The Juiciest Stove Top Chicken Breasts - An Easy Chicken Recipe! (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to juicy chicken breast? ›

Consider brining your chicken breasts before baking. Soak them in a solution of salt and water for about 30 minutes to an hour. This helps the chicken retain moisture during the baking process, resulting in juicier and more tender meat.

The best tenderizer though, is a salted yogurt marinade. The salt has the same effect as in a regular brine, but the lactic acid in the yogurt further tenderizes the meat. A 15-minute marinade with one cup of yogurt and one teaspoon of salt makes for the most tender chicken breasts imaginable.

If you're baking it, keep it covered with a baking sheet or with the pan-top for about 80% of the total baking time, uncover it only when the breast is cooked and tender but there's juices in the pan. Once uncovered, the juices will evaporate quickly in the oven, and you'll have a juicy chicken breast to eat.

Add a touch of spice to your chicken breast by combining paprika, cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, ginger, garlic and olive oil to create a paste. Then cover your chicken breast with the paste and pat down to secure.

Marinate them.

If you're cooking chicken breasts without skin or fat, infuse them with some extra flavor and liquid to keep them tender. Choose your favorite marinade and throw them in a ziploc bag with the marinade. Marinate them overnight before grilling, baking, or searing. The difference is uncanny.

When chicken is covered while baking, it traps steam and moisture within the dish, resulting in juicier results. The covering helps prevent excessive evaporation and keeps the chicken moist throughout the cooking process. Preventing dryness. Chicken tends to dry out more quickly when exposed to direct heat.

Low and slow cooking methods like braising, stewing, or smoking are most effective when trying to create tender, succulent chicken.

We recommend marinating your chicken in buttermilk or yogurt overnight, but if it's urgent, then an hour will do. However, the texture of the chicken won't be as even as chicken marinated overnight. The process is simple: you only have to immerse the chicken in a container with enough yogurt or buttermilk and seal it.

Yes, chicken breast can become softer the longer you cook it, especially if you cook it using moist heat methods such as braising or stewing. These methods allow the collagen in the meat to break down, resulting in a more tender texture.

How long does it take to cook chicken in a frying pan? ›

Pan-fried chicken breast recipe

2. Heat the oil in a frying pan then add the chicken breasts (skin-side down, if they have skin) and cook for 2-3 minutes or until browned. Then turn over, cover and cook on the other side for 7-8 minutes or until cooked through.

"Washing can spread germs from the chicken to other food or utensils in the kitchen." We didn't mean to get you all hot about not washing your chicken! But it's true: kill germs by cooking chicken thoroughly, not washing it. You shouldn't wash any poultry, meat, or eggs before cooking.

In addition, chicken breast has less fat and can become dry (chewy or rubbery) if cooked for too long. Without moisture, the protein fibers in the chicken become elastic. Included with each meal is a set of instructions to help you cook the meals.

Restaurants use marinades made from a combination of acidic ingredients (such as vinegar, citrus juice, or yogurt) and flavorful herbs and spices. The acid in the marinade helps to break down the proteins in the chicken, making it more tender.

The baking soda helps tenderize the chicken breast, the oil seals the moisture to keep the chicken tender, and the starch forms a thin crisp crust when stir-frying in a hot wok. You won't taste the baking soda in the marinade, so no need to rinse and dry the meat.

You're Overcooking Them

This is likely the most common mistake cooks make when it comes to chicken breasts. Of course, nobody wants a medium-rare chicken breast, but sometimes in an effort to fully cook our chicken breasts, we unintentionally overcook them. The result? An unpleasantly dry, chalky texture.