32 Quick and Easy Ground Chicken Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What's the best way to cook ground chicken? ›

Ground chicken is one of the most versatile ingredients to have on hand for quick, family-friendly weeknight dinners. Whether you simmer it in chili, stuff it into tacos or shape it into burger patties, ground chicken is the perfect choice for so many different dishes.

Chopped up bacon (and/or bacon fat), pork or beef can all be added to ground chicken to enhance its fat content, moisture, and flavour. You don't need to add a lot – a little goes a long way. Chicken, vegetable, or beef stock can be added—just don't add too much and turn it into soup!

From a food safety perspective, washing raw poultry, beef, pork, lamb or veal before cooking it is not recommended as the safest method. If you wash meat or poultry, some bacteria can be splashed on the surfaces of your kitchen, which can make you sick if not properly cleaned and sanitized.

If cooking ground chicken, turkey or pork or lean ground beef, adding fat to the pan is important to be sure the meat does not stick to the pan as it cooks. Most recipes do not call for crusty meat crumbles.

While chicken can be a versatile and convenient protein to cook, if your diet doesn't have a diverse protein profile, you lose out on some key nutrients—including essential fats, such as omega-3s. "Eating chicken every day as your sole protein source could result in some nutrient gaps," says Burgess.

Ground chicken: surprisingly, marinating ground chicken is a great way to add flavor to meatballs, burgers, or other ground chicken dishes.

Smell. Bad chicken will have a strange and unpleasant (funky) odor, sometimes even like rotten eggs. Fresh raw poultry may not be totally odor-free, but it shouldn't smell funky. If it's sour smelling, out it goes.

The Temperature Test: Your Best Bet

The most reliable method to ascertain whether your ground chicken is cooked is by using a food thermometer. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends cooking ground poultry to an internal temperature of 165°F (74°C).

Brine. Like a marinade, a brine helps chicken breast soak up as much moisture as possible before cooking. It only requires three ingredients: water, salt, and a pinch of sugar.

Does adding salt to chicken dry it out? ›

Though many cookbooks rightly warn you never salt meat or poultry right before you put it in the oven– because the salt will draw out the juices and make it dry and tough–the opposite occurs when you salt well in advance of cooking. It all has to do with the behavior of proteins and cell osmosis.

Coat a small pan with vegetable cooking spray (like Pam). add a pinch each of garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper. Add it to the pan and place it over medium heat, sautéing the ground chicken for 5 to 10 minutes or until it's no longer pink.

The flour and other dry ingredients seal in moisture to prevent the food from becoming tough. The coating helps to brown the food and provides a crunchy layer. The seasoning in the coating adds flavor to your food.

What Is The Best Way To Cook A Chicken Breast? Cooking a boneless and skinless chicken breast in a hot cast iron pan is by far the easiest and most tasty way to cook the breast. You are far less likely to overcook the chicken breast compared to baking it in the oven or poaching it in water.

USDA recommends not eating or tasting raw or undercooked ground beef. To be sure all bacteria are destroyed, cook meat loaf, meatballs and hamburgers to a safe minimum internal temperature of 160°F (71.1°C). Use a food thermometer to check that they have reached a safe internal temperature.

You can't go wrong with the oven for cooking frozen meat. Preheat it to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and put the meat on a baking sheet. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until it reaches a safe internal temperature.