Preparing meat and poultry

• Trim the fat in meat. Cut off any visible, solid fat from meat before cooking it. Remove any remaining visible fat from pork and beef before eating.
• Remove the skin in poultry. When roasting chicken or turkey, it's OK to leave on the skin for cooking. The skin helps keep poultry tender and flavorful. But remove the skin and the fat underneath it before eating.
• Use marinades. Marinades tenderize and keep meat and poultry moist while cooking. They can also enhance flavor that may otherwise be lost when you trim fat. Choose low-fat marinades, such as mixtures of herbs or spices with wine, soy sauce or citrus juice.
• Go low. Low-fat cooking methods include grilling, broiling, roasting, sauteing and baking. Cooking melts away much of the fat in meat and poultry. So when you cook meat or poultry in your oven, be sure to put it on a rack on a baking pan so that the fat drips away.
• Skim ahead. Make dishes in which you cook the meat in liquid, such as soups and stews, a day or two in advance and then refrigerate. As the dish chills, the fat hardens on the top and you can easily skim it off.
• Drain the fat. After cooking ground beef or poultry, drain the fat from the pan and rinse the meat with hot water. Blot the meat with a paper towel to remove any remaining fat and the water.
• Watch serving sizes. Reducing your portion size decreases the amount of fat and cholesterol in your diet. If you choose to eat meat, aim for no more than 3 ounces (85 grams) per meal, no more than a couple of times a week. That's about the size of a deck of cards. Three ounces also equals half of a boneless, skinless chicken breast, or one skinless chicken leg with thigh, or two thin slices of lean roast beef.