Pounding Poultry



photo courtesy of http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/


Pounding out a chicken breast can be a bit therapeutic.  The trick is controlling and redirecting any aggression you feel and knowing when to stop pounding so you don’t end up with a piece of chicken that looks like it was ravaged by dogs.

1. Trim any excess fat off the breast.
2. From here, there are two ways you can enclose your chicken before giving it the smack down…     
1. Use a long sheet of thick plastic wrap lightly sprayed with canola spray.
2. Use a gallon-size zipper bag, and lightly spray the inside with canola spray.
3. Place the chicken in your preferred containment method, and either zip the bag mostly shut or fold the plastic wrap over the chicken.  Don’t zip the bag all the way shut, or you may explode it.  The object here is to give the chicken room to spread out while preventing “splatter.” 
4. Your meat mallet has two sides, one with the points and one that is flat.  You will want to use the flat side since we are just trying to flatten and not tenderize the chicken.
5. Start from the underside of the breast.  Pound the chicken using fairly strong hits, but let them glance off toward the outside of the breast.  Start toward the middle, and work your way out and around the meat. Do not pound in one place too long or too often, or you will “break through” and cause a hole.  

  Depending on the size of the breast and the desired thickness you want, it can take a while to get there but with some practice it is a piece of cake.