Why cook onion with chicken? Is it just for taste?
In some of the chicken chili recipes I use, the recipe says to cook (or sauté rather) chopped onion with the chicken. Is that only because onion adds a certain taste? Or does this process do something more?
Best Answer
Onion tastes good, especially when caramelized, and since both it and the chicken go on to to be cooked for an extended time in the chili, there's really no food safety concern with cooking them together.
Both contribute to the finished flavor of the dish, and cooking them together saves time. There's no magical interaction between chicken and onion - if there were you'd see the same step in many different types of recipes.
Pictures about "Why cook onion with chicken? Is it just for taste?"
Can you cook chicken and onions together?
Cook the chicken and onions. Add about \xbc to \xbd cup of broth or water, then cover the pan and cook for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked through and its juices run clear (you can test this with a meat thermometer, it should register 165 degrees F when the chicken is fully cooked).Why do you cook meat with onions?
Also, the onions would express water, which would lower the temperature to simmer or steam, preventing the beef from browning. For these reasons, it is common to sear or brown the ground (minced) meat, and then add the onions to cook through when it is done or nearly done.Should you cook onions or chicken first?
For this reason, onions are the first thing we start cooking whenever they appear in a recipe. (Unless we're cooking meat. Then we sear the meat first, remove it from the pan, and then start cooking the onions and everything else.) To cook them, we put a pan over high heat and add a dribble of olive oil.Why do you always cook onion first?
Onions and garlic must be cooked first so that it adds flavor to the oil. This way, the taste is absorbed better by the food that's being cooked, such as pork or beef. As stated earlier, onions go first and garlic later. The last-second inclusion of garlic in the cooking process allows for a more robust garlic flavor.Science does food: why onions taste so good and make you cry - BBC
More answers regarding why cook onion with chicken? Is it just for taste?
Answer 2
Well considering that pan cooking is only one of many ways to prepare chicken, on top of not all pan cooked chicken has onions as part of this process, I am not really sure how to answer this in the way the question was asked.
However
Some recipes call for onion to impart flavor and tenderize the skin (I mean the outer layer, not skin proper) as its being cooked. For instance in chicken Marsala you don't want a tough seared outer layer, you want one that infused with the taste of lemon, onion and mushroom, but is just as tender as the interior of the nugget.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Karolina Grabowska, Klaus Nielsen, Milan, Milan