Is it ok to cook chicken breast entirely in a pan? Recipe says yes but the pack itself is saying I need to use the oven

[Girlwhonevercooks]

I want to use this recipe for making chicken tikka. It's on the Patak's website. https://www.pataks.co.uk/recipes/quick-easy-chicken-tikka-masala

The recipe itself says I can cook the sauce and chicken breast in a pan. I'm assuming it's a frying pan, but I've seen other recipes saying do it in a saucepan, so I'm not sure. The cooking instructions on the chicken breast packet seem to suggest that they need to be cooked in an oven. Here's a photo of the back of the pack. https://imgur.com/a/5ayyTod

I just wanted to ask, is it safe to cook the chicken breast entirely in the pan? How do you know when it's fully cooked (or at least cooked well enough to the point where it's safe for human consumption)? I'm a complete beginner so even recipes advertised as "easy" can seem complicated to me. 😂

Yes you can cook it in the pan. You could use either a frying pan or a saucepan, depending on how big they are and how much other stuff (veg, sauce) is going in. If you follow the directions it'll be cooked through. The directions say seal, this means cooking the chicken pieces until they've browned (that means goldened, not necessarily actually turned brown) a bit on the outside. You might find buying a meat thermometer useful as you start cooking, to get confident about meat being done. Hope you dinner is lovely!

Yes, don’t worry, it’ll be absolutely fine. You’ll be cutting the chicken up into small pieces if you follow the recipe and it’ll be properly cooked in that amount of time

Absolutely fine! With the chicken breast diced , sealed and then cooked in the sauce for 15 minutes there should be no problem with it being cooked through, but you can just chop a bit in half and look to see there's no pink left if you want to be sure. Either a frying pan or a saucepan should also be fine - a saucepan might be tidier as you're less likely to get sauce splatter on the hob, but the extra space might be helpful in the frying pan as quite often chicken breasts can release water which will stop them from browning nicely. Cooking the chicken in batches in the saucepan so the bottom is only about half covered with chicken while you're browning/sealing would also do the trick!

When I cook chicken breast in a pan I often cut one open to double check it is cooked through.
Same as when grilling steak or lamb, I cut to the centre to check it is cooked as desired.

Maybe get a meat thermometer for future reference, we use ours all the time if unsure!

Yes, but cut the breast into pieces/strips.

If you're worried about it still being raw, take the chunkiest piece you've got cooking and slice it open to check.

If you cooked the chicken breast as per the pack instructions it would be dry and inedible.

You can absolutely follow the Pataks recipe. By cutting the chicken into chunks, it will cook much faster. So you will start by "sealing" it or browning it - you put it int he pan, leave it for a couple o fminutes, then stir/turn the pieces to get colour on more sides (leave it for another minute or two depending on heat of your pan). By now, your chicken pieces will be close to being fully cooked anyway. Then, by the time you've added the sauce and other ingredients and left it to cook for a bit longer, they will all be cooked perfectly.

If you can, use a large, deep frying pan as it's more likely to allow you to get the chicken nicely browned and cooked (most saucepans won't get hot enough and/or wont' have enough surface on the base) but it needs to be relatively deep to accomodate the sauce - not the time for the quick pan you use to fry an egg in!

Good luck. I'm always impressed when people are willing to try something new. If you areinterested in doing more cooking, I highly recommend Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food book - it does give some helpful tips. YOu can probably also find some old videos of his on youtube from that book.