I have been dabbling with using a cast iron pan and one of the things I tried recently was cooking chicken thighs in it. I seared the outside and then put it in the oven to cook the rest of the way through. Nothing was burning but their was a lot of smoke in my apartment after. It even set my smoke alarm off. I opened all the windows in my smallish apartment and it aired out pretty quickly. Chicken came out tasting good though. However, I'd like to cook more like this in the future but the smoke was kind of annoying. Is there any way around it? All I really used was chicken thighs, avocado oil and just the spices on the chicken etc. Is smoke just part of searing the outside of meats ? I even made a pan sauce for the first time which came out good too.
>>22086966>been dabbling with using a cast iron panwhy?
>>22086984Why not?
Was the smoke generated from the pan searing part or after you took it out of the oven?The searing will always generate some smoke, but if you have to stop, drop & roll, your temp may be too hot.If it's from the oven, you should never have that much or any, really, smoke from baking a piece of anything.But keep in mind that apartments' kitchens are usually horribly underventilated, and the detector's probably between it and the nearest window, like as not.Put a shower cap over your smoke detectors or remove it to somewhere else when cooking if you can.
>>22086966Just turn the heat down dude
>>22087006Ah you are right. my alarm is right in between my kitchen and the window. I would say the most smoke was probably from cooking in the oven part though. But now that you say it, there wasn't a TON of smoke. but It was smokey if that makes sense. Like a bit of a haze. I could breathe fine etc. I think my apartment is just poorly ventilated for shit like this which you said.
>>22087017the smoke is just a part of cast iron searing. I take my smoke detector down and put it in a drawer. having a window fan set to exhaust can help a lot.like the other guys said if you want zero smoke then you have to cook below the smoke point of the oil youre using or use higher smoke point oil.
>>22087023I thought avocado oil was one of the higher smoke point oils though?
>>22087046I don't know I've never used avocado oil
>>22087046If that's the case, then maybe your temp is too high. What temp did you set your oven for?
>>22087064I had it at like 450 degrees F. So maybe I will just try 400 or something. I thought chicken thighs could tank the higher heats so I had it at a higher temp.
>>22087079>450 degrees
>>22087079yeah you want to bake at like 350f to 375f to cook the inner parts of meat, 400 at the absolute maximum450f is for when you want to finish something off and give it a crispy outside, but you don't need to do that since you already seared your chicken. 450f is usually the max setting.
>>22086966You're letting your pan get too hot. High smoke point oils do in fact have smoke points, and cast iron gets and stays a lot hotter than most other pans. Once it's hot enough to make your meat go sizzle, turn the heat down.
>>22087132Thanks for the tip. I didnt know that.
>>22087079Oof, you already seared it on the stove, 450 is totally unnecessary.I bake chicken at 350-375!
>>22086966steam them or bake them in an oven first.then brown the outsides on the pan with minimum oil.
>>22086966You need to be putting the thigh skin side down before letting the pan heat up. So all of the fat from the skin renders out properly and the skin gets crispy
OP wants none of this smoke.>>22086966What were the spices on the chicken?
