Last week I served raw chicken to friends who came for dinner. Yes, you read that right: Raw Chicken.  Even though I thought I’d timed things perfectly so it would come out of the oven fifteen minutes after our guests arrived, for some reason that mystery bird just wouldn’t cook.

By 7:45, it became obvious their two year old boy was starving, so in desperation, I served the soup. Then I got up to get that chicken out of the oven and carve it no matter what.

If you’ve ever attempted to cut undercooked poultry, you know how I slaved. Not only was the 4 pound bird still partly raw, it also yielded a miserable quantity of meat, which I took out to my guests after keeping them waiting ten minutes. I couldn’t tell if I was sweating from battling with the bird in a hot kitchen or from embarrassment. [Read more…]