Every Way to Cook a Chicken Breast (32 Methods) | Bon Appétit

hi everybody my name is Mila Stanek I'm the editor of basically a bun Appetit and this is almost every way to cook a chicken breast this my friends is a chicken breast there are two of them on every chicken it's lean mostly protein a little bit of fat we're gonna take these chicken breasts and cook them in as many ways as we can think of so you can see the process and the end result up first baked chicken breast there's nothing that sounds quite as boring as a big chicken breast but we're gonna do it anyway sling it in there at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes look at that yeah definitely cooked so as expected this is a pretty unappetizing looking piece of protein normally you're baking something for a slightly longer period of time versus trying to blast it with intense high heat that kind of heat just has more of a tendency to dry out a lean cut like this so you won't get a lot of color on it baking is not really a term that I Eve would use in conjunction with meat generally roasted chicken breast okay so baking was a little bit of a bust but we're gonna roast it now which is just baking at a higher heat raise the heat to 425 degrees and this is gonna go for a shorter period of time 1820 minutes all right it didn't really Brown as much as we were hoping I don't know if that temperature was high enough to get exactly what we want but it looks a lot better than baked it would definitely be a different story if we had some skin on there which could really take on some color and get crispy and delicious but yeah it's nicely cooked nothing to write home about but there's also nothing wrong with it broiled chicken breast so we're not quite done with the oven we're gonna put the food very close to the heating element get that as hot as we can possibly get it and see what happens normally this is a technique that we'd use just for finishing food not the whole cooking process all right doesn't look too bad see there's some nice browning that we didn't get from the last two we have some color on the bottom which is kind of surprising actually that is pretty much a perfectly cooked chicken breast I gotta say the grain is nice and tight without being super cinched up it's nice and juicy it's slicing nicely so if you're gonna cook chicken in the oven this is not a bad way to do it you know what sounds unappetizing boiled chicken breast we're just gonna crank the heat get this water boiling add a little salt to it because we're not monsters then we're gonna drop this chicken breast straight in there the thing is as muscle fibers cook they contract and tense up and then any kind of fat or juiciness in between them as it potential to end up in this case getting pushed out into the water so you're probably actually gonna end up with better tasting water than you are chicken at the end of the day this one has zero color and is incredibly unappealing looking this is not a way to cook chicken poached chicken breast this water is at room temperature now and we're gonna raise the heat over time with the chicken breast in it which is going to cook it a little bit more gently than the boiling method we kind of overcook this it's still really shrunk up and seized up which is how you know that a lot of the juice has escaped but at least it's gonna have some of the aromatic qualities those peppercorns the bay leaf the garlic you know all in all not a terrible way to cook a chicken breast braised chicken breast technically a braise is cooking something partially submerged in a flavorful liquid so the first thing we're gonna do is sear it you know maybe five to eight minutes total just to get some color on the outside now we're gonna add some onions carrots celery a little bit of garlic once you see those brown bits we're gonna add some wine and Nestle our chicken breasts right in there and bring it all up to a boil and cover it for 15 to 16 minutes well it definitely smells great it's kind of weird to serve it without those veggies but we're just evaluating the chicken breast braising is something you would normally do for tougher cuts of meat things that have more connective tissue and fat to render out and break down not normally how you'd cook something like a chicken breast which is like a lean quick cooking protein but you know it's actually pretty good you can taste the onion taste the carrot taste a little bit of the wine not the best way to cook a chicken breast but not bad milk braised chicken breast this is kind of a cool method we're gonna braise the chicken in milk then add lemon zest making a sauce that's kind of half way and a half curds we're gonna drop in sage lemon peel garlic cloves in a cinnamon stick then we're gonna pour our whole milk all over that let it come up to a boil and then drop that temperature down let it simmer for 20 to 25 minutes on the lowest possible heat and voila chicken cooked in milk it really looks and feels a lot like the braised chicken that we already had but it's perfectly