When choosing between chilled and frozen chicken, it is best to choose chilled, for example. with an ice chicken you buy water. The quality during the freezing is greatly lost - the meat does not have time to "ripen", the ice destroys the muscle fibers, and a large number of useful substances is washed out with meat juice. The fact is that as long as the chicken is disinfected in the ice water and intensified cooling in the air tunnel, it is fermented, acquires a pronounced aroma and taste. And the frozen chicken "ripening" stops. In frozen meat by law, moisture should not be more than 4%, but some manufacturers add up to 20%. In addition, it may not be water, but brine rich in carrageenan, necessary for keeping the liquid in the carcass. With a cooled product, this can also be done, but more difficult, because on the skin you can see traces of injections.
Pay attention to the packaging - it is usually sealed or it is a package with a seal. If seals from pliers are visible on the seal, refuse, surely this meat has undergone additional treatment with chlorine. Also on the label there should be a "No Chlorine" icon, according to the law, manufacturers are forbidden to use this substance for chicken disinfection. Even small doses of chemicals can be detrimental to your body. Do not buy meat in soft, damaged packages, ice crystals of pink color mean that the product has been thawed and re-frozen.
Do not forget to look at the shelf life and date of packaging, with their help you can evaluate the freshness of meat and learn about the content of preservatives. Chilled chicken can be stored for up to 5 days! But if the label has a longer shelf life, then it contains preservatives. On the packaging must be GOST, the inscription "checked by Gosvetnadzor" and the number of the state veterinarian.
As for the appearance of the chicken, you need to act with your nose and eyes. First of all smell the meat - at the slightest rotten smell, return it.
How to view the external data of the chicken is possible only in transparent packaging, so try to avoid the color packets. A qualitative bird does not allow fractures of bones, blood clots, bruises, scratches and other surface defects. It must be carefully plucked and gutted. At home chicken all the guts remain in place, inside you can even find unripe eggs.
Meat should have a light pink color, and the skin and fat are pale yellow. The most delicious meat from young birds. Unlike the "elderly" chickens, the carcass of the milk has a white tender skin and a lighter fat, on the legs - small scales.
Dry clean skin is a sign of freshness. If the chicken is slippery and sticky, maybe she was sick and treated with antibiotics.
The correct carcass has a rounded breast, on which there should be no bone-keel. The breast bone of old chickens is firm and stiff, the young ones spring. If the breast is enlarged and the limbs are disproportionate, most likely the bird is grown on hormones. "Tanned" places appear on improperly chilled carcasses or when replicating anaerobic bacteria that do not exactly benefit. When pressing on a soft area, fresh meat should quickly restore the shape, if it did not, do not take this product.
Chicken choice also depends on what dish you want to cook. To prepare the first dishes (soups, broths), a carcass weighing 2 - 3 kg is suitable, for extinguishing, roasting and frying it is better to purchase a broiler chicken weighing a little more than a kilogram. The difference is that broilers are grown especially for meat, so it is juicier and more tender than the laying hen.
So, a delicious fresh chicken should be:
- Chilled;
- in a transparent, undamaged package;
- on the packaging must be GOST, a note on the inspection of the State Veterinary Inspection, state. Veterinarian number and shelf life not more than 5 days;
- gutted and plucked (homemade - with giblets), without superficial defects;
- meat is light pink, skin and fat are pale yellow:
smells fresh;
- with the mark "No chlorine!"
Now you know how to choose the right chicken. We wish you only good purchases!