A special note about additives to frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts, thighs, etc. Most are soaked in a "solution" like the Colonel's. I bought frozen breasts and I was salted to death. They ended up in the trash. I had boiled them for a minute or two, drained, rinsed, changed the water,boiled again for a minute or two (so that the salt would not boil back into the breasts), rinsed thoroughly, changed the water (I think you get the idea) and they were still salty. Apparently all that junk that was injected into the chicken was there to stay.

And the skin is usually added to the nuggets for flavor.

Amazing what we eat and don't know.............................

See -- THAT is what I was talkin about! How'd you find out where they got their stuff from? I know that pretty much everything served in the fast food places are already made when it arrives...so... who's shipping it out? That's what I wanted the answer to.

And hope your pneumonia goes away quickly !!!! Feel better mama.

rt49 - Thank you for the well wish - Mama is a tough ol' bird - I'll be around kicking for a while yet! Ain't done making noise!!! LOL


The sad part is - many of our favorite eateries that have multiple locations have now decided to make things in one warehouse/institution/kitchen just to keep their secrets a secret. You'd be surprised how many times they just add to a sauce just to give it their "touch". Even a brand name sauce you can buy off a supermarket shelf!

Ever watch The Golden Girls??? Sophia??? Picture this, Ground Round, summer of 1977.......8 friends meeting for lunch........

How I found out about the taco sauce??? Mama was having a salad and burger for lunch with friends. We were sitting just outside the kitchen. Our waitress was new - could not handle her job. Everything was overwhelming for her - she didn't know what to ask or do with a full table of 8. My salad had a dead fly in it. I usually order my dressing on the side and then I add and toss myself. First toss - fly on the fork. So instead of grossing out everyone in the place - I excused myself and walked my salad into the kitchen. There it was - a bottle of Territorial Sauce. The cook panicked over the fly - not to mention the fact that a customer was in the kitchen - I acted like I understood and asked to please replace my salad with fries - as long as they were totally veggie with no added meat (flies). When we were leaving - the manager thanked me for not telling anyone - but he knew I had a strong background in food service/restaurants/catering, etc. He even was nice enough to give us all free beverages and desserts. And I happily left and headed to the restaurant supply house and bought my gallon!

Best part - I had been trying for months to get the name of their taco sauce. Everyone I asked that worked there said it was a sauce made specially for The Ground Round and that they ship it with their orders from their main warehouse.

HA!!! Lying sacks of crap........................

LMBO!!! Yes, sounds quite familiar!
Well maybe that was the problem in the first place. She must've thought you said salad with flies. LOL What's sad is that the order was still wrong. You said flies, not fly.

And yes I agree... big bunch of liars!! There's no sense in that. How about "Sorry we can't tell you." I can imagine the chefs face when you walked into the kitchen. I'm suprised he didnt yank up that bottle and toss it in a corner.

Thanks for all the recipes. Have you tried any? Do they actually come out right?

The cook never expected a customer to walk in on them - the kitchen was a disaster - and there is no call for that at all. They never gave it a thought that I saw what they had. But when I could not get the attention of the waitress or the hostess - I just entered and asked for help. It's not like I had gone in with pad and paper or a camera to see what they used! I've run plenty of restaurants.

I ran into the same snag with a certain dressing at a pizzeria - TOP SECRET recipe - everyone raved about it!!! Passed down for generations... Well - DUH - go to the grocery store and by Marzetti's red french (I can't think of the name right now) and you got it! So much for their top secret recipe. Cripe after I asked about it 3 times, one of the kids that works there gave me a large pop cup filled - more than I would have gotten if I had bought the Marzetti's myself! Brought it home - checked it out - bought a Marzetti's - mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

You ask if I have ever tried out these recipes - and the answer is yes. And if I haven't made it - it was made by one of the girls in my recipe club. We get together and make these dishes and share and swap. This way we can try more recipes in less time. If it is a recipe made for the club members (now doesn't that sound impressive for a bunch of kitchen nuts!) it has got to be followed to a T. And everything has to be measured - no eyeballing. No tweaking first time around. If cook #1 wants to bring KFC Crispy Strips - the recipe is followed as written. After that any cook can make the recipe and bring her tweaks, etc. And bring your recipe with proper measurement. By tweaking we have had success and failure. You'd be surprised what some of the girls can come up with. Sometimes we will do one restaurant recipe and see who's is closest, or we will do restaurant day - each bring any restaurant recipe, or bakery day copying bakeries, or a day of whatever you want. It's fun. Keeps us out of trouble (sometimes). Some of us can cook and bake - some can't boil water but they sure try. When the hubbies get involved - they louse up everything - so we ban them from cooking for the girls. Rule: be fair in judging, don't criticize if it is something that did not turn out - find out why and what you can do the next time so that it is better, we help and support one another and you must be able to laugh at your own mistakes. No arguments that way.

It's a fun thing to do.