How to Cook Chicken Breasts! Our four favorite ways to prepare chicken breasts. Awesome on salads, in tacos and sandwiches, or as a meal!
Chicken breasts are extremely versatile and there are thousands of chicken recipes in the world. One of the best things about chicken breast, though, is that you don’t need a set recipe to whip up an amazing meal. Learn our four favorite methods of cooking chicken and you will never be stumped at dinner time again.
Watch How To Cook Chicken Breasts:
How To Bake Chicken Breasts
Place chicken breasts in a baking dish and drizzle with a small amount of olive oil.
Sprinkle spices generously over chicken breasts. You can use your favorite mix of herbs and spices or a store bought chicken seasoning. Add salt if it is not included in the seasoning.
Use your hands to completely coat the chicken breasts with spices.
Bake chicken at 450°F for about 20-30 minutes (depending on the size of the chicken breasts), or until the internal temperature of the chicken reads 165°F on an instant read thermometer.
Remove the chicken breasts to a cutting board and cover loosely with foil. Allow chicken to rest for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
Baked chicken breasts are extremely versatile and can be seasoned many different ways. Use your favorite spice blends and flavors to make these quick and juicy chicken breasts any night of the week.
How To Saute Chicken Breasts
Place chicken breasts on a cutting board and cover with plastic wrap. Using a rolling pin or heavy skillet, pound the chicken breasts, focusing on the thicker ends, until chicken is even in thickness throughout.
Sprinkle chicken with seasoning mixture, adding salt if needed. Rub chicken breasts until evenly coated in spices.
Heat oil in an oven proof skillet, such as cast iron, over medium high heat. Once oil is hot, add chicken breasts and allow to cook for about 3-4 minutes on the first side, or until edges are starting to look cooked and chicken has a good sear.
Flip the chicken breasts and transfer skillet to a 400°F oven.
Bake chicken for about 8-10 minutes or until the internal temperature is 165°F on an instant read thermometer. Loosely tent with foil and allow to rest for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving. Sautéed chicken is golden brown on the outside and juicy on the inside. Experiment with different seasoning blends and pair with your favorite side dishes for an easy, but incredible weeknight dinner!
How To Poach Chicken Breasts
Place chicken breasts into a large sauce pan and cover with cold water by several inches.
Add a few simple aromatics such as carrots, peppercorns, salt, and bay leaves.
Cover the saucepan and bring the pot to a low boil over medium heat. Once water is boiling, reduce to a simmer and allow chicken to cook gently for about 10-12 minutes or until juices run clear when chicken is pierced with a knife.
Remove chicken and allow to rest for about 5 minutes. Cooking liquid can be reserved and added to soups as a simple stock.
Poached chicken can be sliced, cubed or shredded. It’s the perfect blank slate to add to soups, casseroles, or seasoned for enchiladas or tacos. Make a batch of poached chicken to shred and use throughout the week for lunches and dinners.
How To Make Chicken In Instant Pot
Cut chicken breasts in half to create smaller, evenly sized pieces. Season chicken generously with preferred spice mix, and stir to evenly coat.
Add oil to the Instant Pot and turn on sauté setting. When oil is hot, add chicken breasts in a single layer.
Brown chicken for about 3-4 minutes, flip and cook on the second side for an additional 3 minutes.
Add liquid to the Instant Pot to almost cover the chicken. This can be chicken stock, coconut milk, salsa, or even water. A simple jarred salsa is easy and provides lots of great flavor to the chicken. Here we used a roasted tomatillo salsa.
Place on the Instant Pot lid, set the valve to sealing, and cook on high pressure for 8 minutes. When Instant Pot is done cooking, quick release the pressure. Carefully remove chicken. Chicken can be served immediately with some of the reserved cooking liquid or used for meal prep throughout the week.
How To Shred Chicken
Poached chicken and chicken cooked in the Instant Pot is great for shredded chicken. To shred chicken, use two forks to pull the cooked chicken into shreds. Shredded chicken can be added to casseroles, soups, or used in the filling for enchiladas or tacos.
How To Cook Chicken Thighs
These methods for cooking chicken breasts can also be used for cooking boneless chicken thighs. Chicken thighs have a higher fat content and therefore, can be extremely flavorful. Be sure to cook chicken thighs to an internal temperature of 165°F.
