7 Tricks for Juicy Chicken Every Time (No More Dry Chicken!) | Allrecipes

I've got seven ways to show you how to cook a boneless skinless chicken breast without drying it out. Some key points to remember when it comes to cooking boneless skinless chicken breast are that they're super lean so you're going to have to incorporate some fat in some way or gently cook it so that it doesn't dry out. Because it doesn't have the fat in it to keep it moist inside you have to know what you're doing so I'm here to teach you that. I'm going to start with when you want to get a chicken breast straight up that's when you want to incorporate flavor you want to see caramelization and that's what we're going to do. I'm going to start with my favorite way to cook a chicken breast which I like to call the restaurant way because this is the way I learned how to cook them when I worked in a restaurant. I think this is the way chefs do it because it's just smart it's fast and it works every time. I'm going to do a little garlic powder and onion powder. So I season one side and then I season the other side when we get it in the pan. I don't always buy organic but when I'm buying chicken I generally do because you find that the chicken is just a little more like natural looking. It doesn't they're not these big huge chicken breasts where it's like really thick on one end and really thin on the other. So you're going to start on the stove and finish in the oven and you want to have your oven set to 375. Get your skillet hot. The first step in achieving flavor to just plain boneless skinless chicken breast is to get some caramelization because color equals flavor. I'm just going in with a little olive oil. Season side down first. I'm going to cook it undisturbed until it releases easily from the pan and while it's down I'll season the other side. Don't rush the step. It will tell you when it's ready. If it sticks a little bit it's not ready. You'll also know it's about ready when you see that it's starting to cook along the sides. If you can't see anything happening it's not ready. You want to try to get as much surface browned as you can. Okay it's releasing pretty easily so I'm going to go ahead and flip it. So we've started to develop some flavor along the bottom of the pan. We want to release that because the juice at the end is going to help make this end product perfect. You can do that with just a little bit of water. You can use some remnants of chicken broth if you have any in your fridge or my personal favorite a little bit of white wine and you can turn off the heat and put this pan straight into the oven. The moisture is going to help it just kind of steam and cook a little bit more evenly instead of just really hot on the outside because a lot of problems people have when it comes to cooking plain chicken is that they're cooking it so fast on the outside that the inside doesn't get cooked and then the outside's dried out. So this is good insurance. All right depending on the size of your chicken breast 15 to 20 minutes in the oven these should be perfect. Now with all of these you have to let this rest for about 5 to 10 minutes but you can already tell the liquid gold the deliciousness that has formed at the bottom. That is from the natural juices of the chicken mixing in with a little of that wine. All right when it's time to cut into the chicken another thing to remember is you want to go against the grain so you look which way the fibers are kind of running and then you want to cut against that. They're not always running straight down so if you cut this it might be a little too chewy. Looks to me like they're going a little bit this direction so I'm going to do a little more on a bias cut. Like butter, tender, juicy. Look at that. I mean look how easy this cuts. Literally I'm using like hardly any force. It's the knife is just sliding right through it and there's flavor. There's flavor in that chicken breast. The perfect chicken breast. One and done. So good. This next method my boss sent me because he wanted me to try it out. This one was found on TikTok. The lady that made it said she learned it from a chef so very similar to the other way although this one does not finish in the oven it finishes on the stove. Season it however you like. Sear it just like we did in a little olive oil and you let it sit for five minutes. You don't touch it. When the five minutes is up you flip it and you add in one cup of water or chicken stock and cover the pan. It said two to four minutes based on what kind of pan you're using. A thicker metal pan like four minutes. This is a thinner one so probably closer to two minutes so I will set two minute timer. Heat off. Set 15 minute timer. 