cover image 100 Favorite Chicken Dishes

100 Favorite Chicken Dishes

Patricia Tennison. McGraw-Hill/Contemporary, $11.95 (163pp) ISBN 978-0-8092-4479-9

Even amateur chefs who already have enough microwave cookbooks to fill a couple of 600-watt ovens will want to consider adding this one to the bunch. It's a real workhorse collection, offering an array of dishes that can be prepared with a minimum of fuss. And while it isn't a diet book, cooks won't have any problems finding healthful, low-fat dishes. A very few selections require a bit of extra effort, like chicken and spinach stuffed into hollowed-out eggplant or a whole roast chicken with buttermilk gravy. However many pk recipes, such as chicken and mushrooms flavored with tarragon or honey-mustard carrots and chicken, have no difficult steps and can be prepared in minutes, a definite plus after a full day of work. Tennison also provides pk soups and appetizers for multi-course meals as well as ideas well suited to summertime menus. When cooks tire of salads like apple-chicken with peanut dressing or chicken-avocado, they can experiment with ``micro-grilling''--partially cooking the meat in the microwave, then finishing it on the grill. For this, Tennison ( Glorious Fish in the Microwave ) suggests timings for chicken cooked whole or cut into pieces, and a few barbecue sauces. (June)