Incredibly tender and melting in your mouth turns chicken meat if it was cooked in milk. No ingenious culinary combinations, no laborious manipulations or special technologies for the development of this recipe for chicken in milk in the oven will be required. For the dish, you can take both a small chicken breast and a full-fledged bird carcass. Here everything will depend on the number of eaters.
Stewing meat in milk
There are several theories that explain why chicken in milk in the oven turns out to be much juicier, aromatic and tastier. The first version says that milk enzymes destroy protein, making the fillet more tender. In the likeness of milk, kefir and yogurt act.
The second half of the cooks believes that there are not so many enzymes in milk that could cope with the destruction of the protein structure. They believe that meat becomes softer and more tender due to exposure to the right temperature. When stewing chicken in milk in the oven, the meat warms up gradually, does not lose a large amount of moisture, therefore, remains juicy after cooking. Which option, method and version are correct, it makes no sense to understand. The main thing is that the chicken is juicy, aromatic, dietary and very tasty.
List of Essential Ingredients
To prepare this delicious and very simple dish we need:
- chicken meat (carcass or fillet);
- 2 teaspoons of salt;
- 2 cups of milk;
- a piece of butter;
- a teaspoon of soy sauce;
- as much liquid honey;
- slightly ground paprika;
- a pair of garlic cloves;
- a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg;
- a spoonful of lemon juice;
- a few feathers of green onions;
- fresh parsley;
- culinary thread (if chicken fillet is used);
- seasoning for chicken;
- olive oil.
Features of cooking chicken in milk in the oven
To prevent chicken meat, be it carcass or fillet, from burning to the bottom of the baking dish, cover it with wide plates of garlic, coarsely chopped stems and leaves of parsley, feathers of green onions. This "pillow" will not only avoid sticking meat, but also enhance the aroma of white milk sauce.
If the lean part of the chicken is used for the recipe, then the breast is washed in cold water before being sent to the mold and lightly listened with a paper towel. If there is a skin, remove it. It is also recommended to remove the central bone.
If the whole chicken is cooked in milk in the oven, then the skin remains, and the carcass is simply washed and lightly wiped with a napkin. Then it is recommended to rub the meat with a mixture of salt and ground pepper. Spicy herbs and other chicken seasonings are optionally added. Now you can lay the meat on a “pillow” of greens and garlic.
We do not recommend adding seasonings and additives that are too specific in terms of aroma and additives that have too burning notes. A gentle, pleasant, practically dietary meal is being prepared.
After the chicken fillet or carcass is placed in a baking dish, fill the meat with boiling milk. Add the spices listed in the list of ingredients in random order. Gently mix the milk mixture. To get a melted and slightly sweet flavor, add a small piece of butter. It is not recommended to use margarine and other surrogates. In a pinch, pour one teaspoon of sunflower oil into the milk.
Before sending the baking dish to the oven, it is recommended to cover the meat with a lid. If not available, you can use ordinary cooking foil. The thermometer on the stove should show 170 degrees. Chicken meat is prepared for about 50 minutes, if it is fillet, and about 80 minutes, if it is a full-fledged chicken carcass.
Culinary secrets
The dish will become even tastier if you pay attention to a few tricks:
- To make the dish more nutritious, cook the chicken with potatoes in milk in the oven.
- To make the dish brighter and richer in taste, add it with onion feathers and herbs. This will keep the breathtaking aroma.
- To preserve the maximum juiciness of the dish, it is necessary to cool the bird directly in milk sauce.