Why did my organic chicken come out like rubber after roasting?

vegan_vicky

I had two chicken halves that were frozen. I thawed them out most of the way. I put olive oil and rosemary and sage on them, placed them into a dutch oven with the lid off and a bit of chicken stock in the bottom, and put the dutch oven into the oven at 375 degrees until the inside of the breast was done (according to meat thermometer). The chicken came out chewy and rubbery. It was still moist, but just almost inedible. Can I blame the chicken?

Originally asked by Michael Pryor on Stack Exchange (cooking) (CC BY-SA 3.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

It sounds like your chicken was simply overcooked. If you used a built in pop-up timer, these almost always are set to a temperature which will overcook your poultry. Some authorities recommend cooking white meat to 170 F (77 C), but this will leave your chicken dry and overcooked. My personal preference is to cook white meat to about 158 F (70 C) in the oven, and then let carry over cooking bring it up a couple more degrees while it rests. This should leave your white meat much more succulent. Similarly, dark meat should be cooked to a temperature (to my preference) of at least 165 F (74 C) although it is much more tolerant of being overcooked. This can be tricky when roasting a whole...

Full answer by SAJ14SAJ: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/36159 (CC BY-SA 3.0).

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