How to Boil Meat Correctly

Washing meat seems to be an easy task that doesn’t require any special skills. But there are some rules that are important to know when you are boiling meat, otherwise, the result might be not what you expected. For example, some minor mistakes may cause the pork broth to not be tasty enough, and it’s easy to make beef or chicken tasteless and hard to chew.

5-Minute Crafts will show you how to boil chicken, turkey, beef, veal, and pork for different purposes — when you are making a soup, salad, or a different meal.

How to prepare meat

To let the frozen meat defrost, put it into the fridge 12-24 hours before cooking. If the piece is not very big, you can put it into a bowl with cold water several hours before cooking. The meat should be in a sealed pack.

After you take it out of the fridge, remove the pack and let the meat sit at room temperature. It is necessary for the meat to be at the same temperature on the inside and the outside of the piece. Once you’ve attained an even temperature throughout, you can start cooking. If the meat seems a bit tough, marinate it in orange juice for an hour.

Important: You shouldn’t wash the meat with water before cooking. It may be dangerous because the bacteria living in the meat might get on your kitchen surfaces and it may be really hard to remove. The piece of meat should be put right into the pot — during cooking, all the dangerous microorganisms die. Wear gloves to prevent the bacteria from getting on your hands.

How to boil chicken and turkey

Step № 1. Calculate the cooking time. It depends on the size of the piece and if there are bones in it. A whole chicken is boiled for about 1.5 hours. And chicken breast needs just 30 minutes. Turkey requires about 1.5 times more time.

Step № 2. Choose the right temperature. To make soup, pour cold water into the pot with the chicken meat and boil it over medium heat, adding a little bit of salt after it starts to boil. If you need chicken for other meals, you can put the meat into boiling water with salt in it.

Tip: When boiling stomachs, start them off in cold water, otherwise the meat will be hard to chew.

How to boil beef and veal

Step № 1. Calculate the cooking time. For example, the back part of beef requires 70-90 minutes. The neck needs 2.5 hours and it should be boiled over medium heat. The brisket is cooked for about 3 hours and it’s good for making soups. Veal, because it’s younger and more tender, cooks 1.5 times faster than beef.

Step № 2. Choose the right temperature. Pour room-temperature water into the pot with beef for soup. Boil it over medium heat to make a good broth. If you need beef for other meals, you can put it into boiling water with salt and over medium heat.

How to boil pork

Step № 1. Calculate the cooking time: the fewer pieces of meat there are, the faster they will boil. For example, big pieces with bones will take about 2 hours from the moment the water starts boiling.

Step № 2. Choose the right temperature. Pour room-temperature water into a pot with pork for soup. Boil it over medium heat to make a good broth. If you need pork for other meals, you can put it into boiling water with salt over medium heat.

Useful tips

Meat should be boiled covered under a lid. It will help to contain all the nutrients in the broth and also reduce the cooking time and energy consumption. Big pieces can be cut in the middle.

• Don’t just go by the cooking time — check to see how ready the meat is yourself: take out a small piece and pierce it with a knife. If the meat is ready, the cut will give you transparent juice, and the knife will move easily.
• If you are boiling meat broth in a pot, add the salt after the water starts boiling. If you are making meat for a meal like a salad, add the salt and spices at the very beginning. If you are using a crockpot, add the salt and spices at the beginning.
• If you are making a broth, pour more water than you actually need because some of it will definitely evaporate. It’s not a good idea to add extra water later because the taste will become watered down.
• Carefully remove the foam from the surface or the broth will become bitter.
• To make the broth taste better, cover the meat in flour on both sides, fry it a little bit in a pan with a little bit of oil, and then start boiling it. It works better than adding flour at the end of the boiling process.