Betty Crocker's Best Chicken Cookbook (Betty Crocker Cooking)

Betty Crocker doesn't believe in waste, and that includes space. Just look inside the front cover of her Best Chicken Cookbook. There you'll find 10 "Fast and Easy" chicken dinner entr es and five "Quick Main Dish Chicken Salads." You start with four boneless, skinless chicken breasts that you then flatten, and 20 minutes later you serve something along the lines of Pesto Chicken, Pecan Maple Chicken, or Fajita Chicken. Or Oriental Chicken Salad. Or Raspberry Chicken Salad. Inside the back cover, you'll find eight Moist Poultry Secrets (wrap tightly during storage; don't undercook chicken--it's tough and rubbery) and a table of nutrition facts.

The seven chapters of Best Chicken Cookbook are "Super Express ... Thirty Minutes or Less"; "Stir-Fries and Skillet Meals"; "Baked and Roasted Chicken"; "Great Chicken Classics"; "Fire Up the Grill"; "Salads, Sandwiches, and Pizza"; and "Soups, Chilies, and Chowders." The "All About Chicken" section that introduces the book is just that: everything. Learn safe handling, boning, cutting up, flattening, the different types of chicken, stuffing, thermometers, etc. There are roasting timetables and microwave tables and tips on carving.

Every recipe is a textbook example of brevity. Betty Crocker believes in the sanctity of the 3 x 5 recipe card. Both prep and cooking times are listed, as well as the number of servings you can expect. The nutrition breakdown for a single serving completes each recipe so you know exactly what the calories and the fat numbers are like. And every recipe is faced by a full-page color photo of what the finished dish looks like.

Anyone--good cook and new cook alike--can pick up a copy of Betty Crocker's Best Chicken Cookbook and, with the right ingredients on hand, put a flavorful, nutritious meal on the table in a half-hour in most cases. This book will be a place to start for some cooks. More experienced cooks will find ways to trim time from their cooking chores. --Schuyler Ingle