cooked inside and it's got some of that dairy richness and the aroma of the sage and the garlic this is probably one of the most delicious ones that we've had so far steamed chicken breast instead of submerging the chicken in water we're gonna let the water boil underneath and the steam come up you got no color but at least it does feel pretty juicy and we've got some nice even cooking microwave time pop it in there make sure the microwave is set on high for three minutes and see what happens on the other side this is definitely the least appealing chicken breasts we've cooked so far some might even call it corpse like rotisserie chicken breast all right we're gonna okay just get it I'm just gonna get it hooked on there and around and around she goes cutting into it looks really dry and mealy rotisserie no bueno alright so we're gonna play around it's a deep fryer now we've got our neutral oil at 350 degrees and then we're just gonna drop our naked chicken breast in definitely wanna use a neutral oil here something with a high smoke point the thing that's cool about deep-frying something is that the heat is super direct and it's all around the chicken at the same time the oil is heating and driving moisture out of the chicken at a super consistent rate okay it's not looking so bad it's got a lot of color on it but I'm a little worried that the exterior is kind of crusty and not in a good way it's actually fairly moist not mad at it but this would definitely be even better if we say coated the breast in tempura batter the coating protects the chicken and provides a shell that's gonna trap the steam and juices inside we're gonna come back in about 12 minutes and see what our chicken looks like making sure that we flip it half way through so it's not fully submerged that's like a perfect medium well it's got that cool kind of crackly exterior you've got that crispy crust very juicy looking inside that's perfect this is a pretty great way of cooking a chicken breast okay so this is more of a country fried chicken breast get it in this seasoned flour then into some beaten egg and we're gonna put it back in the flour so you can develop like a nice thick coating we're gonna get that in 350-degree oil for 10 to 15 minutes and then we're gonna turn it after about five minutes okay there is no possible way that you can look at this country fried chicken breast and not think it looks delicious at a ton of texture its crispy it smells great it's nice and juicy on the inside and because we weren't directly exposing the meat to heat you don't dry it out instead it's got this protective delicious edible shell kind of like we did with the tempura my name is Emil and I endorsed this method seared chicken breast alright I'm just gonna get this pan real hot a little olive oil in there salt on the chicken and slap it in chicken breast works better with gentle cooking methods but the payoff will be that we can manage to get the exterior nice and crusty then we can keep it juicy and tender on the inside this seared chicken breast definitely has more color on the outside than previous iterations but we may have actually burned it a bit on this side feels tender it's got a little bit of pink on the inside so this is definitely gonna be one of the juicier tastier ones next up we've got the old college dorm room delight the George Foreman grill we're gonna slap it on here and it's gonna make sure there's kind of a direct heat on all parts of the chicken this will probably go for about 10 minutes so I mean this has got those grill marks that you see like in a commercial chicken breast this actually might be a great method for cooking chicken because you've got that nice direct but moderate heat on both sides you got some browning the inside is nice and juicy really not a bad way to cook chicken breast if you don't have a kitchen hot salt block cooked chicken breast here we got a pink Himalayan salt block ripping hot it's kind of like a cast iron just kind of a silly way to cook a chicken breast like they're probably other things that the salt block is better for but at least the flavors spot-on chicken breast under a brick we have this preheated brick that we're gonna plop right on top you know it actually looks pretty good inside nice and moist and that exterior it might be a little bit leathery but it definitely cooked quickly and we got good color on one side at least I earned chicken breast say you're in a hotel room want to cook some chicken breast you've got an iron actually it's not that bad you've got nice sear and color I don't know that I would fully endorse the iron as a method for cooking chicken breast but it's not the worst thing that you could do air fried chicken breast so what you're looking at right now is an air fryer it's that kind of gadget it circulates air around with a fan to try to mimic the deep frying process all right so we're gonna set this to 390 degrees and we're gonna let it go for about 13 minutes and yeah that looks like a cooked chicken breast alright it feels pretty