After boiling the chicken, if the bone marrow is still red, is it not cooked yet?
Boil the chicken for the right time, but when you cut it open you still see the bone marrow and a part of the surrounding meat are still red. Is it because you haven’t boiled the chicken yet?
Boiled chicken is an indispensable dish in traditional Vietnamese feasts and is also a favorite dish of many people, the most popular type of preparation.
After boiling the chicken, cutting it into red bone marrow means it’s not cooked yet?
Not only for chicken but for boiled meat dishes in general, proper cooking is the most important factor to ensure the quality of the finished product. Boiling the meat will not be completely cooked, boiling it too thoroughly will cause the meat to be dry. Therefore, when boiling chicken, housewives often set the correct time for the chicken to be cooked. But in reality, many times they have boiled the chicken long enough but the chicken is still red in the bone marrow.
After boiling the chicken, cutting it into red bone marrow means it’s not cooked yet? Many people think that it is a clear sign that the chicken has been boiled alive. If you try to eat it, you may have a stomach ache and digestive disorders. However, the truth is not quite like that, in many cases the chicken has been boiled long enough, the meat is cooked but the bone marrow and a part of the surrounding meat are still red.
According to Dr. Greg Blonder, physicist, author of many books about food, this is a completely normal phenomenon. The pink-red areas in the boiled chicken or even the pink juice that flows from the boiled chicken for enough time are not blood or spinal cord.
The red color we see is caused by the myoglobin in chicken bone marrow reacting with air during the cooking process. This reaction causes some parts of chicken meat and bones to appear red. The reddish liquid that flows out when chopping chicken meat is not chicken blood but simply chicken juice mixed with myoglobin.
Instead of looking at the bone marrow to judge whether the chicken is cooked or not, you should try another method. That is, use a food thermometer to measure the temperature in the deepest area of the chicken’s inner thigh, chicken wings as well as the thickest part of the chicken breast. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), all parts of a piece of chicken are cooked to a minimum temperature of about 74 degrees Celsius, then it is cooked and can be eaten.
How to avoid chicken bones having red bones
Did you know that after boiling chicken, chopping it into red bone marrow is not necessarily undercooked and want to avoid this situation? Change the pH of the pot of boiling water by adding a little vinegar or lemon. Use lemon and salt to rub when preparing chicken, both to effectively deodorize and limit bone redness.
Another tip is to marinate the chicken with a little lemon juice or vinegar. This method both helps make the skin crispier and limits myoglobin from changing when exposed to air while boiling.
Tips for boiling delicious, evenly cooked chicken
The best boiled chicken is chicken or free-range chicken. If you choose to buy live chicken, you should choose healthy chickens with shiny feathers and bright feathers. If you buy pre-cooked chickens, you should choose chickens with natural light yellow skin, firm grip, small buoyancy, little fat in the neck and thighs.
After purchasing, meated chicken needs to be rubbed with lemon and salt and then washed under clean water to remove all dirt. Put the chicken in a pot of cold water, put it on the stove and boil over medium heat to gradually cook the meat from the outside to the inside. Don’t wait for the water to boil before adding the chicken because it will cause the chicken to not cook evenly and the skin to crack. If the chicken is frozen, it needs to be completely defrosted before boiling.
You should boil the chicken in a pot that is just the right size for the chicken. A pot that is too large will take up space and take a long time to cook, while a pot that is too small will cause the chicken to not cook evenly.
Some other notes when boiling chicken:
– Place the chicken belly down and pour water so that it completely covers the chicken.
– When the chicken broth has boiled for about 5 minutes, lower the heat to simmer for about 5 more minutes and then turn off the stove; Cover the lid and let the chicken marinate for another 20 minutes. For larger chickens or chickens, you can consider turning on the stove and cooking for a few more minutes before turning off the stove to let the chicken cook.
– Use chopsticks to poke the chicken to check if it is cooked. If the chopsticks pierce easily and clear liquid flows out, the chicken is cooked.
To have boiled chicken with juicy, bright yellow skin, after taking it out, immediately dip it into a pot of boiling water to cool, the colder the better. After that, you take the chicken out to drain, mix fresh turmeric juice with the fried chicken fat and brush a layer on the chicken skin.
