What do you need to know to prepare this dish?
The process of baking chicken in the oven is not complicated.But it is still worth considering several preparatory points, such as the choice of bird and the form in which it will be baked, the temperature regime. Experienced housewives know that a small chicken weighing 1-1.5 kg is best. You should also pay attention to the age of the bird, preference is given to chickens up to 1 year old - their meat is more tender. You can distinguish a young chicken by the color of the skin - it should be pale pink, without spots, and the fat is light yellow. In an old bird, the fat is dark yellow, the skin is gray-yellow. You can use any baking dish or do without it at all, placing the bird carcass directly on the baking sheet. But in thick-walled forms, the chicken is baked more evenly. The size of the form should be slightly larger than the carcass, then the secreted chicken juice will not spread over the surface of the bottom and burn. The so-called duck pans are best suited - cast iron oval containers with a lid. Now fireproof glass forms with thick walls have appeared on sale. In order for the chicken sprinkled with cheese to turn out really tasty, it is necessary to correctly determine the time and temperature at which it will be baked. The oven is preheated to 180-200 °. How long to keep the bird in the oven can be determined from the following rule - each kg of carcass weight is baked for 40 minutes, i.e. a bird weighing 1.5 kg should be kept in the oven for at least an hour.
Recipe
To prepare chicken with cheese, wash andThe dried carcass is rubbed with salt, pepper and garlic. A little olive oil is poured into the bottom of the pan and the bird carcass is placed there. When the chicken is slightly soaked in salt and spices, the pan is covered with a lid and placed in the oven. It is necessary to set the oven timer for 30 minutes. We cover the lid so that the meat is baked more evenly. While the chicken is in the oven, you need to grate any hard cheese, preferably spicy. The best option would be Parmesan. The grated cheese is mixed with sour cream. It is better not to use mayonnaise, because it will give the chicken a specific smell of vinegar and additional fats, which is also undesirable. After 30 minutes, the pan is removed from the oven and the lid is opened. When the steam stops rising so much, coat the semi-finished carcass with a mixture of sour cream and cheese. Then continue to bake the chicken in the pan without a lid in the oven for another 30 minutes. You can determine if the chicken is ready by piercing the breast with a wooden toothpick - if the juice flows clear from the puncture site, then the chicken is ready. For this recipe, you will need the following ingredients:
- 1 chicken weighing up to 1.5 kg,
- hard cheese - 100-150 g,
- sour cream — 100 g,
- garlic - 4 cloves,
- olive oil - 3-4 tbsp,
- salt, pepper - to taste.
The basic cooking recipe can bediversify, for example, stuff a chicken carcass with vegetables with the addition of fruits and greens. When baking, vegetable vapors additionally soak the meat, but rice or buckwheat as stuffing, on the contrary, take the juices for themselves. Adding lemon or orange to the vegetable mince will give the chicken a special piquancy. Such a dish is worthy of a festive table.
