How do you cook chicken breasts for maximum tenderness?

[babylonsister]

We have two MX restaurants we frequent. One has the BEST, most tender breasts while the other place serves chicken that's not tender at all, rather tough (but closer). Do you think the better place poaches the chicken, or does something else? Could it be a better quality breast? I guess I should ask them, but welcome your thoughts.

[NMDemDist2]

1. a gal I knew who made absolutely killer enchildas told me she boiled

them with onion and garlic, then shredded and rolled

[SoCalDem]

2. pressure cooking retains the moisture and tenderizes too

and it's easy-peasy:)

I pressure cook a lot..

it's great for cooking the pork I put in my egg rolls :)

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

3. Maybe they brine them?

Also, poaching works well, but you want to make sure that the liquid stays at a simmer.

What do you eat the boobs in? Tacos or enchiladas or plain?

[babylonsister]

7. The boobs...

:rofl: I'm thinkin', what the hell are you talking about? Color me slow-w-w, like poaching! :blush:

[NMDemDist2]

8. when I was a waitron we just to call em "Chicken Tits"

:blush:

[wildeyed]

4. I brine mine before grilling.

Very tender, provided I don't overcook them. If I overcook, they come out stringy no matter what.

[NMDemDist2]

5. grilling huh?

you sure took to that like a duck to water huh? :rofl:

is the ktichen done done??

:hi:

[wildeyed]

6. Yes, almost completely, and I have photos.

Just not on photobucket yet. But tonight, I will post, I swear!

[babylonsister]

9. So poaching and brining are the same, but you add lots of salt to

the brine? It's all about boiling, or simmering slowly?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

10. Brining is when you let them sit in a salt water solution

overnight & then cook them.

Simmering would be when you cook them in chicken broth/veggie mix until done.

[babylonsister]

11. Thanks for clarifying that! Question because I'm admittedly

clueless: you cook chicken boobs in chicken broth (adding all that salt, right?), and what's the veggie mix composed of?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

13. For chicken boobs, mix like 1/4 cup sugar & 1/4 cup kosher salt

with maybe a quart of water. Let it boil to disolve the sugar/salt & let it cool to room temp. Put the boobs in & let them sit for a couple of hours in the refrigerator. Before you cook them, rinse in cold water. Then cook according to what ever recipe you're using.
(Hopefully someone will jump in if my amounts are off. I've only done turkey that way.)

For simmering:

You can either use water or canned chicken broth. Cut up an onion, add a stalk of roughly chopped celery, some whole peppercorns & kosher salt. You can also add a couple of sprigs of Italian parsley & a bay leaf or two. Put the boobs in the saucepan then add water to cover. Simmer slowly & remove the scum as it floats to the surface. I've forgotten how long it will take to cook. Maybe 20 minutes? I just usually cut into one to make sure. Then shred or dice the chicken for whatever recipe you're using it in.

[babylonsister]

16. I'm bookmarking this thread! I'm learning so much-thanks! nt

[babylonsister]

12. And while I'm at it, how do you prepare breasts for chick parm?

Do you egg/flour/bread/cook in oil, or are there better alternatives out there?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

14. I've never made that, but one suggestion I have is to

flatten them out a bit. Either with a heavy pan (put the boobs between waxed paper) or a special meat flattener. (Have no idea what the thing is called, but I'll never give it up). Boobs are uneven & if you cook until the thick side is done, the thin side is overcooked. If you cook until the thin side is just right, the thick side is still raw in the center.

[babylonsister]

15. I have one of those flatteners! I think it's called a tenderizer.

Yes, beating the hell out of a piece of chicken sounds downright therapeutic! So you concur with the egg/flour/bread crumb combo?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

17. A tenderizer! Good job.

But don't use one that has the points. I think that's for using to make chicken fried steak or whatever. Use the flat side.

Okay, I would probably google if I was you. I think egg/flour-seasoned/bread crumb combo might be good. Or, the bread crumb might be too much on top of the flour. Also, I know when I do fried chicken it is sooo much better if I let the chicken pieces sit after I've dredged them.

Give me a few minutes & I'll dig out my old Joy of Cooking. I'll bet there's a recipe in there.

:hi:

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

18. Who woulda thunk that finding a recipe for Chicken Parmesagna

would be such a challenge. I've looked through a half a dozen cookbooks & can't find one. All I can find is Breast of Chicken in Parmesan Cream. I don't think that's what you're looking for, though it sounds great.

Sorry. I'll look more tomorrow.

[babylonsister]

19. Thank you, wakemeupwhenitsover. I'll find something and haven't

even attempted it yet. I appreciate your efforts, and advice!

