Who else can’t make chicken to save your life?

Rsanfilippo3

Literally wasted 1 hour of my time and the chicken tastes terrible! Hard, over cooked, tough And I’m on the verge of a breakdown 🙄😒

Annie_01

Most people make the mistake of over cooking chicken. Try using a meat thermometer. You can also look up online how long to cook chicken. I saute a lot of cubed chicken and it only takes 5-8 minutes depending on the heat.

Also an instant pot is good for shredded chicken.

Sorry about your chicken and good luck when you try again.

vnylin

Bone in skin on chicken breasts.
Remove from package and pat dry. (I will make a small cut through the bone between the thick part of the breasts to let it lay flatter.)
Season the breasts liberally on all sides. I like to switch out spicy rubs with sweeter ones every other week depending on my mood. Salt and pepper will work fine.
Place seasoned chicken breasts bone side down on a foil covered cookie sheet with a rack on it, then place uncovered in refrigerator overnight. (dry brining)
Remove from fridge, and preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place chicken on center rack and roast for 1 hour or to an internal temp of 165.
Fini.

I do two whole breasts at at time on Sunday, then remove the meat from the bones and use the meat for my dinner wraps the rest of the week. Great moist flavorful chicken.

There is no help really for boneless skinless chicken breast.

purplefizzy

Boneless skinless makes me sorta sad.
Needs SO MUCH precision to get it right.

Boneless thighs I do better with, or roasted whole bird.

In all cases, I pull it early and tent with foil and rest it. Retains juices and avoids ‘dry chalky sad chicken.’

I knew someone once who BOILED chicken breasts. That made me shudder.

jls1leather9497

Chicken is 2 of the food groups, right?

Always bones and skinless. SO WAY easy to wash, sprinkle with lemon pepper and bake about 20-22 min at 325 deg. I also like it grilled, but too cold out there right now.

Want simpler and faster? Cut 1 breast into cubes, saute with chopped onion and fresh garlic in tbsp oil (olive or coconut) until its white. Add a can of black beans (I like bushs, drain the juice first). Add cumin, cardamom, and if you like a spice toss in a bit of cayenne pepper. Let it cook about 5 min med heat, fill wheat tortillas. Jalepeno on the side if ya like those ...
Low cal, high protein, high fiber ...

corrarjo

vnylin wrote: »

There is no help really for boneless skinless chicken breast.

Here's how I do it.

Boneless, skinless breast: Slice the breast so it is a uniform thickness, about 3/4 to 1 inch. Season on both sides. I use salt, pepper and garlic powder. Heat some olive oil in a skillet on medium high. The chicken should sizzle when you place it in the pan. Sear on both sides and cook about 3 to 5 minutes per side, depending on thickness. It will come out loaded with moisture. Over cook and it will be tough. You can eat this as a meal with a couple side dishes, or shred in into a tossed salad, or make a sandwich.

Bone in, skin on thighs: Pre heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat the thighs with olive oil and season on all sides to taste. You can put two slices to the bone on each thigh to let the seasoning penetrate. Place on a baking sheet skin side up and throw into the oven for 30 minutes. At this point, add some veggies if you like, seasoned to taste. I stick with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Cook for another 30 - 35 minutes. The meat should be tender and juicy, and the skin crispy.

corrarjo

I just did it.

hroderick

Boneless skinless breast is what my wife wants but they taste like cardboard if cooked as-is. Get a meat tenderizing hammer to flatten them out, get the hang of how much to hammer with trial and error but don't beat them into ground chicken. This helps them soak in whatever dry or wet flavors you're cooking with plus makes a flat steak shape that cooks fast and evenly or stuffed or cut into bite size pieces. Hammer on a cutting board in bottom of sink to catch splatters.

corrarjo

Chicken! It's what's for dinner. Doesn't get any juicier than this.

musicfan68

I have never had a problem with overcooked chicken. I grill the majority of mine on my George Foreman grill, mostly boneless, skinless breasts, and they are always juicy. Just cook them for a shorter amount of time, like probably a minute or two less.

jroslyn

Rsanfilippo3 wrote: »

Literally wasted 1 hour of my time and the chicken tastes terrible! Hard, over cooked, tough And I’m on the verge of a breakdown 🙄😒

Oh, you poor thing! Don't let it get to you--we all have bad cooking days. Yes, I have had many cardboard chickens, but it isn't hopeless!

