridge for before it has to be eaten?
- How do you prepare chicken or turkey? Bake? Grill? George Foreman? Sautee? How do you know if it is done?
- Is there any preparation you have to do to it before you cook it? I seem to remember a college roommate of mine cutting away the fat on chicken?
- Are the “turkey tenders” at YDFM from the breast of the turkey? (I want to stick with white meat. Not yet ready for the dark meat stuff.)
- Can anyone pass along some delicious and relatively easy recipes for me?
Thanks so much for any help you can give! Also, if anyone needs any veggie recipes, I can happily give you some of those.
You all are wonderful and thanks for the help!
Cheers and Paleo!
Ashley:
Here are two of my favorite easy recipes:
Thyme-Lime chicken
melt some butter (or omit the butter) and mix with some olive oil. Add some thyme, black pepper, salt, and whatever other spices you think might be good. Squeeze some lime juice into the mix. Use this to brush onto split chicken breasts. Don’t put all of it on the chicken at once; you’ll baste the chicken three or four times while it’s broiling. I find using split chicken breasts with the bones takes about 45 minutes to broil. Every 10-15 minutes, brush some more of the oil mixture on the chickens, and turn the breasts over once or twice while cooking, too.
Buffalo Turkey
Saute turkey tenders with some olive oil or butter. You can season it with whatever you like. In a small saucepan, melt some butter and add about 1/4 cup of hot sauce. Heat until warm. Once the turkey is cooked, plate it and pour the hot sauce over it. Add some chopped green onions.
If you’re shopping for a week or more, I’d probably freeze the poultry that you’re not going to use within a couple of days, and use it within a day or two after it thaws out. I think it’s recommended that poultry cooks to a temp of 165; I generally just cut into a piece and make sure it’s not pink. Hope this helps.
Ashley, congratulations on being open minded and trying something different! I’ll make sure Wes comments on the ‘food storage’ of meats as I’m much more liberal in my mindset. On average we keep most meats: Beef/Chicken/Pork stored for no more than a week before cooking/tossing. After it’s cooked you can probably get away with another few days and obviously if it smells funky chuck it. The foods at YDFM is fresher than chain markets and has a tendancy to spoil sooner than later.
Easy fish ideas: Mahi Mahi steaks from Trader Joe’s. They come premarinated, are Paleo friendly, are frozen and take less than 20 mins to cook.
Try cooking with chicken tenders (I find they are easier) -find stir fry ideas and chopping the tenders up so you get the hang of what it looks like. Like Michele, we also just cut into it to test. The juices from the chicken should appear clear, but we always air on the side of caution and keep checking the consistency of the middle meat. It should look more stringy than not. If Wes is still cautious he pops it in the microwave for a minute or so, JUST to be sure.
The other easy idea is to try buying a rotisserie chicken, taking the skin off and shredding. You can use the meats for chicken salads/chicken tacos/enchiladas/and to top over a salad.
Ashley. as for doneness.. If you want to be safe, just cuz your new to this. I recommend buying a food thermometer so that you can measure doneness that way. Poultry should be between 160-165 degrees for doneness. Remember when you take food out the pan it still keeps on cooking..so don’t over do it..or it will be dry and chewy.
A really easy recipe that you could try that is yummy and great to add to the top of salads.
preheat a stainless or anodized pan (not nonstick cuz it will make your chicken rubbery) on med heat
2/3 chicken breast cut in half (meaning that you cut them parellel to your cutting board so that they aren’t as thick)
salt& pepper both sides of the chicken breast pieces
rub the pieces with freshly chopped rosemary and thyme
put 2 tbs of olive oil in pan
put the pieces in the pan and let them stay on one side without turning for about 6 mins or so. You want them to brown..so they will stick to the pan at first..that’s ok. they will release from the pan when you are done and the brown on the bottom of the pan will make a great sauce
once ready turn to other side..once again 4-6mins depending on thickness
remove pieces from the pan and deglaze your pan with 1 cup of a dry white wine (which you are aloud to use when cooking paleo)
use a utensil to scrape all the brown bits off the bottomo of the pan and let the sauce simmer and reduce to about half the amount.
pour sauce over the chicken .. you can then eat or cut up to put on a salad.
very easy but tasty
KS
Hey Ashley! So I have to answer this since I am amazed that you are going non-veg for the challenge! Anyway, I am super cautious about meat and weird about how long it is thawed, etc. My rule is:
1) From the store raw and thawed in fridge, keep no longer than 48 hours without freezing or cooking it.
2) After cooking, keep it up to 72 hours in the fridge max.
Here is THE easiest way to cook chicken breasts (thank you Ina Garten of the food network): Rub boneless, skinless chicken breasts in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes and you have juicy perfectly done chicken. If they are HUGE then cook them 40 minutes if you want to be extra sure, but basically if the meat is white then they are done.
BTW, turkey tenders at YDFM are the breast meat, and you can cook them the same way as above for the chicken breasts. Maybe bake them 40 mins or so if they are fat ones.
Ashley, I can relate…veggie since age 12 (18yrs). I am doing the challenge as a vegetarian, if you find eating meat is too hard let’s talk vegetarian. It hasn’t been quite as hard as I thought it would be and I feel great as a result of the changes I have made thanks to Paleo (and Phil/Shana’s help). Good luck with trying meat – you are braver woman than I!
Hey Ashley, I am not a vegetarian but before this challenge I did not do too much cooking. And meat on a bone sort of grosses me out sometime. Boneless, skinless chicken is not so bad. The little George Forman Grills are great if you are cooking for one. Throw a little EVOO on the chick, add some seasonings like rosemary, and cook for 5-8 minutes, depending upon the thickness. Just cut thru the thickest part of the breast to see that it is done. I just tried the ground chicken sausage from YDFM. Fabulous. Just slapped it into a little patty and threw in frying pan for lunch. Thinking of cooking it up for salad topping, and maybe make some meat balls for spaghetti sauce. Good luck.
Hey everyone! This is the first time I am checking the blog since last week so I didn’t even see that my “plea” made it onto the site until now!
Michele, Maya, Kristine, Sydney and Sam- Thank you so much for the recipes. Your information was a huge help. The recommendations on how long to keep meat for before throwing it away and how to cook it was EXACTLY what I was looking for. There is so much information out there it was hard to know what to trust when I looked it up online. Plus you would not believe how many recipes out there say “cook chicken until it is done.” If you have never cooked chicken before, this is a very difficult task to accomplish.
Angie- Congrats on being a veg for so long and for doing the challenge with a limited menu! I know it is a little wild that after a lifetime of no meat, I have finally decided to take the plunge. However, I am very particular about where my meat comes from and how it was raised. I research the farms before I will eat it. This means I still can’t eat meat at most restaurants which is a bit challenging but not impossible. Before the challenge, Shana went over the vegetarian options with me and I decided that if I couldn’t stomach the meat I would then go to the vegetarian plan. So far though, I have had no problems at all. I was surprised that my stomach didn’t become upset after so long. This might also be attributed to the high quality of the meat I am eating. If you ever decide to try it, I will give you all my tips!
Thanks so much for your help everyone! This absolutely made my day and I can’t wait to try out all your suggestions!
Hey Ashley,
Glad that the new protein isn’t upsetting your tummy!! It sounds like you have done some extensive research on the meats that you are cooking. Care to share with the rest of us? Would love to make sure I/we are consuming the highest quality of meat available
As far as how long to cook chicken all of the above sound fine by me.. My mom always taught me this simple phrase for chicken. If it’s white it’s alright!! Meaning when you cut into it and the inside looks white it cooked.. Good luck.
Bryan