I'm the Culinary God

Guo Xinghai came out of the kitchen, with a curious expression on his face.

The chicken was very fat and robust, stirring a desire in every chef who saw it to prepare a dish. But as for how it should be prepared, it was up to the boss to decide, since this was not an ingredient procured by the kitchen, but brought by the boss’s wife.

Lin Xu said:

"You guys can slaughter it and do whatever you like with it; this free-range chicken tastes good no matter how it’s cooked... Oh, and don’t throw away the innards, I’ll make spicy sour chicken giblets with chopped chili later."

"Sure, then we’ll go all out."

After Guo Xinghai went back inside, Shen Jiayue asked:

"Xu Bao, weren’t you planning to teach me how to make fried chicken with the air fryer? Can this rooster be used?"

Can it be used?

Of course it can be used; it’s just that with such a big chicken, it might be difficult to cook it through.

But considering Shen Baobao’s newly bought oversized air, electric combo oven, it’s worth a try. Even if it’s not cooked, we can always chop it into pieces and roast it again.

As long as the chicken is well-marinated, the rest becomes much easier.

Lin Xu said:

"If you want to learn, I’ll teach you; it’s not difficult anyway."

"Of course I want to learn!"

"Then it can’t be eaten this afternoon; it’ll probably be ready by evening."

To make fried chicken, it needs to be marinated first. The chicken must be marinated thoroughly before putting it in the air fryer for frying, and the marination time should be at least four hours.

"Sure, it’s just right to let mom taste the fried chicken I make tonight."

Lin Xu went to the kitchen and saw the cook assistant and two helpers busy plucking the rooster.

These roosters had already been slaughtered and bled, but the feathers hadn’t been plucked and the innards weren’t cleaned, requiring further preparation.

He said to the cook assistant:

"Leave one for me; I’ll use it later. The rest is for you to practice your skills. If you can’t finish it today, we can do it tomorrow; they’re fine in the fridge overnight."

"Alright, boss, all arranged."

Zhuang Yizhou wants to make flower mushroom chicken soup, Wei Qian wants to make smoked chicken, Zhu Yong wants to make mouth-watering chicken, Guo Xinghai wants to make crockpot braised chicken, Ma Zhiqiang plans to make clear stewed chicken... With such good ingredients, everyone wants to create a different dish.

Lin Xu wholeheartedly supports this behavior from the employees, because the more enthusiasm they put into practicing, the more their culinary skills will improve, and the store’s gains will be greater as well.

Although their salaries will rise accordingly, the effort is worth it.

Moreover, once a good learning atmosphere is established, the kitchen’s morale will get better. When everyone focuses on improving culinary skills, things like scheming against each other naturally decrease.

After all, the free time outside of work is limited, and if used for honing culinary skills, there’s no time for scheming.

Not long after, the rooster was completely slaughtered, and Lin Xu took the chicken to the small kitchen nearby to start teaching Shen Jiayue how to marinate chicken.

"What do I need to do, Xu Bao?"

"Nothing much. First of all, use salt to scrub the chicken once, this is pretty important. Salt has strong cleaning and absorption capabilities, which can absorb dirty things from the pores."

This scrubbing can effectively remove dirt from the chicken skin, and also gives the chicken a simple flavoring.

Shen Jiayue looked at a bowl of dirty salt, scrubbed the chicken with it once, not feeling like she used much force, but the salt had already changed color, and the chicken skin looked nicer.

Not only the pores looked a lot cleaner, even some mucous-membrane-like stuff on the skin had been scrubbed away.

After scrubbing the chicken meat with salt, take a handful of washed shallots and cilantro, rub them in the basin to extract juice, then scatter the ginger with the back of a knife, chop the chili into pieces, wear gloves and rub to extract juice.

Next, mix them with Sichuan peppercorns, Star Anise, bay leaves, cinnamon, sand ginger, galangal, lemongrass, and other spices, and stir evenly.

Finally, apply Light Soy Sauce, Rice Wine, and salt, evenly smearing these ingredients inside and outside the chicken, and use meat needles to puncture the thick parts of the meat to let the flavors in.

After everything is smeared, stuff the spices and ingredients into the chicken’s cavity.

Place the remaining in thick-meat parts like the thigh roots and wing roots.

Because we’re planning to eat in the evening, the marination is double the usual amount, so the flavor can penetrate the chicken meat more quickly.

Place the chicken in a basin, cover with cling film, and put it in the fridge for cold storage marination.

Under low-temperature conditions, the moisture can penetrate into the meat as much as possible, and the sauce can infiltrate deeper into the meat, allowing the flavors to soak in.

"Is that it?"

"Yeah, if the chicken hadn’t been so big, the ingredients wouldn’t need to be so much."

Shen Jiayue felt making roast chicken wasn’t difficult either.

She curiously asked:

"Will it cook through or not?"

"Not sure about the air fryer, but the oven can definitely do it; it can even cook a turkey through, let alone a rooster that’s several times smaller."

Soon, dinner started, everyone showcased their chicken-cooking skills, thrilling the employees.

After work in the evening, Shen Jiayue didn’t forget to take the marinated chicken in the fridge home.

She had to show off to her mother-in-law tonight; she couldn’t forget about it.

After arriving home, she first put the marinating chicken back in the fridge, then took out a few potatoes, washed them clean, peeled them with an automatic peeler, and cut them into fries using a cutter.

Finally, mix them with seasoning, and put them into the air fryer to make fries.

Chen Meijuan, having been busy all day at Ginkgo Garden, stood in front of the giant floor-to-ceiling window holding Dundun, contemplating the outside scenery deeply.