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Chef critique

Achiote Chicken with Grilled Corn

A vibrant and well-sequenced grilling recipe. The instructions correctly pull dark meat chicken at 175°F for ideal texture and utilize properly formatted bullet lists for complex mixtures. A slight increase in the marinade's salt will perfectly balance the finished dish.

Score: 9/10

Suggested fixes

  • Increase the total kosher salt in the ingredient list to 2 to 2 1/2 teaspoons.
  • In Step 2, increase the kosher salt in the marinade to 1 1/2 or 2 teaspoons to properly season the bone-in chicken.

Issues

  • medium / flavor: The recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of kosher salt in the marinade for 1.5 pounds (about 680g) of bone-in chicken. Based on a 1.5% salinity target by weight for bone-in meat, the chicken requires about 10g of salt. While the achiote paste contributes some sodium, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt leaves the chicken underseasoned.

Strengths

  • Correctly targets 175°F for the chicken drumsticks, ensuring the dark meat is fully tenderized.
  • Efficiently sequences the grilling by giving the chicken a head start before adding the corn.
  • Properly formats mixtures of more than three ingredients as bulleted lists set apart by blank lines.
  • Concisely refers to prepared components like the 'marinated drumsticks' and 'cilantro-onion relish' in later steps.