Blahhh Chicken! Help Please?

FindingAmy77

Great responses and great ideas. I'm sure a lot of it is my cooking method, I tend to over cook chicken in fear of poisoning my family LOL and I grew up on rawhide steaks and pork chop hockey pucks....I love you mom hahaha I will give some of these ideas a try and change things up. I love using my slow cooker in the winter months

just pick yourself up a meat thermometer. it works wonders for knowing the safe range of meat. practice makes perfect.

Tiabi

I found this online. It's not really a recipe but a cooking method. It makes my favorite texture of chicken -hands down. It's not chewy or rubbery at all.

Ingredients

• Chicken breasts (as many as you’ll need), pounded thin to about one inch
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 – 2 tbsp olive oil

Directions

1. Salt & pepper both sides of the chicken.
2. Heat a skillet that has a lid over medium-high heat.
3. Add enough olive oil to barely coat the bottom of your pan and allow to heat for a minute.
4. Add chicken breasts in a single layer. Cook for one minute, then turn them over.
5. Put the lid on the pan and turn the pan to low.
6. Cook for 10 minutes. Do not take the lid off the pan. At all.
7. Turn off the heat and leave the lid on the pan for another 10 minutes. Do not take the lid off the pan. At all.
8. After the second 10 minutes, take the lid off, check to make sure the chicken is cooked all the way through (no pink inside), and you’re done.

I also really like this recipe for lemon caper chicken breasts. The chicken texture is good, it's not too hard to prepare, and I've reduced the amount of butter it calls for with no problems:
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/lemon-chicken-breasts-capers.aspx

jeepgirl130

There's always the quick and easy standby of using shake n bake on your chicken....crispy or bar b q for approx. 20 minutes in the oven.


Light Chicken Fajitas

I prefer to marinate chicken breasts in 1 tbsp. olive oil, minced garlic and lime juice for at least two hours.
Grill chicken for 20 minutes
Grill halved red and green peppers
Grill halved onion with root attached so it doesn't fall apart on the grill
Grill 4 large Portobello mushroom caps

Serve chicken and veggies on mushroom cap without tortilla...Add light sour cream and salsa as desired. It's yummy!!

Kate7294

My new favorite is a walmart jerk seasoning marinade. I also make a healthy version of marsala chicken even my 16 yr. old son likes.
MccCormick? has some pretty good seasonings I sprinkle on and bake. I like the "Kicken chicken" and "Smokehouse maple".

JulieGirl58

The trick to moist wonderful chicken from the crockpot is to put the boneless breasts in frozen.

brewinggirl_butskinnier

I make them breaded/baked. I will coat in breadcrumbs (usually with spices added) and spray with Pam, then bake in the oven. I find the breadcrumbs stick fine but if they're not you can use an egg white for dipping. If they're not browning nicely I will turn on the broiler for a minute.

Then either put redhot sauce for buffalo chicken or marinara and a thin slice of provolone (and bake after...again with the broiler to make it bubbly).

ASH2038602

I like to cook chicken in the crockpot covered in water, and after that I shred it. It doesn't get dried out that way. I add lime and cilantro to the chicken for tacos or cool it and add greek yogurt, mustard, celery, onion, and some lime for chicken salad sandwiches/wraps. Sometimes I just add Franks wing sauce to the shredded chicken for sandwiches, wraps, or salad. You could also do BBQ sauce. My boyfriend hates chicken so I have to be creative lol.

Mygsds

One of our favorites. Eat warm or cold

I use boneless chicken breasts, use a brush and cover with sour cream lite, mixed with lemon juice and oregano... Roll in Panko bread crumbs mixed with Parmesan cheese.... Bake in a slightly oiled pan 375 till done. So good even the next day.

aNewYear123

Cut it up small and thin and stir fry it. I will also bake it with World Harbor Island Mango marinade or just with a light Italian dressing.

Make sure your chicken pieces are all about the same size so that you aren't overcooking some while under cooking others. If you overcook the chicken it won't taste good, so while you don't want any part of it uncooked - keep an eye on the time so it doesn't overcook.

srmchan

Great responses and great ideas. I'm sure a lot of it is my cooking method, I tend to over cook chicken in fear of poisoning my family

This is the beauty of sous vide cooking. With slow cooker, oven and similar traditional cooking approaches, you use a heat source higher than the target temperature to cook the food which requires more precise timing lest the food dry out. Moreover, you have to elevate the target temperature to meet the USDA guidelines for safe food temperatures.