15 minutes is up. Oh looks good. Okay so I look for which way the fibers are running. These are running a little more straight down so I'm gonna go a little more straight across. It works. I was a little skeptical that it might not cook all the way through just sitting there but it is also tender, juicy. That works just as well. Pan seared. Chef instructed. Looks like they know what they're talking about. Might be slightly less tender but still better than just boiling it to death. Okay that works. Another way for flavorful chicken in the air fryer. This incorporates so much flavor because it caramelizes the outside. We get a lot of that like almost grilled flavor but in a really fast method. First step is to season. I really like a marinated chicken going in there but I'm just going to do a simple seasoning but to help that seasoning stick and to add moisture adding in a little fat. So I'm gonna coat it with some oil. Toss that around. Dang I wish I wouldn't have touched it. I should have used the tongs. Now I'm gonna wash my hands again. Lemon pepper. Some Cajun seasoning. Maybe a little paprika to help with color. In my marinades I like adding something kind of sweet in here also so that it you know caramelizes those sugars in there. Okay I'm gonna give it a toss in here and then let it sit for just like about three to five minutes while I preheat the air fryer. I like to preheat the air fryer even though they say that is not required. I just think you get better results. If I'm trying to crisp things a lot then I always go 400 or if yours goes higher I always choose a higher temperature but chicken is the exception to me. I usually do 360 or 375. Even though we have a little fat on there I still like to spray the basket and then in we go. Now you're going to want to flip these halfway through. Even though air circulates all around it still cooks you know a little unevenly on either side and you want both sides to be beautiful. You want to go 16 to 18 minutes flipping halfway through. You know the drill though unfortunately we got to let it rest. Okay air fryer how did you do? Looks pretty good. I'm really getting my protein in today guys. I don't know how it does it. It really gives you kind of that grill flavored experience and I just love that so much. That's packed with flavor which is what I love. It's also probably the easiest because it really doesn't require any babysitting other than one little flip in the air fryer. So for the ease factor and flavor winner winner chicken dinner on the grill. This one I think intimidates a lot of people because again it's hard about timing and getting it cooked on the outside with caramelization with the inside not being raw. A couple key things to remember when it comes to chicken breast on the grill. I think these are the most you know important things. The first is to make a more even piece of chicken. You've always got this thin end down here and a fatter end so what happens on the grill is you're waiting on the fatter end to cook and by then the thinner end is all dried out like beef jerky. If you're using a plastic cutting board you can just put one piece of plastic on top otherwise you can put one on the bottom one on the top and you just want to use a rolling pin or a mallet or a skillet and you want to kind of pound the fatter end. It doesn't have to be as thin as that end but you want to you know even out the plate and fill a little bit. So this increases the surface area. It looks like you have a bigger piece of chicken and it will cook more evenly. See how much better that is? Second key point when it comes to grilling your chicken breast is to marinate them. Don't just season it and put on the grill. It's just not gonna be good. It's lemon juice. When you're using lemon juice though this isn't a marinade you want to do like the night before because it starts to cook the chicken. A little olive oil. A little oregano. They use seasoned salt. I'm just going to do a little more Cajun seasoning. A little bit of honey. Whenever you're creating the marinade, we've talked about this before, you want flavorings. You want an acid. You want a fat and you want something sweet. Okay I always love to marinate in a plastic bag because I think it happens faster because there's less air than just putting it like in a casserole dish. So I like to just kind of mix it in there and then toss your meat or whatever in. Contrary to how I cook steaks with chicken, I'm a flipper. So I do like to sear it on the first side and then I start flipping but then I kind of flip throughout as necessary. What I think is important is to start with the grill hot so that you get those good grill marks and then turn it down. That way you can control it and go a little lower and slower to mimic the process that happened in the oven. Look at that juicy grilled chicken with beautiful grill marks. Let's see how we did. Juicy. See the juice? Flavorful because you can look at it and see the flavor. When color equals flavor this one's the winner. Now when a recipe calls for cooked chicken you don't have to run to the store and just pick up a rotisserie. These are the best ways to do it and it's not boiling them to death in water. Although I am going to show you a water method. My favorite way to cook chicken when a recipe calls for cooked chicken is this way. Stick your chicken straight into a casserole dish. You can do this with as few or as many pieces as you want. I also do this with