This is the best way I've found for doing boneless/skinless (which I mostly do when adding to something else, like a salad or beans & rice--otherwise it's too blah--and I usually do thighs instead of breasts as they're more flavorful): https://thekitchn.com/how-to-cook-moist-tender-chicken-breasts-every-time-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-36891

Otherwise I usually do whole roast chicken--which I generally do the lazy way, just sticking it in a 325-degree oven in a cast iron pan on a bed of cut-up onions and carrots and letting it cook till it's nearly falling off the bone.

acpgee

instant read meat thermometer costs about $10 and takes about as much room to store as an extra fork. Cook chicken to 72 degrees celsius internal temperature.

puffbrat

Another vote for a digital meat thermometer. Cook it so that the middle of the thickest part of the chicken is at 165 degrees F.

I am terrible at pan frying chicken. I never cut it thin enough and it takes too long to cook so most of it turns out tough and dry. But cooking it in the oven or on the grill is easy with the thermometer.

swirlybee

corrarjo wrote: »

vnylin wrote: »

There is no help really for boneless skinless chicken breast.

Here's how I do it.

Boneless, skinless breast: Slice the breast so it is a uniform thickness, about 3/4 to 1 inch. Season on both sides. I use salt, pepper and garlic powder. Heat some olive oil in a skillet on medium high. The chicken should sizzle when you place it in the pan. Sear on both sides and cook about 3 to 5 minutes per side, depending on thickness. It will come out loaded with moisture. Over cook and it will be tough. You can eat this as a meal with a couple side dishes, or shred in into a tossed salad, or make a sandwich.

This. This is exactly how it should be done.

shunggie

There are a lot of excellent suggestions here but I'm a big fan of crock potting chicken. Boneless, skinless or boned and skinned. Last night a couple of boneless/skinless with a jar of low sodium enchilada sauce and an onion/seasonings - YUMMY!

cwolfman13

Boneless/skinless chicken breast sucks. It's easy to over cook it and certainly an hour would do that. Even if cooked right, it's pretty flavorless. I can't remember the last time I had one personally...we usually do boneless/skinless chicken thighs and they are much better.

InsertFunnyUsernameHere

Just buy the whole roasted chickens at your local supermarket. They are basically the same cost as an uncooked chicken. Very convenient.

https://www.thedailymeal.com/cook/supermarket-rotisserie-chicken-recipes

ritzvin

vnylin wrote: »

There is no help really for boneless skinless chicken breast.

bwahaha. For that you either need to do a moist cooking method (save it for soup, stew, instant pot shredded chicken, etc), or almost verge on under-cooking it in the frying pan (I slice it somewhat thin and it's on there a very short amount of time - the result is pretty good). Definitely not something you can do in the oven unless it's completely covered with some liquid/sauce.

For a whole bird, those baggies work wonders for keeping it moist, although you won't have crispy skin if its in there the entire time. And ditto on a meat thermometer - I never ever tried roasting a bird in the oven without 1 (well, 2 of them to be honest)-- I knew it would definitely be a disaster without. Also, ditto on just picking up a rotisserie chicken from the store if they have them (cheaper than a raw chicken at most of the places around here, and done perfectly and nearly 100% of the meat pulls right off the bone with no effort - no waste or boiling the carcass into soup to get the rest of the meat)..no need to prove my (lack of) cooking prowess.

COGypsy

Another vote for grocery store rotisserie chicken. Anything else is pretty much wasted kitchen time.

acpgee

I only use boneless skinless chicken breast for stir fries. Dice up the chicken thinly against the grain, and dry brine and protect by shaking it with some salt and corn starch and potato starch. The salt breaks down proteins to tenderize and the starch forms a protective barrier so that the meat browns without overcooking. Only do the starch step if you have a really good non stick pan, as scraping off the baked on starch is otherwise a nightmare. I use a stone coated pan. Salting several hour in advance or even overnight does help a lot.

lilithsrose

Always use a food thermometer when cooking chicken. Its so easy to overcook, especially if you're using chicken breasts.

