I've become accustomed to eating air chilled chicken. It's the only way to go. It seems like conventional chicken, including organic, always has solution added to it. It changes the way the meat cooks and its texture.
Costco frozen chicken breasts are my Tuesday night dinner, usually on a Caesar salad. Sauté and finished in the oven with a wine and butter sauce. But last night I cut the breast in half (similar to David’s paillard without all the noise) sprinkled them with flour and Parmesan and quickly cooked them on the stove top and served with the same sauce with capers added. Done in 15 minutes and delicious. Thanks David.
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The only secret to tender chicken breasts is to cook them fast at a high temperature. Cook them slowly and they're tough, unless you go on braising them for an hour.
Brine baby brine!! We raise our own meat chickens so I have gotten pretty good at cooking with all the various parts. Hands down the secret to a moist breast is brining. 24 hours in a solution of salt, brown sugar, liquid smoke and peppercorns is my go-to. This is good on its own baked or fried or in pasta dishes, soups etc.
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@Nancy Finnegan--Except, again, if you need to limit sodium for heart issues (or for that matter sugar for diabetes), this kind of brine is absolutely off-limits. Brining adds an astonishing amount of sodium to meat. It destroys the health benefits of eating chicken in the first place. And, for someone who's used to a low-sodium diet, it makes the meat taste unpleasantly salty; I truly dislike brined poultry.
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@me Soaking chicken in buttermilk will keep the meat moist too. If you don't have any buttermilk, just add 4.5 teaspoons to a cup of milk.
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Add what to the milk?
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Why take on the complications of making a meal from the "troublesome" breasts , when it's the thighs that are naturally moist, succulent, tasty (and more economical) than the breasts? Also, I would like to see some discussion on the increasing size of chicken breasts, packaged by many of the chicken producers. It's concerning to open a package of chicken breasts to find that they are the size of a small turkey breast. I stay away from them the majority of the time.
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@Mrs M
I try to like boneless thighs, but they are kind of gross to me. I like bone in chicken legs and thighs.
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I'll add that after seasoning, one can place the chicken in a ziplock and freeze it. Defrosting takes little time when the bag is placed in a metal saucepan filled with cold water. It's ready to grill or pan sear after other prep work is done.
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Brine is essential for chicken. It not only seasons an otherwise bland meat, but also improves texture/moisture. 0.5 cup of salt, 6 tbsp salt, 6.5 cups H2O. 1- 1.5 hr.
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@Chris--Except, of course, for those of us who are under doctors' orders to control our sodium intake. I cannot eat brined meat, and am always really frustrated in restaurants when I ask if the chicken or turkey is brined and they say happily, "Oh, yes!" This takes a naturally low-sodium item and puts it off the list of possibilities, even before any seasoning or sauce is added during cooking.
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@Chris
A chef in our town shared in an article on fried chicken that he reserves/uses the brine from pickle juice to brine his chicken before frying....and gets rave reviews for it. The downside to any kind of brining, in my opinion, is that it takes both time and some planning...........two things harried home cooks often find themselves hard pressed to find when trying to get a meal quickly on the table. Wasn't that the real reason for the rise in popularity of the (troublesome) breasts to begin with?
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Pound, salt, medium high heat, sear, turn, low heat, cover, 10 minutes, heat off, don't uncover, 10 more minutes, done. Steams/poaches in its own rendered liquid. Moist and delicious.
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Be careful ! The two weeks of campylobacter we had was right up there w dysentery. And this chicken was from a major purveyor of organic foods.
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If you have a Chinese restaurant or chinese roastery near you, you should try the soy sauce chicken or hainanese chicken. Even the chicken breast is moist and juicy. It's amazing!
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Or, we deserve a world with less water pollution, less climate change, and less cruelty. That would mean not eating chicken -is the planets future really worth moist chicken? Is polluted water worth moist chicken? Is contributing to repulsive cruelty worth moist chicken. You can't have both.
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Absolutely. Eat more beef, it tastes better and is better for the environment.