[babylonsister]

25. Just for you:

http://web.foodnetwork.com/food/web/searchResults?searchString=chicken+parmesan&site=food&gosearch.x=16&gosearch.y=15&searchType=Recipe

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

27. Thanks for the link. I just figured out why I couldn't find a

recipe. I was looking in my older cookbooks since Chicken Parmasagna is an old dish. Veal Parmasagna is an old dish. Well, duh! Chicken Parmasagna is probably an update since veal is hard to find, expensive & not very PC.

:hi:

Oh, yes, overcooking chicken makes it turn to stringy, tough yuck.

[Tab]

20. I have, over the years, gotten quite good at cooking chicken

First, pick the right chicken breasts. Do NOT buy that Purdue shit. Those breasts are fat, yes, but they're tough, despite what Frank claimed (or maybe he was right, but he just wasn't tough enough).

I prefer the non-name brand breasts, which look smaller, but are actually more real, and not artificially huge. Frankly, the preference extends to other species as well, but I digress.

Sometimes I brine. I went through a brining phase a few years ago and have nothing but praise for it, as long as you do it right. If you overdo it, the chicken comes out like some kind of chicken ham. But if you do it well, and it takes a few tries, you're well rewarded.

Mainly, though, I just grill them. I have a particular Tequila/Lima "marinade" that I coat it with (I don't actually marinate it) and grill it. The sauce has sugar in it, so one thing you have to be careful about is how you grill it. The stuff will burn. Unlike beef, which I typically turn only once, I keep a hot grill but turn the chicken more often.

Second trick is to fold up the breast so it's equal thickness when you place it on the grill. Typically this is nothing more than folding the short tail under (making it not quite so long) and pressing in on the sides as you place it on the grill, thus making it slightly higher and more rectangularly thick. I only do this when I first put it on - after that, there's not much point in repeatedly plumping it.

Finally, and this is the hardest to get right, and yet the most important, is, don't overcook. Undercook it by about 5 degress (to 160 degrees with an instant thermometer). Take it off and let it rest for 5 mins. It will rise in internal temp, and redistribute the juices.

If you get good enough at it, you can tell by the way the breast flexes as to how done it is, and you won't even need the thermometer any more. That said, it took me years to get to that point, and still if I have any doubts, I don't hesitate to put the t-meter in.

I would also comment that since things like Purdue breasts are bigger, they come off as flexing tougher, making it harder to gauge doneness.

Most roasters with the little pop-up thingie have it go off at at least 180 degrees. I suspect this is more for safety and liability reasons, because you see the same ones on all sizes of roasters (though I understand we're talking about breasts). The point is that although cooking to at least 180 degrees before it pops, and maybe another 10 degrees before you notice it, and another 10 degrees while it self-cooks after you remove it will, in fact, result in a fully cooked chicken, it also results in one that is way the f' overcooked, tough, and stringy (an affect of overheating the protein strands).

If you cook to 160, remove, and let it sit so it rises to 165, you are rewarded with a juicy tender chicken.

For other techniques, there's the slow-cooker, which is a different approach in itself. Your mex restaurants might have a lot of breasts on juicy slow-cooking. But here's a radical thought - why not just ask them? Go at a slow time of the day to the one you love the most, order the food, eat some or all of it, ask the waitress if the cook has a second to talk to her - chances are (s)he'll come out, praise it honestly to the high heaven and say that for the life of you, you can't do this kind of chicken at home, and you were wondering what they do.

As it's a complement, they'll respond in one of two ways. It might be that they'll smile and say the Mexican equivalent of "Ancient Chinese Secret", but most likely they'll be honored and tell you at least the technique and possibly more than you dared dream.

Try it.

And report back.

[wildeyed]

24. I agree with you about not overcooking.

The biggest problem I have there is that most of my friends and extended family have been trained to overcook to avoid food poisoning and get really squirrelly with me if I try to cook their chicken properly. I try pointing out that the chicken is perfectly safe and properly cooked according to the thermometer, and still delicious and juicy, but they always want it more done "just in case" and because that is what they are used to. Sheesh, try to feed people properly and they act like you are trying to poison them....

[midnight armadillo]

26. I think we have the same friends and family

My wife's and in-law's idea of cooked chicken is a hard piece of white rubber. Just in case you know. 25 minutes on the grill with the top down, just in case. White all the way through? Better cook it another 10 minutes, just in case. argh!

[wildeyed]

28. Don't even get me started on the atrocities they commit on fish.

They tried to cook salmon on the grill once. Completely inedible, like pink erasers or something. On the plus side, they are too cheap to buy steak, so I haven't had to suffer through an extra well done t-bone yet.

The best culinary bet with the in-laws side of the family is to use sauce. Lots and lots of sauce. Almost anything, no matter how dry, can be salvaged with sauce.