I also agree with the above comments about just buying a rotisserie chicken if you want a whole chicken. You can even use the leftover bones to make a good stock. Honestly, the difference in price for a pre-cooked chicken versus doing it yourself is very little.

Dandylines

Keep looking for good recipes and keep trying. Check out UTube and other free on line recipes. I make chicken breasts in a pan - medium heat with a little olive oil and simmered so they do not dry out and add one of several spice blends I have on hand. We like a pineapple curry spice blend or add a little Italian herbs. I also have a blend for tandoori chicken and add a little yogurt (less than 1 tb. in each portion.) Lots and lots of other possibilities.

purplefizzy

COGypsy wrote: »

Another vote for grocery store rotisserie chicken. Anything else is pretty much wasted kitchen time.

I used to to subscribe to this philosophy when time-pressed.
Then I started reading labels a bit closer, and realized that my beloved birds were ‘injected with up to 12% of a solution of blablabla’ - All things that were NOT chicken.
These days I stay away needle-enhanced meal at a general rule. Conventional farming makes that difficult so I do pasture raised whenever possible.

That all said: we pick our battles. Rotisserie is a time-saving option that is likely to correlate with better health markers than chicken nugget-type options, is more palatable then poorly prepared chx breasts, and far more versatile.

tarcotti

I didn't read anything else here so excuse me if this is repeated. If your chicken is hard and not moist you are simply overcooking it. Ya know what is full proof is just putting it in the crock pot for a few hours! Always moist, and so easy. You can google it to see how long to do it for and what temp.

tuddy315

purplefizzy wrote: »

Boneless skinless makes me sorta sad.

I knew someone once who BOILED chicken breasts. That made me shudder.

Actually, there is nothing wrong with this. I simmer chicken breasts on the stove top all the time. Then shred the meat with a fork to use in soups or baked Mexican dishes. It also gives me the chicken stock I need for soups without all the added salt from canned stocks.

corrarjo

160 excellent chicken recipes, with videos.

Right click and open in a new tab or window.
FoodWishes.com with Chef John

Carol_L

Two words: Immersion Circulater (or Sous-Vide if you want to get technical).

Take a frozen chicken breast, some fresh herbs and seal them in a zip lock back, making sure you get all of the air out before sealing (straws work well for this)

Attach your immersion circulater to the side of a large pot and add hot water. Set temperature to 144 degrees and set the timer for 1.5 hours and drop bagged chicken into pot.

Go for a walk, prep your vegetables/sides, set table.

Remove perfectly done, juicy chicken breast, saving the stock in the bag for soups or other cooking.

whatalazyidiot

Omg me. I use a thermometer, stop it immediately at 165 and still manage to ruin it like 90% of the time. I get rotisserie's from the grocery store usually, but even those are only meh. After like the first day, it gets dry and weird.

JohnnytotheB

When I ate chicken I would slice it into 1/4 inch medallions and cook it in butter. The butter lent a nice flavor and the smaller portions cooked quicker and you could easily tell when it was done!

jgnatca

Here are my best recipes. Guaranteed tender.

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/perfect-pan-roasted-chicken-thighs

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/chicken-schnitzel

https://pin.it/akaci4ok645hti

acpgee

If you are roasting a whole chicken, spatchcock it by cutting down the backbown with poultry shears or a strong pair of regular scissors. Spread the chicken out on the roasting tin and press down with your palm on the breast to flatten it. In my experience spathcocking is the only way to roast a whole chicken so that the breasts and legs are done at the same time.

This technique makes use of the fact that in conventional oven, it is hotter on the perimeter (where the legs are) than the centre (where the breasts are). If I don't spatchcock, I always end up with overcooked breasts if I roast until the legs are done.