How To Know If Your Chicken Is Done:
The best way to know if chicken is cooked is to use a meat thermometer. Insert the thermometer into the thickest part of the chicken and ensure that chicken is 165°F. If cooking bone-in chicken, be sure to avoid touching the bone with the meat thermometer when checking the temperature.
Oven Baked Chicken Breast
This is the most popular of all chicken breast recipes that I’ve ever published. It’s a JUICY Oven Baked Chicken Breast sprinkledwith a magic simple seasoning then baked until caramelised. It’s simple, fast and incredibly tasty!
An incredibly easy chicken recipe that’s a reader favourite alongside Honey Garlic Chicken, this epic Parmesan Crusted Chicken and crispy Garlic Chicken. You’re going to love it!
A JUICY Baked Chicken Breast!
Though I always stand firm that brown meat is better than white – more flavour, more juiciness – lean chicken breast is a regular in my shopping trolley, week after week.
So today, I’m sharing my recipe for how I make Oven Baked Chicken Breast.
“We can never have too many really great quick chicken breast recipes!”
As simple as it sounds, if you whack a seasoned breast in the oven without thought, the chances are you’ll be chewing your way through dry chicken, furiously squirting over copious amounts of ketchup to try to salvage it.
It doesn’t need to be that way. Enter – a fabulous simple, magic chicken seasoning for baked chicken breast:
The Chicken Breast Seasoning
Made with just brown sugar, paprika, oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper, the secret ingredient in this is brown sugar:
Makes more seasoning, so you can coat the breast thoroughly and give it a beautiful crust without overpowering it with lots of spices that need longer to cook than chicken breast does; and
Makes it juicy – the chicken sweat while it bakes, so you end up with wetness that makes the chicken more juicy than the usual baked chicken breast.
Yes it adds sweetness but don’t worry, this baked chicken breast is still savoury!
How long to cook chicken breast
A medium chicken breast will take 18 – 20 minutes to bake at 220C / 425F. Cooking it hard and fast at a high temperature is the secret to gorgeous caramelisation and ultra juicy chicken inside. No dried out breast around here!!
The seasoning for this chicken is actually a really great indicator for when the chicken is cooked to perfection. Basically, once the surface of the chicken is caramelised, it’s cooked to perfection inside so get it out of the oven!
My last tip for a truly great Baked Chicken Breast is to pound it to even thickness, either with a rolling pin, meat mallet or even with your fist (very therapeutic). This has the double effect of even cooking as well as tenderising the meat.
“The secret behind this baked chicken is the simple, magic seasoning”
Most popular of all chicken breast recipes!
This Juicy Oven Baked Chicken Breast is the single most popular of all chicken breast recipes I’ve ever shared.
But don’t believe me. Have a browse below of what others have to say!
Try serving this with a side of Garlic Butter Rice with Kale, pictured in post. One pot carb + veg side, with kale made delicious! Otherwise, try a flavoured Rice Side like Tomato Basil Rice or Mushroom Rice.
If you’re in the mood for potatoes, try this Lemon Potato Salad, a classic creamy Potato Salad or a lighter No-Mayo Red Potato Salad with Charred Corn and Bacon.
And for something fresh, Spring Salad or Creamy Cucumber Salad with Lemon Yogurt Dressing would go with the chicken beautifully. Else, simply drizzle steamed greens or a garden salad with Italian Dressing, Balsamic or French Vinaigrette. – Nagi x
More chicken breast recipes readers love!
Chicken Kiev – A retro classic! Crumbed and fried chicken breast stuffed with oozing garlic butter …
Baked Chicken Breast recipe WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Quick video tutorial on how to bake chicken breast!
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How to Cook Chicken
Chicken is incredibly versatile and can be cooked many different ways. Each method of cooking helps bring out the individual flavors of chicken. In this article, we’ll discuss the different varieties for cooking chicken, such as baking, sautéing, and roasting. We’ll start with tips on how to successfully bake a chicken on the next page.
Not what you’re looking for? Try these:
How to Bake Chicken
Melting the butter right in the baking pan saves work.
