Description:
A chicken has two breasts, broilers and fryers are 48-day-old birds that cook up tender, and a Rock Cornish Game Hen is simply a younger chicken. These are a few things Elaine Corn explains in Chicken, a book stuffed with useful information, "chicken nuggets" (jokes and entertaining trivia), and distinctive recipes. Delving into poultry's past, the timeline traversing the book's endpapers traces chicken from its origins in Southeast Asia more than 5,000 years ago to its arrival in Europe around A.D. 800, the New World during the 1500s, and the opening of the first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in 1956. Inside, Corn points out that chicken was a luxury until the early 20th century, when agribusiness came along. Now, we all eat more of it, with Americans consuming the most--nearly 100 pounds a year per person. A writer who specializes in demystifying techniques and reassuring the hesitant, Corn explains carefully how to cut up a whole bird, using the French slice and the Chinese hack. Yet she considers the reasonable price of precut parts "the best argument I can make for never having to cut up a chicken at home." Corn wittily calls chicken "the basic black dress of cuisine." Her recipes pair it with fresh produce, chosen to provide the best flavor in each season. The "Spring" and "Summer" chapters offer lemon-brightened, sautéed Chicken Piccata and kabobs flavored with Cola-Cardamom marinade. (Corn finds the soda a good tenderizer.) "Fall" includes Chicken Pot Roast with Apple and Potatoes, a perfect example of Corn's easy-to-take creativity. In "Winter," buttery crusted Chicken Pot Pie is crammed with corn, other vegetables, and a rich, creamy sauce while Texas-style, no-beans Chicken Chili is sensibly tailored to today's health concerns. Wok-smoked chicken and other dishes reveal Corn's feel for Asian cooking, which is enhanced by techniques learned from her Chinese husband. --Dana Jacobi
| 