chicken thighs if I'm doing my gumbo or something like that. I'll do a little salt and I mean I only do just one side. A little garlic powder, greek seasoning, whatever you want to do. I don't add any liquid here or anything. Cover it tightly with foil. I like to do it a little lower and slower so I go 325 for about 50 to 60 minutes. It'll be perfect. See remember we didn't put any liquid in there. It made its own but you gotta let it sit. You just gotta let it do its thing. About 20 minutes. It's perfectly tender. Look juicy. How do it taste? That's the way. This makes the best chicken salad right here and then when you're making your chicken salad just a little side tip. Use a little bit of that flavorful juice right there. It's a secret people don't know about. Just a little bit. Okay that slices nicely and you can also shred it however you want to do it. Whether you want diced or shredded you've got to try this oven method. Do you need shredded cooked chicken? Best way to do that? A crock pot. I've been wanting to show you all this method. You've heard me say it in other episodes but people overcook it in this crock pot. Don't do that. Don't do it. Chicken thighs are really the way to go because they really don't overcook but there are so many recipes that are like put your chicken breast in here and cook it for eight hours. Sure if you want to choke. There is just a tiny little formula. It's put the chicken in. Season it however you want. The only thing I would say is to add some sort just a tiny bit of liquid or a sauce of choice. It's going to help the process. So I'm going to do like just a little salt and pepper. A little garlic powder. You could do something like an enchilada sauce. You could do a tomato sauce. You could do a and I've got like half a jar of salsa. So I'm going to add that. Okay and that's it. You don't have to add veggies. You don't have to add quarts of liquid or anything like that. Just a little sauce and seasoning and let it go. Now listen when it comes to the cook time don't overdo it. If you're going to be gone for a longer period of time then go low but five hours would be the absolute tops. I think it's more like four to four and a half. I like to go high for two to two and a half hours and it's going to be perfect. It's going to be juicy and it's still going to shred. It's been two hours and 20 minutes. Let's see. Will it shred? Yes. Is it cooked? Yes. I could have stopped 15 minutes ago. What's good about doing crock pot chicken is that you usually put it back in and let it reabsorb all of that liquid in there. So at the end of the day you get juicy saucy chicken for whatever you need it for. So next time you need cooked shredded chicken and you don't want to babysit at all put it in the crock pot. Gone are the days when you boil your chicken. You never should boil your chicken. I know people say boil but really they just mean like simmer or poach and that's what we're going to do. This is the perfectly poached chicken. To be honest I have never done this way but it is so intriguing that I have to try it. So you can flavor your water however you want. I'm going to go kind of classic okay just like onion, celery, carrot, little garlic. So we're going to get our liquid going. I am starting with water and you want enough to cover the chicken completely by like an inch or two. Going in with my flavorings. Some garlic. Toss that in. And then salt and pepper. We're not going to just drop the chicken in right now. We're going to bring this to a boil so that all those flavors can kind of infuse as the water heats up. I always have like a little chicken broth left over from whatever project I was doing. You can toss that in there. Enhance the water. So now I'll just bring that up. Kind of like tea. We're like slowly infusing that water and it smells so good. This is like the smell like when you were sick and your mom would make chicken soup. Okay so here's where the method comes in. Your water is boiling. Yes. We're going to put the chicken in and then we're going to bring that water just to a boil. As soon as it comes to a boil turn off the heat, cover it, and let it sit for 15 minutes. All right my bubbles are starting to come back so it's reaching that boiling temperature. Cover it and then turn off the heat. Set timer 15 minutes. 15 minutes starting now. Okay 15 minutes is up. Will it be cooked through and tender and juicy? This is a two-for-one special. Now you have chicken broth that you can use for something else. Oh that smells good. Now this one you can decide if you want to shred it or slice it you know or dice it depending on what you're making. Let me first see how it tastes. I am going to make a bowl of chicken salad with this. Whoa it works. Let me see if it shreds. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So you can decide however you want to serve it up. Do not boil your chicken. You have all the tools you need to serve up tender, juicy, flavorful chicken breast. If there's any other kitchen tips you would like to know more about let me know in the comments. See you next time.