good we've got these kind of spots on it which I guess could pass for some kind of browning or coloring the insides looking pretty okay a bit leathery but on the whole this gets passing grade but like a see not like a b-plus everybody loves an instant pot it's basically just a pressure cooker with a lot more buttons on it we're just gonna throw the chicken breast in there with a little bit of water some salt and there we go ten minutes it's really nothing to write home about but it was cooked with pressurized steam instead of regular steam when you have it in that steamed pot you can't really check on it which is a bummer this method really works a lot better for fattier meats or things that want to slow braise I'm not really impressed slow cooked chicken breast the whole idea behind a slow cooker is that it maintains a low heat for a long period of time we're gonna add some celery and carrot which is gonna add a little bit of sweetness some parsley we're gonna pop that lid on we're gonna cook it on low heat for two to three hours this was a chicken thighs as we falling apart juicy tender but instead it's falling apart dry if' and doesn't have that much going on maybe if you're a kind of person who likes dry shredded chicken tacos this would be a great way to cook chicken but if you like food this is a bad way to cook chicken so here we have a room or top it's a German clay pot we're gonna put the chicken and some aromatics and a little bit of liquid in here and then we're gonna put it in the oven and let the temperature slowly come up it'll be that nice even heat over the course of 45 minutes all right so after all that the clay pot chicken breast looks pretty much the same as the poached and steamed and boiled one thing that's hard is we weren't able to really monitor what's going on so you just kind of set it and hope that it's done at the end this actually looks a little bit dry and overcooked but at least it smells nice so that's something sous vide chicken breast sous vide literally means under a vacuum this device is called an immersion circulator and it's going to keep that water at a consistent 150 degrees you're gonna seal your chicken breast in an airtight pouch and let it sit until the chicken comes up to temp about 3 hours there's absolutely no chance of overcooking because the water is gonna stay at that same temperature the entire time all right chickens Suvi it looks pretty much the same as the other moist cooking methods but it feels extremely tender it's like perfectly cooked but kind of in a spooky ghost like way which is why people tend to sear things after they've cooked them sous-vide it may not be exciting but you're gonna nail it every time ok so we're gonna use this gadget called a sear it's really a diffuser that you attach to a regular camping torch so you're not hitting food with a direct jet of flame I have no idea how long this is gonna take normally uses searzall to brown something that had already been cooked but here we're gonna try to use it to actually cook this chicken breast all the way through let char is everly more on the burnt side in the brown side it's not got that caramelized flavor that we're looking for and it's definitely a little bit over this method is super hard to control so I don't know that I would recommend it dehydrated chicken breast look I've never dehydrated a chicken breast before but the idea is alright you've got this dehydrator it's just a box with a fan and it's got a small heating unit in it so you can set it to an extremely low temperature we're gonna put the chicken breast in and then we're gonna leave it for 24 hours and come back and hopefully that will slowly drive out the moisture that does not look like food that is not food that was chicken and now it is a piece of wood or a rock don't really think that anybody should eat this and I actually don't know if there is a way to eat it this is inedible do not do this now um papillote so we have this nice little heart-shaped parchment situation we're gonna get that chicken breast in there and hit it with a little bit of salt some aromatics or some lemon in time and we add a splash of wine so it kind of steams and puffs up and this little parchment paper pocket we're gonna cook this bad boy at 350 degrees for about 28 minutes till the packet kind of puffs up a little bit I mean just see a little bit of steam escaping and it's puffed we got a puffed Pepe out smells really good super lemony and kind of herbaceous this has promised those aromatics didn't have a whole lot of time to penetrate but definitely a cooking method that lends some flavor to the meat all right more French Julio pawn my chicken him bread I think we got some puff pastry here we're gonna put the chicken breast in there and make a little chicken pop-tart crimp the edges with a fork so it stays nice and tight brush it with a little bit of egg wash so it gets nice and glossy and what sealed we're gonna pop it into a 375-degree oven for about 25 minutes mmm chicken Hot Pocket it's nice and brown smells