Cooking juicy chicken is an art form, as poultry can quickly overcook, but one technique swears that using kiwis is the best way to keep the meat tender. Nobody wants to eat dried out, stringy chicken, but it can even happen to the best of chefs.
One cooking hack claims a fruit marinade is your way out of a bad supper. Elliott, of @callmebelly on TikTok, says a single kiwi is the secret ingredient to the "juiciest chicken you will ever have".
All you have to do is mash the fruit into a pulp and mix it with olive oil for a marinade for chicken that "melts in the mouth", reports the Mirror. In a video on the social media platform, Elliott says all you need to do is marinate your chicken for "at least an hour" in the mixture.
The kiwi works to break down the chicken enough so that once it's cooked, it stays juicy. Elliott said in his video: "The key to the juiciest chicken you will ever have is actually a kiwi. The chicken melts in your mouth. [All you need to do is] take the kiwi out [of the skin] and you can blend it up or break it down a little bit with a spoon.
"Have you ever seen people put limes in their marinades? It's similar to that. It's going to break down the chicken and make it super tender. I'm going to go in with a little bit of olive oil and then let the chicken marinate in this for at least an hour. I know it looks weird, but just trust me! I promise the chicken won't be sweet or sour, it's going to be so juicy."
The foodie added salt and pepper to his mixture after it had marinated for the allotted time, and then chucked his chicken strips into a pan and cooked them, achieving juicy meat with a nicely fried exterior. Elliott added in the caption that he had learned the trick in Africa, and said that while it might "sound crazy", it's something people should trust him on.
A pack of six kiwis from Asda's new Just Essentials range will set you back 88p, bringing each individual kiwi out to just under 15p. And in the comments, several people helped to explain that the trick works because of enzymes in the kiwi that are also present in fruits including pineapple and guava.
One person said: "It's the actinidain enzymes. Guava also does it without imparting as much sweetness as pineapple does."
While another added: "It's the same with pineapple or mango. The enzymes in them break down the chicken and make it super tender."
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