Sous vide cooks at the target temperature. For instance, if I'm cooking a steak to medium-rare that target temperature is 135F, so I set my sous vide bath to 135F. Once the food reaches the target temperature, it stays there and doesn't go higher. Moreover, because you can hold a given temperature for a longer period of time, you can safely cook food at lower temperatures because the food is effectively pasteurized. I cook boneless skinless chicken breasts to ~145F for 30-60m when I sous vide, and it's safe to eat.

The tables at this link shows the pasteurization time required for safe food.

http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Government_Pasteurization_Tables

Sam

srmchan

just pick yourself up a meat thermometer. it works wonders for knowing the safe range of meat. practice makes perfect.

And this too. I always cook to temperature - not just time. A high quality, digital thermometer is imperative. I'll use an analog one that I leave in place to know when I'm in the approximate range and then verify with a precise digital thermometer once I'm close to done because "if you're looking, you ain't cooking". I have a ThermoWorks Thermapen and find it to be very accurate based on boiling water tests. It's in my top 5 of most-oft used kitchen tools; probably right behind my chef's knife and pepper grinder.

Sam

cindytw

My favorite chicken recipe is one I adapted from Lipton Recipe Secrets to not need the "Packets of sodium". Coat chicken breasts lightly in mayonnaise mixed with garlic, thyme, lemon pepper, whatever seasonings you really like. Sprinkle with a mixture of parmesan cheese and depending on your diet, almond meal or bread crumbs. Bake at 375 until browned and delicious! Never comes out dry, even if you totally overcook it!

MABoxall

1 - marinate in lemon and ginger. That really adds flavor.
2 - make moo goo gai pan. I stir fry with peapods and mushrooms. Add garlic.

Yum!

LianaG1115

I love most foods and I'm a pretty decent cook, however chicken is like my arch nemesis. I like chicken...when it's drowning in sauces and coatings so basically when it's prepared to be horrible for you. I want to be able to bake or use a slow cooker to make chicken and it be good for me but I always find it so bland and pasty/chewy. Would love to hear how you are prepping and cooking your chicken without a million ingredient expensive recipes Thanks!!

Marinade chicken breasts in Chiavetta's sauce for about a half hour and then grill, use some of the sauce on it while its grilling for more flavor!! OMG to die for!!!!

8Bee

bump for recipes

lmarshel

I think the trick to great chicken breast is pan searing. I use my All-Clad skillet, get it hot enough to smoke, add about a tablespoon of olive oil or canola oil and add the chicken breasts. The searing immediately locks in all the juicy goodness. Then I finish it in the oven at 400 degrees.

One of my favorite recipes is garlic chicken breasts. The only extra thing I add is some bloomed minced garlic. I bloom in the pan before adding chicken, remove garlic, add chicken, sear both sides. Right before chicken breasts are ready to go into the oven, spoon the bloomed garlic over each breast and finish in the oven. They spend about 15-20 minutes in the oven, depending on how thick they are. They don't need any other seasoning...perfect!

MississippiMama87

The trick to moist wonderful chicken from the crockpot is to put the boneless breasts in frozen.

What a great tip! Thank you!

forgivensins

Am I the only one that wraps it in foil and bakes it with the seasonings to keep it from drying out?

SweatLikeDog

Best easy one: Beer Chicken

4lbs of packaged chicken parts
1 large onion, 1 large bell pepper, 1 large tomato, 1 beer 12 oz, 1 bay leaf
small potatoes (Yukon, etc) x half pound

throw veggies (except potatoes) into blender until liquid & transfer to large pot, add beer, add 2 cups of water, add chicken, add potatoes, add bay leaf

heat to simmer, add salt, pepper, and your favorite spices, cover x 2 1/2 hours, serves 6+

mave34

Why do you feel like you need to eat chicken? Especially if you don't like it? There are plenty of other much healthier protein choices out there! For example, beans, quinoa, tempeh, tofu... You can substitute tofu really well in almost any chicken recipe!

I do like chicken, I didn't say I didn't I am just not good at cooking it I do prefer fish but I like a lot of food and a lot of meals with chicken in it. I just like to mix things up and if I can learn ways to cook chicken that I enjoy I would love to incorporate more into my diet.