real buttery it actually looks like the bottom puff pastry absorbed a little bit of that chicken liquid so it's not quite as cooked as we might want it to be but it trap the heat in what's not to like this is a good way to eat chicken salt baked chicken breast this is just salt that's been mixed with beaten egg whites to kind of the consistency of wet sand we're gonna pack the chicken breast in it pop it in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes at this point you can definitely see that there's kind of more browning around the edges where there isn't chicken so this method is definitely better for a skin on piece of chicken that's salt kind of drew some of the moisture actually out of the exterior this isn't awful that's definitely a little bit overcooked and the saving grace of this method may just be that the chicken is very well seasoned even if it is dry ah the great outdoors propane grill you've got these grates preheated over medium-high heat and we're just gonna set the chicken breast straight down there the thing about a propane grill is that it's super convenient you don't have to wait for it to get going you tend to get these grill marks that kind of make it look like a TV commercial but we don't get the kind of like even all over carmelization that you might get from a charcoal grill but it's juicy its tender its tasty at the end of the day it's a chicken breast cooked outside smoked chicken breast all right we're gonna sling that chicken breast directly in there and let it go at 225 for an hour and a half to two hours all right let's unlock this thing and the chicken indefinitely has gotten a lot darker it smells like smoked food you can already tell cutting into it that it's a little bit on the dry side a little bit tough I think this would have been really delicious if it was bigger chicken breast or a bone-in chicken breast cooked this way it's a bit dry on the outside but the flavor is really delicious and smoky cold cooked chicken breast okay so we got our charcoal grill going we've got chicken we've got tinfoil we're gonna wrap it up some people might call this a hobo pack some people might call it a steamboat but the idea here is that we're gonna seal it and we're putting it directly on the coals so you've kind of got the direct heat on one side but then the chicken juices are steaming and creating a moist hot environment that will eventually cook the chicken it's up to temp and it's almost got a little bit of browning on the bottom side where it was in contact with the calls if you were camping this wouldn't be a horrible way to cook it but you probably want to incorporate some aromatics to the situation what could be better than cooking chicken outside campfire cooked chicken breast Boy Scout style just above the flames kind of like you're cooking a marshmallow turn it around like a hot doggy it's kind of like a chicken lollipop all right chicken LS stick i roasted this over the fire it actually has some nice color on it let me get rid of this stick here okay it actually looks nice and juicy just a little bit of pink in there get that nice band of smoke around the edges let's see how this tastes has a nice kind of smoky wood roasted flavor this actually may be one of the best methods we've done yet all right a few takeaways one the boneless skinless chicken breast is kind of always going to be at a disadvantage for direct heat cooking methods because you don't have any skin or bone or any kind of insulation to because chicken breast is super lean it doesn't love the super low and slow method but low is a good way to go and three chicken breast is always kind of going to be a blank canvas it wants some extra flavor applied to it whether that's in the form of aromatics and a braising liquid or some kind of marinade or clays and that's it that's almost every way to cook a chicken breast I personally cannot look at another chicken breast for another year or so so if you come up with a better way you can just go ahead and leave it in the comments I'll find it eventually

Channel: Bon Appétit

Views: 11,567,135

Rating: 4.731051 out of 5

Keywords: chicken breast, every way, how to cook, how to cook chicken breast, chicken breast recipe, cooking chicken breast, cook chicken breast, making chicken breast, make chicken breast, how to make chicken breast, best way to cook chicken breast, best chicken breast recipe, every way to make, every way to cook chicken breast, fried chicken breast, roasted chicken breast, sous vide chicken breast, grilled chicken breast, food, bon appetit

Id: VyaxDWLe6A4

Length: 16min 47sec (1007 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 27 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/boxhacker]

That was surprisingly fun to watch and all I want is fried chicken !

[u/UncoolAnomalopidae]

At first I thought this was just a Babish ripoff, then I looked up and had watched the whole thing. Quality content.

[u/hypoboxer]

For a second I thought it was going to be the chicken equivalent of "Too Many Cooks"