Parchment paper is my new boo in the kitchen.  I’ve been using it since I moved into my apartment in Austin and I really wonder where it’s been all my life.

There’s no two ways about it, I’m kind of lazy.  Not in a “toast is difficult” sort of way, but in a cost/benefit sort of way.  I guess it would be better to say I’m “temporally economical”.  At one point spent an evening making Maple Pork Chops (or some such insanity) for dinner.  It took three hours, start to finish, and used every dish I owned.  Every dish. I don’t have a problem spending money, investing time, or fulfilling some other cost so long as an appropriate benefit is realized.

A collection of dishes, flat ware, knives, pans, cutting boards.

Which brings us to the Parchment Paper.  I will confess to being a little uncertain about the difference between parchment paper and bakery release paper.  I know there’s a cooking technique where you wrap food in paper to cook it and, based on my limited understanding, is something different.  What Reynolds and H-E-B sell as “parchment paper” is more likely bakery paper.  It’s a thin paper that, from a few feet, visually looks like wax paper, but is very different.  Whereas wax paper is paper covered in wax, making it resistant to liquid, bakery paper is impregnated with silicone, making it nonstick.

Apart from making service easier, nonstick cookware is so much easier to clean.  Sure, it’s 2017, you could probably buy non-stick baking trays (what a time to be alive).  That still results in some degree of scrubbing.  For years I lined my pans with aluminum foil and then used a cooking spray (this is how my parents did it).  If you forget the cooking spray now you have aluminum attached to the food which is terrible.  The aluminum may tear anyway.  Now you have juices leaking all over the place.  Aluminum foil still has a place in my kitchen, but more and more parchment paper is taking it’s place.

Baked chicken has by far been the star for this process.  Chicken is one of those things that everyone cooks and some lucky people do it well.  I am not one of those people, yet, but I’m getting there.  I’ve made three important changes to how I cook my chicken these days.

  1. Parchment Paper - this is what the entire post is about, so of course.  The parchment paper keeps the chicken from sticking to the cook surface and eliminates the need to add oil to the whole process.
  2. A Meat Thermometer - I've finally grown tired of having to cut into my meat and see if it's done.  Then you throw it back in for a few minutes hope it cooks and suddenly its rubbery and inedible.  Fifteen bucks and you're done.  Again, it's a cost benefit thing.
  3. 400 Degrees - all my life I've been cooking chicken at 350.  This has been a poor idea.  I know "low and slow" is something people say... a lot.  But I upped the temperature to 400 and am cooking for about 35 minutes (in my oven, your milage may vary).  At that point check the temperature and boom you should be good.

I haven’t found anything yet that I don’t prefer cooking on parchment paper to aluminum foil or just on the baking sheet.  Just today I reheated pizza in the oven and put it on parchment paper to keep the cheese from melting to things.  It turned out beautifully.

Maple pork chops with bacon sweet potato hash.
Post Script
Not worth it.  The pork chops were too thick to cook or eat reasonably.