This document provides information on portion control and plating poultry dishes. It discusses how meat shrinks when cooked and recommends portion sizes for common poultry cuts. It also outlines factors to consider when plating poultry, such as service ware, garnishing, sauces and accompaniments. Finally, it provides tips for plating food attractively, such as leaving 1/3 of the plate empty, mixing shapes and textures, and using garnishes that complement the dish's flavors.

1. Plate/Present
Poultry and
Game Dishes

2. Portion Control for Cooked Poultry and
Game
Meat shrinks about 25% when cooked. A
quarter-pound hamburger (4 oz.) will actually
yield a 3 ounce portion after cooking. An 8
ounce steak will yield about 6 ounces of
cooked meat.
A chicken breast is generally 3 - 4 ounces.
A chicken thigh is usually 2 ounces, while a leg is
1 – 2 ounces.
Chicken wings are high in fat. It takes 2 wings to
equal a 1 ounce choice (or exchange) with
that.

3. Portion Control Secrets
It‘s not always what you eat, but how
much you eat - It‘s the size of your
servings that really counts!
Most of us tend to underestimate the
amount of food we eat and tend to
overestimate the recommended portion
sizes for many foods.
Almost everyone underestimates the
amount of calories they consume, and
people who weigh more do so, to a
greater degree.

4. Portion
A portion is how much food you
choose to eat at one time
(breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack),
whether in a restaurant, from a
package, or in your own kitchen.
Portions can be bigger or smaller
than the recommended food
servings. There is no standard
portion size and no single right or
wrong portion size.

5. Serving
🞇 A serving is a standard
amount used to help
give advice about how
much to eat, or to
identify how many
calories and nutrients are
in a food.

6. How to Control Portion Sizes
Eating smaller portions of food is
one of the easiest ways to cut
back on calories— but it can also
be one of the most challenging,
with the current trend of super-
sizing.
How do you know a reasonable
portion of food when you see it?

7. Factors to consider in
presenting/plating poultry dishes
Types of service wares
Plating
Garnishing
Sauces
Accompaniments

8. Plating/ Presenting Poultry Dishes

9. The way food is presented affects
a person‘s perception of how it will
taste.
People instinctively reject bruised
apples and browned bananas, and
recognize well- marbled beef and
perfectly ripe produce.
Prepared dishes work in the
same manner. The perfect dish
includes food that tastes as good as it
looks.

10. Much of the artistry of cooking
comes after the food has been cooked
and it is time to transfer it from pot to
plate.
Chefs rise above cooks as they
arrange the different components
on a plate like interior designers
place furniture to create culinary
masterpieces.

11. Plating the Food

12. Plating is the act of arranging the meal on
the individual plate immediately before it‘s
served.
Presentation should look natural. It should
feel as though everything that is on the plate is
meant to be should feel as though everything
that is on the plate is meant to be exactly where
it is.
Try to strike a balance between having
enough food on the plate to convey hospitality
without overcrowding the plate—and potentially
offending your guest.

13. Try to leave one-third of the plate
empty, and plate your dish
immediately before you serve it.
Always check the temperature of
your food before you serve it to a
guest.
After you have put the food on the
plate, check to see that the plate is
clean.
Plate edges should be especially
immaculate. Clean spills or sauces
away with a moistened clean sponge
or paper towel.

14. Decorate the Frame

15. If the food is the masterpiece,
then the plate is its frame. Adapt
artistic framing strategies to your
cooking for a quick way to improve
your food‘s presentation.
Buy beautiful bowls and plates
in a variety of shapes and colors.
The same bowl of soup looks
dramatically different in a small
Asian ceramic cup

16. You can also decorate the rim of
a plate, just as you‘d decorate a
frame.
Use culinary elements like
colorful spices or confectioner‘s
sugar; specialty salts like
Hawaiian alaea or Himalayan
pink salt which also lend
themselves wonderfully to this
purpose.

17. For small appetizers, part of the
presentation is making the display
platter look beautiful.
Make a bed of uncooked soba
noodles or flat rice sticks, shafts of
wheat, or large sprigs of fresh
herbs like rosemary and thyme.
This is also a good trick to use if
you are preparing a hors d‘oeuvre
platter.

18. If you‘re decorating a plate that
will hold hot food, be aware that
by the time you‘re finished
garnishing the plate, the food
may not be hot.
In some cases, you can garnish
the plate before you plate the
food. If this is impossible, work
quickly and have all of your
garnishes close by.

19. Mix Shapes, Colors and Textures

20. Food is naturally beautiful.
Combine foods with different
shapes, colors and textures on
the same plate.
Grilled filet mignon becomes
even more decadent when it
appears on the plate with stark
white mashed potatoes and a
bright green steamed vegetable.

21. In this case, these different elements
combine for a dish that catches the eye.
If your plate will contain multiple
elements, use an odd number of dishes
rather than an even number for further
interest.
Grilled filet mignon with mashed
potatoes and steamed asparagus looks
great, but add a stack of sliced tomatoes
and the combination becomes
regimented and less remarkable.

22. Try to integrate a variety of shapes
in each dish. Risotto is boring when
paired with rice, as the two are
nearly identical in shape, color and
size.
Meatballs and Brussels sprouts are
different colors but the same shape.
But meatballs and rice make an
interesting combination, as do
risotto and Brussels sprouts.

23. For a restaurant-worthy twist on
traditional side-by-side plating,
stack the components of your dish
vertically.
Arrange asparagus into a teepee on
the plate, with a dipping sauce in
the center;
make salads more cylindrical than
vertical. This approach can make
any plate instantly more interesting.

24. Keep in mind that sometimes the
most aesthetically pleasing plate of
food does not include a garnish.
For example, crème brulee
features a delicate, crunchy top layer.
While its appearance can certainly be
improved with a small garnish or
beautiful brulee dish, the texture and
color of the caramelized sugar is
beautiful enough on its own.

25. Garnishes

26. Garnishes can be as simple or
intricate as you like. For a twist on
the traditional parsley sprig, use a
sprig or two of an herb or spice
that was used in the dish.
A ham flavored with rosemary
might feature a sprig of rosemary
on each plate.
Spicy pad Thai can include a wedge
of lemon or lime and a
dash of paprika sprinkled around the
plate.

27. The key to selecting a garnish
is picking a garnish that will
improve the dish.
Garnishes add color and
continue a theme, such as a
brightly colored orchid on top of
passion fruit crème brulee.
They can accent a dish‘s color,
like chives on top of a baked
potato, or a dish‘s flavor.

28. The way food looks on the plate is the
most commonly ignored facet of cooking
at home.
Too often, other considerations such as
time, money, and food allergies push
presentation out of mind.
Since most children and their families
eat their main meals at home, attractive
food presentation is just as important at
home as it is in a restaurant.

29. A dish that looks
good is more
likelyto be eaten.