Baking in a Reynold's Cooking Bag

 It was at least 90F here today. It was hard to get the car ac to cool the car when we got in to go out. The flowers appear to love this weather with rain every day and heat, too. I hope vegetables are doing well. 

Someone asked about how I use cooking bags for meat and vegetables. First of all, I use Reynolds Cooking Bags, but there are others on Amazon that I have never tried. For a turkey, there is a Turkey Bag size.

In the smaller size (8 lbs) I can put about ten chicken breasts or multiple thighs or legs. And, some days, I put legs, thighs, and breasts in the same bag. A whole hen can be cooked in a cooking bag. 

There is an instruction sheet with the bags that can be a good guide for cooking with sizes/weights and cooking temperatures and times to cook. 

One day, I accidentally left out the flour. The instructions say to add two teaspoons or Tablespoons of flour and shake. Well, the bag without flour did not explode, so I have never used it again. But, follow the instructions. Do as I say, not as I do. Okay, take your chances with leaving off the flour. 

However, I do put the six slits in the bag. If you don't, it will blow up like a balloon, scary looking. I either snip slits or poke the bag with a sharp knife while holding onto the bag so I won't poke a hole in the bottom of the bag. I always make the holes on the area of the bag where the juice won't leak during cooking. 

I use a pan that will hold the bag without allowing any of the bag to sag over the side. Once, I came in and the bottom corners were hanging over the sides with lots of juice in each corner. I was afraid it was going to burst. And, I was afraid the meat was not sitting in enough juice to keep the meat from burning. 

If you are cooking bscb, add about a half cup of water to keep the meat from burning. Maybe you want to add just a quarter cup of liquid. 

Chicken breasts will often be pale. But, the spices I add gives the meat color. Adding only garlic powder and onion powder gives a tasty but pale meat. In a salad or a sandwich, it does not show. Sprinkle meat before you put it into a bag. Otherwise, it is not easy to sprinkle evenly, just messy. We only season the top of the meat. 

I don't waste the oven heat and all this prep for just meats as I add vegetables to the bag. Tommy peels potatoes and carrots, enough for at least two meals, often more.  We only eat half a potato, having leftovers so we don't need to cook the next day. Some days, we eat leftovers from another day and save leftovers from the present meal for the day after that. Maybe we freeze some of the bscb. 

We have added many vegetables--onion halves, broccoli, cauliflower, snow peas, celery, potatoes, carrots. Sometimes, we put the meat on the vegetables. The celery and onions are placed on top of the meat. No, we don't put meat on potatoes. I forgot--I also cook squash and zucchini in with the meat. However, I cook it whole with just the ends cut off. Amazingly, it does not go to mush. Most of the time, we put bscb in the bag and put all the vegetables in front of the meat. See? There is no one right way to do most of this. Some days, the chunk of onion is just lying between the meat. 

Don't pour water over the top of the seasoned meat as it washes off the seasoning. One day, I forgot to put water in bscb. So, I found my little funnel, stuck it in one of the slits and poured the water into the bag that way. Another time, I found the slit, sort of mashed it down and poured the water on the slit and wiggled the bag around the slit until it went into the bag.

There are ties for the bag, little pieces of plastic to tighten like a zip tie. We lose these all the time and usually find them later. No worries. Just cut off a half-inch strip off the top of the bag and use that to tie the top of the bag. 

None of my spice blends contain sodium. I got rid of those. All of my spices and spice blends season the potatoes just fine. So, need to season the vegetables. Tommy, who like salt on food, does not even season after cooking this way. If he wants more salt, he can add it later, and I am not forced to eat salty food. 

Funny practice--one day, I was slicing potatoes in quarters, and carrots into three inch pieces, sliced onion while sitting in my chair. It was enough vegetables to last several days. I told Tommy to bring me the cooking bag. I place everything into the bag in no particular order. I carried it to the kitchen like a bag of potatoes, put it into the cookie sheet, sort of mashed the vegetables to make them even across the bag and pan. Then, I put the chicken on top to cook. Tommy laughed at my unorthodox use of the bag as a bag to carry. 

The bags come in Large and Turkey size. I baked three turkey breasts in one turkey bag. I have also baked turkeys. 

Finally, here is a link to Reynold's Cooking Bag Instructions  This may answer your questions. Or, you can ask me in comments.

Have you ever used Reynold's Cooking Bags? 

Any questions?