Question....

[gmbchef]

I am a chef instuctor here in CT. We have a very busy school and had a chef from our other campus come in to help out. He was "shadowing" me and asked a student how long the chicken he was working with was marinated. The student told him "about 24 hours". It was marinating in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic and basil. This chef said that you're not supposed to marinate chicken, and he went on to tell me thats too long to marinate chicken.
All I know is the final dish had good flavor, good color and tender chicke.
Is there something I am missing here?

[cheztom]

I agree, I think 24 hours is too long, but given your marinade ingredients I wouldn't be too worried about the finished product. The worst that could happen is that you'd end up with a gooey, mushy texture with no firmness. Flavor's not gonna be an issue except that it might be overwhelming given the time frame. However, I'd keep a weather eye on how safely that chicken was handled - especially if students are in charge.

As to his opinion re; chicken marination - I don't agree.

[mark1]

Also think 24 hours is too long to marinate chicken, but don't understand or agree with never marinating it. Just brining poultry doesn't cover every eventuality and there are sure a lot of tasty reasons to marinate chicken.

[bighead]

Marinade whatever you want to.
As far as how long, it all depends on how much acid is in your marinade.
We chefs are always going to have our own opinions. Pick which ones work best for you and stick with those.
Instruct your students to keep an open mind as no kitchen is exactly alike.

[Max_Xavier]

Balsamic Chicken Ceviche with a Salmonella Couli

[RedBeansNRice]

Hahahahahaa

[bighead]

Of course I should of mentioned cooking it after the marinade.

[ChefFree]

Time and temperature controlled, you can marinate for 72 hours, why not?

[sohail]

Now this is intersting, a chef who like to work with food chemistry told me that marinating for 4 hours is as good as an overnight marinating? Is that posssibly true?

[Scratchman]

Unless there is a chicken marination clause in the school charter, I would tell him to keep his opinions to himself until he gets his own class. The kids are not learned just to cook. They a learnig how to be leaders. They can't learned that if 1# tough guy chef is compromising your supreme authorrity in your class. I feel your pain I have been in that situation before( I was teaching high quality fluffy breakfast muffins, and in a rage another teacher flipped out over bits of wasted batter. I didn't know we were making tough cafateria muffins). If the results are good than how is it wrong. It's not like the kid stabbed someone, sometime the end does justify the means.

Just My 2 cents,
Peace,
Scratch

[chefgbs]

There's an old saying that goes like this:

"If you put 1000 chefs in a kitchen, they'll do things 1000 different ways."

I'd very politely tell him to bugger off.