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Sous vide,
Infinite recipes available. Cook between 140oF and 150oF for an hour the pat dry and sear with your choice of far and herbs. Or add to your favorite recipe. No excuse for dry chicken any longer.
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@ Medium Rare Sushi Providence
Sorry, I would say the opposite: no excuse for moist chicken any longer, "extra crispy" is at the summit of all the tiring chicken preparations.
not over cooking chicken breast is key my brother is a serial offender on the grill.
there are two other way in which to keep the chicken
moist.
1. is to cook chicken a sauce.
2. is to use the chicken Maryland frying method.
which dredge in seasoned flour then pan fry at high temp 380f for 2-3min on both sides then cover the pan and steam at a lower temp of 320 for 10-12 min depending on size of piece chicken.
then cover with nice cream sauce.
either was
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Thank you David Tanis for another another clear & concise technique for making delicious, simple food.
I have used this basic technique at home and in restaurants for years ( I do add a little mustard..) to great success.
I like the chunky tapenade too.
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The key is 155 degrees Fahrenheit and it doesn't matter how you cook it as long as most of the chicken breast does not exceed that temperature.
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I'd like some authoritative advice on whether cooking to the "required" 165° **always** dries up chicken breast. My suspicion is that in order to completely eliminate the probability of catching salmonella, you have to dry out the chicken breast, and the safety experts don't want to tell you that. (Will try the olive tapenade recipe, however.)
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@Flâneuse my understanding is that safety is a function not just of temperature, but also of time. If you hold chicken at an internal temp as low as 130– but for a very long time —it will kill salmonella and other pathogens just as effectively as raising its internal temp to 165 for a very short time. I think that’s the principle with sous vide. I aim for 150 and let the meat rest as it come and up to 155.
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@Flâneuse I think the perfect internal temperature is 165 degrees for dark meat, 160 degrees for white. I've been cooking for my family and friends for 45 years, and no one has ever gotten sick.
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There's only one way that I can consistently not over/undercook chicken breast. Use chicken thighs!
No, just kidding, I always cook chicken breast in the sous vide. It just takes the guesswork out of it.
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Start with very good chicken breasts. Bone-in has more flavor and fat, but takes longer to cook. Either way, go with free range -- it is just more flavorful and richer with fat. I like to season with salt and pepper and then coat with a thin layer of olive oil. Then I grill it to 160 F, and I am obsessive with the thermometer!
Works every time.
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It also helps to buy high quality chicken. I buy Whole Foods Bell and Evans chicken. Vegetarian diet, no antibiotics or injections of water etc. The typical grocery store's chicken just can't compare.
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@Ricardo Spanks Even more critical is never frozen....never.
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Can someone comment on the rotisserie chicken thingy? I get it from a reliable source on occasion and it's just ridiculously good, and completely overcooked. The meat is fall off the bone. And chicken-fatty moist wonderful. And that thing went past 165 degrees, probably for a considerable amount of time.
But I prefer to cook at home and control the ingredients. I want an organic chicken, etc.
Is there a way to get the rotisserie chicken thing at home in a convention oven? Is it a low and slow roast? But the skin on a butcher rotisserie is also roasty-browned, so...??
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@Matthew - the way to prevent overcooked chicken (or of low-part parts that tend to go dry, such as pork loin) is to brine. The places specializing in rotisserie will typically use an injector, which ensures that the brine penetrates deep into the flesh.(Costco uses advance brining.) Read "Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling" by Meathead Goldwyn, which is the most authoritative book on this subject.
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@ PMN USA
I use a large hand-held syringe for injecting pheasants with dry white wine before baking.
Shall try the same with brine in a chicken.
But my favorite is "extra crispy" chicken, as it used to be served in Ketucky Fried Chicken.
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Thanks, will get out my 5-inch syringe:)
Is this recipe as good without the chicken?
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Lemon is key and allows for forgiveness of any slight overcooking. Poach in lemon/water, intermingle lemon slices between baking pieces, put slices or chunks in the cavity of a roaster (or broiler).
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Although I love the recipe of chicken paillards, it pains me to express my disappointment in Mr. Tanis's writing again about the ubiquitous chicken.