7 Ways to Take Chicken Breasts From Boring to Brilliant
Fans of boneless, skinless chicken breasts love their leanness, quick cook time and mild flavor. But dissenters call that leanness a downside, making them quick to overcook, verging on dry and too mild — as in bland.
Both have a point: Breasts lack the fat of thighs, so they won't deliver as hearty a flavor or as hefty an insurance policy against rubberiness. But their quirks can be assets. Cook chicken breasts the right way and be rewarded with satisfying, juicy, fast and possibly caramel-crisp meat that might even sway dark-meat supporters.
Here are seven ways to make chicken breasts better than the last time you made them (or how you had them growing up, next to mushy cafeteria-tray peas and carrots). Carolina Gelen's miso-maple sheet-pan chicken with brussels sprouts. Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Chicken breasts are irregularly shaped, which means they're also easy to irregularly cook. By the time the round, thicker end is ready, the thin, tapered point might be tough. Avoid this problem by cutting the breasts into cubes or slices of roughly the same size so they all cook at the same rate. More sides mean more surface area to coat in a glaze: Cover cubed chicken in miso and maple for lots of caramelized edges. | Recipe: Miso-Maple Sheet-Pan Chicken With Brussels Sprouts
For charred, thoroughly spiced chicken fajitas without the grill, slice the breast, coat it in a chile-lime mixture and roast it at a high temperature. | Recipe: Chicken Fajitas
By the time the outsides of the small cubes are opaque, the insides will also be cooked through. | Recipe: Gong Bao Chicken With Peanuts Eric Kim's dry-brined chicken breasts. Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich.
An unadorned chicken breast can still be succulent: The secret is salt. A half-hour before dinner, sprinkle the breasts with salt, or submerge them in a saltwater solution. These processes, known as dry or wet brining, alter the protein structure to help the meat hold onto moisture for a more tender result. A salt brine keeps the juiciness already in meat from sizzling away during cooking, but adding spices gives it a better chance of flavoring the meat. | Recipe: Dry-Brined Chicken Breasts
In the oven, away from your watchful eye, chicken breasts can easily overcook. Safeguard them with wet brining, which plumps the meat with more liquid and compensates for any that may evaporate. | Recipe: Baked Chicken Breasts
Add yogurt to a saltwater brine. The lactic acid helps with moisture retention and imparts a touch of tang. | Recipe: Chicken Breasts With Miso-Garlic Sauce Jennifer Steinhauer's weeknight lemon chicken breasts with herbs. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
A lot of recipes recommend marinating chicken breasts before cooking, but then there's the gnarly process of shaking the chicken to get rid of the liquid, patting it dry and placing it in hot oil to sear — where the still-kind-of-wet chicken just mostly splatters. And the flavorful marinade goes down the drain.
Instead, marinate the chicken, then put the chicken and the marinade into the skillet. The liquid will protect the chicken from toughening and will reduce into a sauce for the chicken. (Fully boiling marinades for a few minutes will kill any bacteria.) On the stovetop, a marinade of orange juice, sazón and garlic can become a sticky, paprika-red glaze. | Recipe: Sazón Chicken Breasts
This chicken's bath of olive oil, lemon and white wine becomes a punchy pan sauce. | Recipe: Weeknight Lemon Chicken Breasts
For a speedy green masala chicken, marinate the breasts in store-bought chutneys and pastes, then pour the chicken and liquid into a skillet of softened onions and garlic. | Recipe: Green Masala Chicken Kia Damon's blackened chicken breasts. Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards.
A lot of chicken breast recipes will tell you to flip the meat halfway through cooking, but that can result in pale outsides and potentially dry insides. Instead, cook the chicken most of the way on the first side. The bottom will be pale, but nobody will notice when the tops are so nicely bronzed and crisp. This recipe prioritizes searing on the first side so a mix of Cajun-style spices can truly blacken before the chicken toughens. | Recipe: Blackened Chicken Breasts
This recipe trades high-heat stir-frying for browning a single layer of cubed chicken until a caramelized crust forms. | Recipe: Easy Kung Pao Chicken
Searing chicken breasts on mostly one side creates ample browned bits stuck to the bottom of the skillet. Then, when apple cider is poured in, the bits dislodge and add a savory depth to the resulting pan sauce. | Recipe: Apple Cider Chicken With Apples and Parsnips Kenji López-Alt's mayo-marinated chicken with chimichurri. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
Kenji López-Alt changed the chicken game when he recommended coating breasts in mayonnaise instead of oil before cooking them. Mayo carries flavor, doesn't drip, encourages browning and prevents any flavorings — like herbs or chopped garlic — from burning. Here, Kenji mixes herbs into mayonnaise before coating the chicken, so they sizzle but don't scorch. | Recipe: Mayo-Marinated Chicken With Chimichurri
For an easier time on the grill, coat chicken in Dijonnaise: The mayonnaise insulates and prevents sticking, and the mustard tenderizes and caramelizes. | Recipe: Dijonnaise Grilled Chicken Breasts
For crispy, breaded chicken cutlets with fewer dishes and mess, replace the flour and egg dredges with mayonnaise. | Recipe: Parmesan-Crusted Chicken Ali Slagle's rosemary-paprika chicken and fries. Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
Bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts are often cheaper than boneless, skinless counterparts, even though they come with extras. The bone and skin protect the delicate meat from high heat, and when simmered, can turn water into homemade chicken broth. When roasted or seared, the bones evenly distribute that heat across the meat, and the skin crisps. It's hard to say no to crispy chicken skin. Our best chicken salad starts with slipping bone-in, skin-on breasts into hot water, then turning off the heat. This gradual poaching method results in plush meat and a few pints of chicken stock for future you. | Recipe: Best Chicken Salad
For crispy-skinned meat and chicken fat-glossed fries all on one sheet pan, coat bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts with a lemony paprika mayonnaise (see Tip No. 5), then roast them skin-side-down most of the time (see Tip No. 4) alongside potatoes. | Recipe: Rosemary-Paprika Chicken and Fries
For Taiwanese instant ramen with more homemade flavor, all it takes is simmering bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts with water, ginger and rice cooking wine. | Recipe: Sesame-Ginger Chicken Noodle Soup Yewande Komolafe's muhammara chicken sandwiches. Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.
In her Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Emily Weinstein wrote that chicken breasts' 'mildness can be an asset: Think of white meat as a plush mattress you can blanket with interesting flavors and textures.' Sauces make good blankets, and can cover potential dryness and blandness. Add texture to poached-chicken sandwiches with muhammara, an earthy spread of roasted red peppers, walnuts and lemon. | Recipe: Muhammara Chicken Sandwiches
A grilled chicken breast in pita will be pretty dry, but adding a briny-fresh sauce of yogurt, olives, cucumbers and herbs solves that — and in a more exciting way than just having a glass of water. | Recipe: Grilled Chicken Pita With Yogurt Sauce and Arugula
Poaching chicken breasts on top of rice gently cooks the meat so it's silky-soft. Add verve with a sauce studded with raw chopped scallions, jalapeño and ginger. | Recipe: Chicken and Rice With Scallion-Ginger Sauce
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