[midnight armadillo]

32. oh, they do steak too

Cooked well done every time. Really well done. Tough and grey, yum. Fish? Grill the cod for about 3 min per side, sez I. 20 min later it's done :( and drrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyy. Thanksgiving (or xmas or easter): turkey is baked (in a plastic bag) for like 4 hours the day before, "reheated" for another two on t-day. dry as a bone, served with veggies boiled to mush and pillsbury crescent rolls. As soon as we have either a house or a bigger apartment I will claim a major holiday and do the cooking myself...

[wildeyed]

33. We are related!

My in-laws use the oven bag 'cause they don't want to get the oven dirty :eyes: They also make minuscule portions, so even if you want to eat the food, there is never enough. I used to make my husband stop for a snack before we went to eat with them when I was training for sports or pregnant, otherwise I would have starved.

I cook when I can. They think I am crazy to put so much effort into food, even though I am not a true gourmet. I like properly cooked food made from high quality ingredients and am really not fussy beyond that.

One year, my husband took my MIL to the grocery with my xmas dinner shopping list. She insisted on paying then nearly passed out when she found out how much it was, and I had already purchased the meat a few days before :rofl: Dinner was superb, BTW, a medium rare lamb roast, potatoes, baby greens salad and a really excellent vanilla/lemon tart for dessert and everyone ate it all up :)

[Tab]

39. My ex-wife's parents

were no gourmets by any stretch of the imagination.

I remember taking them out to eat.

They saw "Filet Mignon" on the menu. Their first question was "what kind of fish" was it?

Personally I have since gotten away from filet mignon, because although the texture is great, the taste is nowhere. Anyway, after they were told it was steak, they decided to order it, but then they ordered it "well done".

I could have gotten cardboard from the dumpster for less money, and they wouldn't have known the difference.

Needless to say, I am remarried.

- Tab

[Tab]

31. I have the same problem

At least with chicken, I've managed to get it so I get that magic sweet spot where it's all white, and yet not a degree further. I personally am not bent out of shape if I see a hint of pink, but man, you should hear my relatives (or wife or ex-wife) balk. So I cook it that extra degree to get it fully white. That said, that's ALL you need to achieve. Pushing it another 15 degrees gets you nowhere. I'd rather have someone else cook and take the credit/blame.

It's worse with pork. At least with pork a slight pink is truly acceptable, but so many people think it needs to be complete white, even more so than chicken. Unlike chicken, though, where you can get it to white and still be properly cooked, I think that with pork if you hit full white you've actually gone a little beyond what's required. Then again, some people go A LOT beyond what's required.

There's something to be said for serving spaghetti, believe me, for certain crowds.

[wildeyed]

34. Roasts are also good.

You can give the nasty, dry ends to the folks who like the meat super well done, and the rest of us get the good parts ;)

[NMDemDist2]

36. hahahaha perfect ROFL n/t

[NashVegas]

42. True - It's Starts With a Better Chicken

Most widely-distributed brands pump water into their birds. It does not lead to a juicier cooked chicken.

Usually when I grill breasts, I pound them, at least a little, first to distribute the thickness.

[Warpy]

21. Premium commercially raised chicken is mush

and can be cut with the side of a fork. Free range chicken requires a knife, preferably a serrated knife. There is little difference in flavor, but the difference in texture is astonishing.

As for technique, some people swear by marinating in a slightly acid solution like a buttermilk based marinade. It makes a bit of a difference, but not as much as how the chicken was grown. Brining also makes a great deal of difference in flavor and texture, and could account for the difference between the two places.

Another technique is the Chinese "velvetizing" technique, with sliced meat marinated in egg white, corn starch and a little white wine and then deep fried very quickly, not enough to cook the meat fully but enough to start the process. Finish cooking is done in the stir fry, and velvetizing does make a wonderful difference in final texture. It won't work on a whole chicken breast or big slab of meat, though.

So there you have it. The difference is likely due to how the chickens were raised, but could also be due to handling before cooking.

[Cassandra]

22. Fresh, not frozen...kosher (so they're sort of brined)...

and I high-heat roast them, 425 or 450 for 20-25 minutes, turning once. 2 Tbsp each olive oil and lemon juice, some chopped garlic and herbs. An old recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

[The empressof all]

23. I cook chicken breasts on a bed of sliced onions

I brine the breasts in salted water then roast them on an inch or so of sliced onions. The chicken steams in the onion juices yet gets a crispy skin. (This is using bone in breasts with skin).

[hvn_nbr_2]

29. Not overcooking, brining, couple other things

As several have already said, not overcooking is a key.

