To help with the cooking time and to get them more evenly done have you thought about boning them then smashing them to a nice uniform thickness?

Pounded chicken steaks? Why not. Good idea. That will be part of an upcoming test and report.

I don't know how well it would work in the solar oven but when I do it I usually sprinkle them with brown sugar and garlic. A sort of hillbilly teriyaki.

August 2d there will be celebrations of "Northern Hemisphere Solar Cooking Day." If you are interested in solar cooking watch your local media for events in your area.

What a difference clear sky makes!

Under the clear bright Sacramento, California sky beef stew put in at about noon was cooking at 275 degrees by about 1 in the same Cookit that struggled to make maybe 170 degrees under the smoky skies of Folsom Reservoir just a couple of weeks earlier. Even copycat solar cookers cut out that day from cardboard and lined with glued-on freezer foil got up to 250 degrees.

In additon to the stew we enjoyed herb bread, cornbread muffins, wild rice, and raisin-apple crumble.

I love solar cooking. It still amazes me and I feel like somehow we're getting away with some kind of cheating!

If you wanted to boost the heat (with an out of the box idea) and you have a 12-volt solar panel with a few watts behind it. You could use it to light up a few auto light bulbs (1156 backup bulbs would work) placed inside the oven to help generate heat.

This is only worth doing if you have the panels and are not using them for anything else at the same time.