Recently, I've gotten into cooking. While researching how to cook different types of meat, I found that chicken is considered a bit of an anomaly in culinary literature. Apparently, chicken is either cooked, or it isn't, with no in-between. This doesn't make sense, though. After all, beef comes in all sorts of different degrees of cooked - from the Timberland boot sole-like well done to the "is this thing still alive?" blue rare. So I thought: why can't chicken?
A few hours ago, I tried to see if I could put my thoughts into practice by going to the local KFC. The artist benefits from looking at references and using them as inspiration, not by copying things directly by tracing (a nice way of saying "plagiarism"). Similarly, I believe the cook benefits from sampling the food of others to get a sense of what is acceptable and then using that as inspiration for their own creations. I had read about people complaining, for whatever reason, about various KFCs across the country serving them raw chicken, so I figured one of those would be a good starting point. Well, fortunately, I got what I wanted on my first try. I was served a burger which had chicken that looked like this on the inside:
Honestly, it... didn't taste that bad? I can see why it might put people off, but I found it OK, if not absolutely amazing. It was a bit stringy and tough, but nothing too terrible. I should also point out now that I'm almost at the end of this thread that, as I've been writing, I've gotten a mild stomach cramp, but that's nothing new for me. What do you think? Should KFC broaden its horizons a bit and start serving raw chicken on a more frequent basis? Are the people who have been complaining justified? What should I try cooking that incorporates raw chicken? I'd love to know your thoughts.
A few hours ago, I tried to see if I could put my thoughts into practice by going to the local KFC. The artist benefits from looking at references and using them as inspiration, not by copying things directly by tracing (a nice way of saying "plagiarism"). Similarly, I believe the cook benefits from sampling the food of others to get a sense of what is acceptable and then using that as inspiration for their own creations. I had read about people complaining, for whatever reason, about various KFCs across the country serving them raw chicken, so I figured one of those would be a good starting point. Well, fortunately, I got what I wanted on my first try. I was served a burger which had chicken that looked like this on the inside:

Honestly, it... didn't taste that bad? I can see why it might put people off, but I found it OK, if not absolutely amazing. It was a bit stringy and tough, but nothing too terrible. I should also point out now that I'm almost at the end of this thread that, as I've been writing, I've gotten a mild stomach cramp, but that's nothing new for me. What do you think? Should KFC broaden its horizons a bit and start serving raw chicken on a more frequent basis? Are the people who have been complaining justified? What should I try cooking that incorporates raw chicken? I'd love to know your thoughts.