Help me cook chicken breasts without totally ruining them EVERY time!!

[Workinghardeveryday]

I usually cook chicken breasts in the oven in foil but today I can’t as my oven is broken.

I am doing a roast dinner for tea minus ypuds and stuffing due to no oven. Instead of cooking a whole chicken as usual I am forced to use breasts but pan fry.

Every single time I make breasts I over cook them! I can’t help it. I always think they won’t be cooked through and then when I serve they are dry and chewy! It’s a running joke in this house.

Fir once I would love to serve lovely juicy chicken breasts ( healthy though so not cooked in loads of oil or butter...).

Do any of you lovely lady’s have any advice to share? Today’s breasts are huge

Thank you in advance

To add, they are always dry and horrible oven cooked or pan fried 😳

*Today's breasts are huge" fnar fnar

Anyway - an alternative would be to poach them! You could always brown them off in the frying pan afterwards for a bit of colour.

Wrap them in Parma ham and then roast them. Makes them incredibly tasty and succulent.

Poach them?
Cook with mustard sauce or tomato's? Lemon, thyme and garlic,
There are loads of recipes online

Are they "naice" chicken breasts, or are they from the supermarket?

Supermarket meat is pumped full of water, and that, combined with the fact that there is no fat on a chicken breast, means that when you cook them in a pan you are effectively boiling them, not frying them. You'll be boiling off all the water injected into the meat, thus leaving them dry.

It isn't as bad in an oven with a whole chicken because of the skin, and the enclosed oven.

Making a roast dinner without an oven is an interesting challenge to take on! (I am concerned for your lack of roast potato )

Poaching the chicken and then finishing off in the pan for colour should help them be less dry.

Use a probe or cut them into slithers and then fry them gently in flour coating , as soon as they are white thru take them out the pan

I'm chicken queen

As PPs, I'd poach them and then brown in the pan.

I find that brining the chicken and then roasting it high and fast absolutely transforms it. Always comes out juicy, never dry.

Just pop the breasts in a bowl of lukewarm water with a decent handful of salt mixed in and let it sit for 15 mins or so. You can leave it for 6 hours if you refrigerate it but I don’t bother. It doesn’t make the chicken taste salty. I do also tend to brush it with butter but you can skip this. Then roast in a thoroughly preheated oven at 230 degrees for 15 mins. When you take it out of the oven, wrap it in foil and let it rest for 5-10 mins.

Obviously not much use today when your oven is out of action but may help in future.

our favourite way is to poach them in a marinade of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, oregano, brown sugar, stock. the sauce tastes amazing.

or cooked in the oven in a tin of chopped tomatos.

or just pan fried, 2 min each side plus then resting in the hot pan for 10 minutes.

Wrap them in cling film and bash with a rolling pin until flatterned. This will help you to feel more confident about them being cooked through.

Slowly cook them in a large frying pan with a good chunk of butter and olive oil and thyme. Put a saucepan lid on top for first 15 mins. Flip them over, same other side then remove lid and gently brown as juices evaporate. It's really important to cook them gently so they don't boil as the water comes out or they get tough. You can add cream and mustard at the end with pan juices to make a nice sauce

The OP has clearly stated multiple times that she doesn't have an oven and has received multiple suggestions of how to oven cook them 🤦‍♀️

2 simple tricks:

1. Stop moving it around. Treat it like steak, flip it once ONLY. I see people stirring chicken about in the pan and it ends up so grey and watery. If you just leave it alone with some oil it'll go lovely and brown on the outside.

2. Get yourself a meat thermometer, under a tenner on amazon. Then you'l know it's cooked safely without hacking it up or overcooking.

Well, don't do what my mum does with meats- checks if they're cooked through and then even if they are, leave for another 5 minutes .

@Hboo31

The OP has clearly stated multiple times that she doesn't have an oven and has received multiple suggestions of how to oven cook them 🤦‍♀️

OP says whenever she does oven cook they end up dry and tasteless, hence people offering suggestions to improve that situation for when the oven is fixed.

The thing with a skinless chicken breast is it has no fat, so you do really need some oil or butter to make them juicy, although cooking them for less time than you think they need also helps.

Pressure cook them, never had a dry one yet. Also, it's chicken, not snake @cultkid

@christmaspombear

Pressure cook them, never had a dry one yet. Also, it's chicken, not snake *@cultkid*

🤣🤣🍽

1. Heat pan unreasonably hot
2. Add a splash of oil
3. Add the chicken to the oil
4. Leave it to sizzle away and go brown - don't move it around or flip it yet. It should be noisy!
5. When you see the sides turning white, flip it, the bottom will be brown
6. Leave them to cook on the other side for a few more minutes
7. Test one by cutting open, flip them again if they need more cooking
8. They're done cooking once white in the middle, all pink is gone.

They should be soft inside as the heat of the pan has sealed the outside, allowing the inside to steam itself.

The secret to good meat is the unreasonably hot pan..!

Invest in an airfryer.

Mine is always so juicy. No tinfoil required either xx

Quality is important. You can cut them in half horizonally so they cook through quicker and more evenly. Chicken only needs to be cooked at 155 degrees Celsius so be careful you're not cooking them on too high for too long.