Saute chicken in stainless steel pan
What on earth am I doing wrong? Just bought a brand new, 14-inch stainless steel saute pan. I always use the "hot pan/cold oil" method, but I put in some chicken drumsticks and they all stuck to the bottom of the pan! Now, I know enough not to move the pieces until they form a nice, golden crust, but that didn't work either.
Chowhounds, what on earth am I doing wrong? Flame too high? Chicken was dry...not wet.
Thanks for your tips.
shopgirl
Nov 14, 2006 10:58PM
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In over 30+ years of cooking I have never had great success with sauteeing skin on poultry in a stainless steel skillet or many other meats. Frying yes, but not shallow sauteeing. Believe it or not, and in school I had to test a lot of skillets and pans for a kitchen equipment class, stainless steel is a lot softer than you thnk and develops very fine scratches which will grab on to meat and skin very quickly and not want to let go. Stainless steel also has definite hot spots. One test we used to use was purposely burning vanilla pudding in a variety of pans to determine which cooked most evenly. For a sautee get a good cast iron skillet and season it well. YOu might even get lucky and find one well used and seasoned in a second hand or thrift shop for next to nothing also you get a little added iron to your diet in using it.
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Here's a link to a method that I posted awhile ago, derived from the Balthazar cookbook, which calls for both stove top sauteeing and then putting the pan in the oven - the results are excellent, and I use a Sitram sautee pan with a copper core. Only trick is remembering not to grab the handle bare-handed once I've removed it from the oven!
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/28415...
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