Most efficient way to cook chicken

I bake them on a cookie sheet. Just sprinkle desired seasonings on and throw in the oven.

Bake them in the oven, or throw them on the grill. You can cook them in a slow cooker or pressure cooker too, but I find that I always over cook them that way.

George Foreman grill, salt & pepper, done somewhere around 8 minutes!

Sous vide! Keeps the chicken extremely moist with a perfect cook every time. Active prep time is generally minimal, but does usually need to cook in the Sous vide for about an hour, then most recipes usually recommend a quick sear after the meat has been cooked.

My usual methods are roasting or the slowcooker.

For roasting boneless skinless chicken breasts, I always marinate it first. I roast enough to last me 3 days and freeze the rest (still in its marinade). The meat comes out tasty and tender.

Most efficient is sous vide (temp controlled water bath). It's super easy to cook whole chicken breasts to a perfect degree of doneness in one go and then store directly in their cooking vessels for later reheating & use. The cooking itself is fairly set it and forget it, too. If you think you don't like boneless skinless breast, then try one that's been cooked via sous vide to a perfect 140F instead of the usual 160F. It's a totally different product.

Second most efficient would be stir frying small bite-sized pieces. Depending on your comfort slicing raw chicken, you can break down 3-4 skinless boneless breasts in only 5 minutes or so including clean up and stir fry that meat in a couple of batches in another 15 minutes. Easily enough for multiple meals and pretty versatile, too.

Slow cooker would be one of the easiest methods, but it usually results in fairly dry/powdery meat when cooking boneless/skinless breasts unless you add back some fat and/or another sauce. It can work, but you kind of have to understand the end result that you'll be working with (for example, I love the slow cooker to cook chicken for enchilada since the meat will ultimately be recooked with sauce, beans, corn, and cheese before filling the tortillas).

I don't know why anyone would eat boiled chicken unless it's in a soup.

Throw that *kitten* on the grill with a nice marinade.

aokoye wrote: »

I'm confused as to why sous vide would be efficient unless you're talking about active cooking time (as opposed to passive). Even then it isn't anymore efficient that a crockpot/slow cooker. Sure it tastes great, but efficient it is not.

Efficiency is a measure of 'bang for your buck' in terms of effort vs. result.

Even at a similar effort level, the quality of sous vide cooked meats is generally better than what you'll get out of a slow cooker. The end product is also more versatile.

That said, the fact that food to be cooked sous vide can be portioned into individual servings/bags before cooking and then refrigerated/frozen/reheated directly in those bags is a nice little kicker.

I think it depends on how you are going to use your chicken afterwards. If I am eating it independently(not combined into a recipe) then I wanted it roasted, sauteed or grilled. If I shred it or dice it to combine in a casserole then the crockpot or pressure cooker is the most convenient.

Annie_01 wrote: »

I think it depends on how you are going to use your chicken afterwards. If I am eating it independently(not combined into a recipe) then I wanted it roasted, sauteed or grilled. If I shred it or dice it to combine in a casserole then the crockpot or pressure cooker is the most convenient.

Agreed.

For a whole chicken, I'd roast (or for bone-in, skin-on pieces, more often than not).

I don't care for boneless, skinless breast that much, so will usually use it in a preparation. If I'm eating it right away I'd normally pan fry or sautee (or grill, if possible). For later use I'd cook in seasoned liquid (probably including some stock) in a slow cooker, and I've always found that comes out really juicy and versatile, but of course I'd just use it shredded on a salad or in a taco on with some other preparation.