I don't cook meat very often, however when I do it often turns out "dry" rather than moist and juicy.
How do I ensure my cooked meat turns out moist?
- thermometer?
- braise the meat?
- cook less time?
- high temp vs low temp?
Meat – How to ensure the cooked meat turns out moist
cooking-timemeatmoisture
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It's my opinion that the "proper temperature" is a number set by lawyers, not by chefs. The government standard for a roast bird is 180°F (83°C)! Are you kidding me? HTST pasteurization is 161°F (72°C) for 20 seconds, but my turkey has to get to 180°F for safe human consumtion? What the hell kind of bacteria do they think live in there?
165°F (74°C) is a common number, and a pretty decent one, though I always take mine out before that for the reason below.
You need to remember that the internal temperature of the bird will continue to rise for a while after you take it out of the oven: the heat on the outside is still migrating inward. If you wait to take it out until the internal temperature is the "right" temperature, by the time it peaks, it'll be 10°F (~5°C) HIGHER than the right temperature, and that's in the dry zone. We're talking 190°F (88°C) thanksgiving football. Blech.
Dark meat almost always handles being overcooked better than lighter meat. The breast is the hardest part of the turkey to cook correctly. If you haggle with the temperature, and your white meat is still on the dry side, you might try brining the bird for 24 hours or so. It makes a big difference in terms of juiciness.
With thin cuts of meat (like chicken breast or a steak), you want to make sure you put the thermometer in to the thin side of the meat so that the whole thermometer goes in to the meat, rather than putting it in through the "top" so that only a little of the thermometer is in the meat. If you're putting it in the top, you can get wildly inaccurate temperatures. Also make sure that the thermometer isn't touching a pan, exposed to air, or touching a bone. Any of those can have a negative effect.
Also, you only need to cook chicken to 74C / 165F. That may be part of the problem in your case.
You may also want to check that your thermometer is accurate. You can stick it in boiling water to check that it reads 100C / 212F (assuming of course it goes up that high).
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Best Answer
The way to ensue moist meat is to make sure that you don't overcook it. It is really just that simple. Variations on cooking method are to achieve certain effects on the meat, i.e. searing to develop more flavor due to the maillard reaction, sous vide to allow you to cook to a specific temperature, ect. In the war against dry meat, a thermometer is your best foxhole buddy.
That said, some cooking methods allow you to hit that temp mark easier than others. Typically, the slower heat enters the food, the closer to the specific temperature you will be able to get. Thus things like a braise more often result in a meat that is moist as the window between cooked and over-cooked is much larger than on something like a grill.