We have spoken about the ways to cook a whole roast chicken recently, and now we wanted to expand that article and look at the different ways that you can cook a chicken breast. There are a lot of parts to a whole chicken that can be eaten but the tastiest area and the tenderest is always going to be the breast of a chicken.
The chicken breast can either be cut up and chucked into rice dishes, salad dishes, pasta dishes or left un-cut and used as a part of a healthy dinner with potatoes and vegetables. It all comes down to personal preferences and tastes at the end of the day.
However, there are also many marinades and seasonings that can be used with chicken breasts. From Jamaican marinades, breadcrumb coatings and general herbs such as Sage or Thyme all can make for a great, but different type of tasting chicken.
In today’s piece we are going to look closer at some of the more popular ways of cooking a chicken breast, and all breasts should be cooked from fresh if you are going to benefit from the wonderful tastes and textures of the chicken.
There are two ways to go about this method the first is to use a heavy-based griddle pan, usually the cast-iron ones are ideal for this job but other lighter versions should give a near-enough similar result to the chicken. The second way is to simply use your standard frying pan, which will also cook the chicken for you.
The only thing you need to keep an eye on when it comes to cooking chicken in this manner is that you make sure it is thoroughly cooked right the way through. If you happen to have a thick chicken breast then our advice is to use one of the other methods we are going to list below, or you will need to cut it down in size to fillets.
Start with preparing your chicken, so get your herbs and oil at the ready. Pour into the griddle a few teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil and then turn the heat up until the oil starts to separate (this is the key to the oil being hot enough to cook in). Now cover your chicken with the herbs of your choice, whether that’s finely chopped garlic, salt and pepper or herbs, lemon juice or chilli flakes. Lower these into the griddle pan and then cook on a medium heat making sure that each side is thoroughly cooked.
By using a griddle pan you will also notice that you get those nice chargrilled lines on the chicken which provides good presentation if you are cooking for guests.
Most people tend to use this option as a way to cook chicken purely because most are worried about the food poisoning that you can get off undercooked chicken. Therefore, if your chicken is too thick or you have doubts on cooking in a pan then the next step is to simply place the chicken in a preheated oven.
The preparation is exactly the same as it was if you were to griddle the chicken so you just need to add your herbs, seasonings, or flavourings to the chicken, the extra addition to oven cooking is that you can also marinade the chicken in a roasting dish which you can’t do on a griddle.
Usually a chicken cooked from fresh will take around 30 minutes, again depending on the overall size of the breast. Once cooked take the chicken out and leave it on the side for roughly 10 minutes to allow the juices to be absorbed making the chicken breast tender and moist.
Finally there is another way we can cook a chicken breast and that is simply to boil it. Fill up a large pan with boiling water and turn the heat up until you get a rolling boil on the go, don’t forget to add some salt to the water. Next crush in a chicken stock cube to give the water some flavour and to help with the taste of the boiled chicken once it has been cooking in the mix.
Add your chicken breasts into the pan and let them cook for a good 30-40 minutes until the juices run clear when you penetrate the chicken with a knife. If you need more time simply add the chicken breasts back into the pan for a further 5 minutes and just keep checking until they are cooked.
Take out the chicken once you are happy that it is thoroughly cooked and leave it to rest on the side. What you will find from this particular cooking method is that the chicken is very tender and moist as it has been cooked using boiling water rather than heat.