Use tongs to turn the chicken. If you pierce the pieces with a fork, the juices will run out and the chicken will be dry.
Poaching is another healthy way to prepare chicken. Learn more about this method in the next section.
Not what you’re looking for? Try these:
How to Poach Chicken
Not what you’re looking for? Try these:
How to Brown Chicken
Use tongs to avoid getting burned by spattering oil.
Not what you’re looking for? Try these:
How to Braise Chicken
Remove chicken pieces to a clean plate after browning.
Not what you’re looking for? Try these:
How to Stir-Fry Chicken
Slice across the grain for tender, consistent pieces.
Constant motion keeps the chicken from sticking.
Not what you’re looking for? Try these:
How to Saute Chicken
Be sure to melt butter over medium heat so it doesn’t brown or burn.
Don’t crowd the chicken in the pan.
A roasted chicken is a wonderful meal the whole family is sure to enjoy. Find out how to roast a chicken on the next page.
Not what you’re looking for? Try these:
How to Roast a Chicken
Not what you’re looking for? Try these:
How to Check If a Chicken Is Done
There are a number of ways to determine if chicken is thoroughly cooked and ready to eat.
Not what you’re looking for? Try these:
How to Cook Chicken
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Chicken is a popular and versatile meat that lends itself to many flavors, is relatively inexpensive, and can have a variety of health benefits. As you long as you prepare the chicken correctly, you’ll be able to successfully cook it in a number of ways that include baking, sautéing, and grilling.
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9 Easy Ways to Cook Chicken
One of the most versatile foods on the planet, chicken can be roasted, baked, grilled, sautéed, braised, or fried. Whether you’ve never cooked a chicken before, or you’re looking for a new twist on the same old bird, here’s the ultimate guide on how to cook chicken.
Roasted chicken is one of the tastiest, most satisfying dishes you can make. Not only that but roasting a chicken is also one of the easiest ways to prepare a delicious family dinner. Here’s a tutorial on how to roast a chicken.
Baked chicken is different from roasted chicken in two ways. First, baked chicken is prepared with chicken parts (i.e., individual drumsticks, thighs, breasts, and wings) whereas roasted chicken is cooked whole. Second, baked chicken is dredged in seasoned flour before we cook it, which we don’t do when roasting a whole bird.
Braising is a great technique for when we want to cook cheaper or less tender cuts of meat, but it’s also a wonderful way to cook chicken. Braised chicken is a warming, soulful dish, and the meat will almost fall off the bone.
Whether you’re just poaching chicken breasts or you’re poaching a whole chicken, poaching is an easy and delicious method for cooking chicken. Poached chicken is naturally low in fat and always comes out moist and juicy. And as an added bonus, when you’re done poaching the chicken, you’re left with a delicious, savory chicken broth that you can use for making sauces, soups and all kinds of other recipes.
The key to deep-frying is maintaining the oil’s temperature between 325 F and 400 F. Hotter than that and most oils will start to smoke. Fried chicken is a great example of the basic deep-frying technique where items are dipped in a simple batter or seasoned flour before we cook them, which helps to protect and further seal in moisture. Here’s a recipe for buttermilk fried chicken.
Broiled chicken is prepared using a smaller bird called a «broiler» (typically around two to three pounds) which is either split open around the backbone so that it can be cooked flat or simply halved. Either way, flattening out the chicken helps it cook faster, which is important given that broiling involves very high heat.
Grilled chicken is always a favorite dish, especially during the summer months. You can grill an entire cut up chicken, which is great because the breasts cook a lot faster than the thighs or drumsticks. Skinless, boneless chicken breasts are especially popular for the grill.
Sautéed or pan-fried chicken is really a two-stage procedure that involves cooking in a hot pan with a small amount of fat and finishing it either in the oven or by simmering it in some sort of sauce. This lets flavors develop while also ensuring that the chicken is fully cooked. Boneless chicken breast cutlets are great for this method.
Smoked Whole Chicken
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Using the smoker (or grill set up as a smoker) is a nice alternative to simply roasting a whole bird in the oven. The chicken is covered with a flavorful spice rub and then left to slowly cook over low heat. The result is moist, rich-tasting meat with a crispy outer skin.
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