Ground Chicken

Ground Chicken is a preparation of minced chicken, sold raw and needing cooking. It is used as an ingredient.

The chicken meat used may be white, dark, or a mixture of both. Skin may also be included.

You can make your own Ground Chicken at home, particularly if you buy boneless chicken cuts such as breasts or deboned thighs. Cut into 1 inch (2 ½ cm) cubes and whiz through the food processor or grinder. This is even easier to do if the meat is partially frozen. In a food processor, use the blade that goes into the bottom, and pulse until minced.

Ground chicken organ meat is liver, gizzards, and hearts.

Cooking Tips

Being in general lower in fat than ground beef, Ground Chicken can tend to stew in its juices and form clumps, rather than crisp, so stir it around while cooking to break up clumps. When cooked, it turns a white colour which not unappealing, isn’t exciting: colouring from other ingredients in your recipe can help, e.g. tomato paste, Worchestershire sauce, etc. As well, the taste can be bland, so the cooked mixture needs herbs and spices to help it along.

Most of the fat in chicken is in the dark meat. Thus, the lighter the colour of the Ground Chicken, the lower the fat. This also means, though, that it will dry out on you all that faster once the juices have evaporated off. And remember, it must be cooked beyond that usually to ensure for safety reasons that the chicken is thoroughly cooked to well done. This brings you to the ironic point of having to add fat, despite probably having paid more to get a lower-fat version of Ground Chicken.

To compensate, while it is cooking you can simply give up and add oil, or try grated zucchini or carrot for added moisture. Some people suggest trying an egg yolk, or a few tablespoons of cottage cheese per pound (450g) of Ground Chicken.

Remember, though, that cooked properly, the fat will render off, anyway, so trying to avoid dark meat in your Ground Chicken may not be worth the extra money and futzing to start with.

Substitutes

Ground turkey; ground veal; ground veal; ground pork.

Nutrition

Ground Chicken gets recalls, just as Ground Beef does. [1] [2]

Sources

[1] Washington Firm Recalls Frozen Ground Chicken Products That May Contain Foreign Materials. Recall Release FSIS-RC-008-2009. CLASS I RECALL. HEALTH RISK: HIGH. WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2009

[2] “The Asahi reports that a survey has found that 20% of domestic ground chicken sold in Japan is tainted with salmonela (twice the level found in Europe.)” Japan Probe. ⅕ of domestic ground chicken samples found tainted with salmonella. 15 April 2009.