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Is It Necessary To Sear Meat First?


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Old 22-09-2011, 22:26
ledders
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Hi.

Can anybody tell me, it is necessary to sear the meat first when you want to cook meat in a sauce?

I am looking at doing a chicken curry, and it says to sear the meat before you add the sauce. Can you add the sauce to the raw chicken and cook it for longer?

If not, how do you sear the chicken?

Thanks
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Old 22-09-2011, 22:36
whoever,hey
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Sealing the meat is just placing it in a hot pan and getting colour on the edges of it first before putting it in sauce.

You dont have to do it. You can cook it for a tad longer, but i doubt it would be required if you were already paranoid about it being cooked in a stew any way.

Sealing it adds flavour to the outside of each chunk of meat by caramlising it a tad. Some say it keeps the moisture in too with the flavour that comes with that. Both these are debatable, but i believe them both .
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Old 22-09-2011, 23:52
SimonSmith42
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Sealing meat makes it taste better, gives it a nicer texture & can stop it falling apart.
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Old 23-09-2011, 01:20
c4rv
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You don't have to do it, I don't always. However it will add a good flavour as sugar in the meat is turned to caramel which has a better flavour.

To seal the meat, cook over high heat in a bit of oil for a few minutes. You are not looking at cooking the meat all the way through, just cooking the outside. And the temperature has to high as we are not stewing the meat.

If you have a lot of meat to cook then do it smaller batches to ensure the pan temperature does not drop too much during cooking.
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Old 23-09-2011, 07:47
BrunoStreete
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I'm sure the taste wouldn't be that different if you didn't, but nearly every chef I know will recommend sealing it first so I'm sure there is some truth in it.
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Old 23-09-2011, 08:03
indianwells
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Searing the meat does give a little more flavour due to the Maillard Reaction, however, I never bother doing it with chicken, only red meat.
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Old 23-09-2011, 08:56
big_hard_lad
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Personally I wouldn't bother doing it with chicken, only red meat (although I have no idea why!) There's probably not much need to cook your chicken for any longer either. When you think it's nearly done, lift out a largish piece and cut it in half. If it's translucent in the middle then it needs longer, if not then it should be good to go.
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Old 23-09-2011, 16:16
degsyhufc
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Doing it with chicken depends if I can be bothered or not. It's more the texture than the flavour that changes.

e.g. you mix cornflour with water (you can add spices or flavourings also). Then deep/shallow fry it to seal it.

It gives it a nice crispy coating for use in your dish e.g. sweet & sour chicken.
It's not essential though.
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