I never brine anything because salt raises my blood pressure, but it sounds like a good idea if you're not sensitive to salt.

Moist chicken breasts are tender chicken breasts, in my experience. When they get dry, they get tough. One thing that worked with turkey tenderloins that seems like it would work with chicken breasts too: bake them, with slices of citrus fruit on top.

The Crock Pot will make them tender but it'll take all day and they may fall apart when you try to serve them.

Oh, I just remembered another thing. My rice cooker has an insert tray to use for steaming things. It makes wonderfully juicy and tender chicken breasts that way. I presume you could steam them in any other kind of cookware too; the rice cooker's recipe book told how much water to use, and it shuts itself off at the proper time when the water is evaporated. Functionally, it seems pretty similar to poaching.

[Tab]

40. Brining is an art form in and of itself

If you do it right, you don't introduce much more salt than you had before. What you do accomplish is an exchange that also brings in your additional flavorings.

But if you overdo it (mixture too strong, or leave it in too long) then it overbrines, and you get something that tastes like ham.

With breasts, I give it 90 mins tops. Anything more than that, and I'm eating ham.

But as I said, you have to practice. That said, my son (then 8) thought it was the best chicken EVER. And that's not an easy accolade to earn.

[TygrBright]

30. Poach them very gently.

Dice up small a stalk of celery, one small carrot, and a quarter of an onion, put them in the bottom of a saucepan with 3-4 peppercorns and a small (or half) a bayleaf. Perch 1 large or 2 small chicken breasts thereupon, and add water to NOT cover the chicken, but come about halfway up its side.

Cover the saucepan with a piece of cooking parchment, slit, to keep a good amount of the steam in and circulating, and turn on the gas to low/med to set the water simmering. Simmer about 7-10 min.

The chicken will be very very tender and not at all dry. Great for chicken salad, etc.

helpfully,
Bright

[NMDemDist2]

35. that sounds like a wonderful method Bright

I'm gonna try that next time

on another note, I stopped by our local meat store today and WOW :wow: it was the most beautiful beef and pork I've seen in years. all locally produced and not that scary red color you get at the supermarket after they inject it with CO2

tasty too if the pork chops are any indication

[TygrBright]

38. ooooo, lucky!

We have wonderful home grown beef, pork, turkey, buffalo, lamb, chicken, etc. available at the co-op but it is pretty spendy. Also completely organic old-fashioned 'we knoew every animal's name' butchers at the Farmer's Market, but even pricier. Still, I'm trying to cut down the amount and increase the quality of the meat we consume, so it works out alright.

New Mexicans seem to be very picky indeed about the quality of their meat.

observantly,
Bright

[HamdenRice]

37. And a little OT, but a completely different approach

Why use chicken breasts at all? I've never understood our recent American craze for breasts, the driest, least flavorful part of the chicken.

As a substitute, whenever I want really delicious grilled chicken or really tender chicken parts in curry, I use thighs.

If you clean the thighs, taking out the visible yellow fat and mucus-like slime between the skin and the muscle, it is quite low fat; it that's not low fat enough for you, take off the skin.

Deboning thighs takes a little practice, but it's easier than deboning breasts.

I guess one factor is work -- you can buy chicken breast fillets but not yet thigh fillets. It's a pity, because the thighs taste so much better and are naturally so, so much more tender and juicy.

The US exports much of its chicken thighs to Europe, because we consume so many breasts that there is a glut of other parts. Asia and other areas where they think we are crazy for eating breast.

I also like to balance my use of chicken or buy whole chickens and dismantle them kind of for ecological, slow food type reasons. It just seems so wasteful to obsess about one part of the chicken and collectively throw away the rest. A whole chicken is a marvel: breast, thighs, drumsticks, wings, plus back, neck and carcass for stock. It's nice to use a resource in a less wasteful way. When I buy parts, I try to buy a balance of parts as well.

One more thing: thighs are much, much cheaper. Hmmmmm: better tasting, juicier, more tender and cheaper. Oh well, I guess I'll just go out and buy some breasts ...

[Tab]

41. I love thighs

but for some people, it's just the fat thing, or... I don't know.

My wife hates them. I like to use them for a Thai Chicken Curry dish that I make. Once she learned it was chicken thighs, she refused to eat it unless I cooked with with breasts which is, needless to say, less flavorful. But if she was going to eat it at all, I had to do it (or else sneak it in, which I might have done once or twice :) ).

I used to be anti-fat, but fat gives flavor. You have to be judicious in how you wield it. Alas, not everyone agrees.

[babylonsister]

43. I love thighs, too! And agree with all your points!

I will rearrange my thought processes to incorporate them in my recipes.
The restaurants I mentioned only use white meat, but I agree about the tastiness of the dark meat.