Cooking Chicken...

Hello everybody,

I'm not a very experienced cook so I'm hoping to get some input here! I work at a party store that makes deep fried chicken in Canola Oil. I plan on taking meals to work with me MOST of the time, but for those times that I can't get something together in time... We have plenty of unbreaded chicken there that is from a local meat source. I'm not sure how the animals are raised... but I was wondering if the chicken could just be baked in the pizza oven, and if so if I should soak it in some sort of dressing, etc... any ideas to help make it better and more nutritious? Any sides I can keep on hand at work that would go well with it?

Thanks for the help!

That's a great idea - cooking the chicken in the pizza oven - good thinking!
With chicken that comes from unknown sources I think the thinking is to not eat the skin - someone else can confirm or debunk that...

As for what to do to it... You could make up a spice blend that you like, and bring it along with you, and rub that on the chicken before baking. You could also buy one, but a lot of them have sugar in them, so you might want to google homemade spice blends or something.

If you have time to marinate the chicken for a couple of hours this is one of my favourite marinades to use before BBQing and it would also work well in a pizza oven I imagine.
1/4 c coconut milk (or sub yogurt if you're ok with dairy, which is how I made this for years while eating CW since I was looking for ways to cut fat in those days)
2 Tb. lime juice
some crushed red chilis (or use a bit of cayenne if you can't crush chilis, or find something like "sambal oelek")
1 1/2 tsp fresh basil
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp crushed coriander seed
1 1/2 tsp fish sauce

You could get your marinade ready in the morning before work and take it along in a container to work and throw the chicken into it when you get there.

EDIT: when baking your chicken prick it with a fork to test for doneness. If the juices run clear then it is done. Pieces with bone in will take longer to cook than without and the time will also depend on how hot the spot is in the oven that you are placing it. If the spot is too hot then the chicken will burn before it done inside. I imagine 30 to 45 minutes...

When I bake a whole chicken in the oven, I only sprinkle it with sea salt. Get a meat thermometer and cook it ( preferably low heat over a long time ) until it reaches the temp marked for chicken on the thermometer. It always comes out moist this way for me.

If you don't know how the chicken was raised, I wouldn't eat the skin.

Thank-you both so much for the replies. I'm going to try and get together a marinade and soak it in there. The oven cooks at 550 degrees, and it runs through a conveyer for about 6 minutes. I will def. check with a fork for how done it is! Thanks so much again.

[QUOTE=l2jperry;925079]Thank-you both so much for the replies. I'm going to try and get together a marinade and soak it in there. The oven cooks at 550 degrees, and it runs through a conveyer for about 6 minutes. I will def. check with a fork for how done it is! Thanks so much again.[/QUOTE]

Wow, I don't know if six minutes will do it! Can you try to use boneless pieces that you can pound flat? That might work.

[QUOTE=jojohaligo;925135]Wow, I don't know if six minutes will do it! Can you try to use boneless pieces that you can pound flat? That might work.[/QUOTE]

OR cut the chicken into slices.

1/2 inch ought to do it

Test it at home. Heat your oven to 550°. Place chicken in for six minutes. Take temperature.
Are there oven-safe thermometers? You could stick that in the chicken and watch the themometer during the cook time.

Eat the skin on CAFO chicken. It won't hurt you. 6 minutes won't be enough if it's a bone-in piece of chicken though. You might need to cut it into chunks or slices like quelsen suggested. I usually cook whole or half chickens in my oven using the built-in oven probe. The chicken's not done until the internal temperature is 175 and that seems to take about an hour. The good news is if you do stick your chicken in the pizza oven and then bite into it and it's not done, you can always just nuke it in the microwave. It won't taste the best, but it'll rescue it quickly enough to get your lunch eaten and you back to work.

or uhm er

run it through again

i dont know

looks embarrassed

When I get ready a whole chicken in the variety, I only propagate it with sea salt.