Posted by CCC/The Miami Herald, FL on May 12, 2007 at 10:38:06:
CHICKEN COOKING CONTEST
Make flavor big, not portions
BY KATHY MARTIN
kmartin@MiamiHerald.com
Judging cooking competitions is always interesting, and the National Chicken Cooking Contest is an especially appealing one. The only required ingredient is chicken, so there's tremendous opportunity for creativity. And because contestants have three hours in which to make their dishes twice (once for the judges, once for display), there's room for real cooking, not just beat-the-clock assembly.
And so I was sequestered last Friday for eight hours with 14 other food writers at the Birmingham, Ala., convention center, tasting and talking chicken. The stakes were high: The 51 contestants were vying for a $100,000 grand prize and four smaller cash awards.
We worked through the entries, eliminating about two-thirds on the first pass and steadily winnowing them in three more rounds of scoring and discussion.
I was struck by how popular Latin and Caribbean flavors remain. From plantain-crusted chicken to Salvadoran chicken with pupusitas, nearly a dozen dishes fit that description.
It was also apparent the mojito has entered American consciousness as a hip sip -- and just as apparent there's confusion about what it is. The two recipes with ''mojito'' in their titles both had lime juice and one had rum, but neither included the mint.
Here are a few observations for budding contestants:
• Details are crucial: A tasty macadamia-crusted chicken salad was in contention until a judge noticed a glitch in the recipe: It instructed you to make an egg wash and a breading mixture, but never told you to dip the chicken into them before frying. After determining that the mistake was in the original entry, we had to disqualify the dish.
• Size matters: If a contest is being judged by food writers, chances are at least some of them are nutrition-minded, and will consider it a negative if a single serving of your dish would feed two of three. The same goes for sandwiches too thick to fit into one's mouth.
• Taste really matters: Each of the five winners had full, deep, multidimensional flavor. If your recipe doesn't make tasters sit up, take notice and ask for more, it doesn't have much of a shot.
Kathy Martin is The Herald's food editor.