- Sick of making and eating
dried out, flavorless chicken? Well, I've got an absolutely
fool-proof, perfect way to pansear chicken every single time, and because we can, we're gonna throw in a little pan sauce as well. What is up, my commis? Chef Billy Parisi here,
and you know we believe homemade food from scratch
just tastes better, but I don't just show you
recipes, I teach you techniques. It's about understanding the
basic fundamentals of cookery, just like in this pan-seared chicken, I'm gonna teach you how to properly do it, so it's perfect every single
time that you make it. The first we're gonna start off with is these chicken breasts. I'm gonna be using boneless,
skinless chicken breasts that are in between seven and nine ounces, and so should you. Those gargantuan, crazy
20-ounce chicken breasts that you find in the grocery store, that is not natural, my friends. Chickens are not that big. You need to cook with something in between that seven to nine ounce mark. And now we're gonna season
up these chicken breasts with a little bit of sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper. I like to use sea salt
because it's natural, it tastes better, and you
actually will use less of it. When you season, season high. By that, I mean be about a foot
above what you're seasoning so that you can cover every stinking square
centimeter of that food so that it's seasoned
properly and tastes delicious. The same goes with the
fresh cracked black pepper. Be about a foot away from
what you're seasoning. Make sure to do this on both sides. All right, now let's talk
about oil for a second because this is obviously what you're going to be cooking in. It doesn't matter what oil you use. It's all about the smoke point and getting that oil lightly
smoking before you pan roast. I've got a few different oils
here that we can chat about just to sort of give you that knowledge. I've got some avocado oil, super healthy, super neutral in flavor, has a smoking point around 500 degrees. Canola oil, which is high in omega three, also has a smoking point
around 400 degrees. Last, extra virgin olive oil, which I love and I'm gonna use in this recipe, has a smoking point of 400 degrees. I'm super comfortable using olive oil, I'm Italian, it's just what we do there, and I love the flavor it gives off unless I'm trying to make a
smoked food or an ethnic dish where they don't use olive oil. So, with that being said,
now it is time to pan sear. And when it comes to selecting pans, I usually like to use
iron or stainless steel. They are environmentally friendly, don't give off any funky chemicals, but let me stop and say this. Oftentimes, I get, "What
kind of pan should I buy?" or "What kind of pan should I use?" I just tell 'em, I could cook on a rock. Once you learn how to properly cook, you can do it in anything. You will have the confidence
to literally cook in anything, whether it's Calphalon or stainless or cast iron or carbon
steel, doesn't matter. It's all about understanding
those fundamental techniques so that you can cook in anything. So let's head over to the cooktop with our chicken and olive oil. I'm gonna be using cast iron
here because I love this pan, and guess what? When it heats up, it secretes
iron, iron is good for you. We're gonna crank it up to high heat. After about 20 or 30 seconds or so, we are gonna add in our
olive oil right to the pan. And once it begins to lightly smoke, it's perfect time to start
cooking, but let me stop here. You don't want the smoke
to be rolling off the pan. That means you're burning the oil, and the nutrients are going
up in flames, my friends, so once it begins to lightly smoke, let's add our chicken breast
right down into the pan and do not crowd the pan. Be about a half-inch to an
inch apart from each other so that you're not steam cooking. We are perfectly pan
searing here, my friends, and then immediately turn
the heat down to medium-high, and if you happen to be cooking on one of those very hot burners, go ahead and take it down to medium, which is the one that I'm doing. After exactly three and a
half minutes to four minutes, flip the chicken over. You can see that there is
an absolutely beautiful golden brown sear on them. We're now gonna transfer
these chicken breasts right to the oven on 375 degrees, going to take only in
between 10 and 12 minutes for these chicken breasts
to finish cooking. But you know what? I said pan sauce, my boy Carl asked me to
hook up a little pan sauce with this perfectly cooked
chicken, no problem. What I'm gonna do is head
over to the cutting board. I've got a shallot, which
we want to small dice, and if you need to
learn how to small dice, don't forget to check
out my knife cut video, which will hook you up on just about every important knife cut out there. You could also use a yellow
onion here, no problem. Set it to the side. Now for the garlic, let's
just cut off the ends here, and then using the side of the
knife, give it a little mash. This just sort of breaks it up so that it's easier to finely mince, which is exactly what we're gonna do here. Once it's minced, set it to the side. And now I've got a little
bit of fresh thyme. I just simply roll it up
while it's on the sprig. There is so much flavor in the sprig, and if you finely mince,
there's no woody stems in there or anything crazy, just
about one teaspoon here. Fresh thyme goes a long way. We're gonna set that to the side, and now the chicken breasts are done. Let's bring them out, they
look absolutely gorgeous. We're gonna put them right
on the cutting board. We're gonna let them rest for in between two and four minutes. It's important to let
every protein you cook rest for at least two to four minutes, sometimes even five and six, and when you cook barbecue like you see in my smoke chicken or pulled pork recipe, you're resting for 30 to 45 minutes. When you do that, it soaks
the juices right back into the protein, makes
it tender, flavorful, and obviously incredibly juicy. Now let's hook up this pan sauce, so take that same pan you cooked with. Make sure your towel is around that handle 'cause it is smokin' hot from the oven. Hit it back on the burner,
and over medium heat, what we're gonna do is
add in the shallots. A little bit of garlic, and
we're just gonna stir saute this for about two to three minutes, get a nice light brown on
the garlic and shallots, and this next part is completely optional. I'm gonna deglaze with a
little bit of white wine. You do not have to do this stage. If you don't have white wine
at home, do not worry about it. We're going to cook it
to (foreign language). That's a French term
that means almost gone, so once it's been
evaporated and incorporated into the onions and garlic or shallot and garlic in this instance, we're now gonna add in a
little bit of chicken stock. Crank the heat up to high. We're just gonna cook it
for about two minutes, sort of reduce it down, let some of those flavors concentrate, let the sauce become a little bit thicker. And then to finish it off, I'm gonna hit it with a
little whole unsalted butter, some of that fresh thyme, and then of course, salt and pepper. Give it a stir, make sure
it's completely combined, and when you make any sauce, I was always taught to finish off with a little bit of
butter, adds a little body, a nice little sheen to that sauce, lots of fat and lots
of flavor, my friends. Now let's head over to our
cutting board with the pan sauce. I'm going to start slicing
into the chicken breast. You can see that it's juicy,
it's perfectly cooked, white all the way through,
just how everyone likes it. And then to plate up, I'm
simply going to put it on a little plate, pour on
that pan garlic thyme sauce all over the top, and (smacks
lips) perfection, my friends. Perfectly pan seared chicken breast with a nice pan sauce every single time. It's tender, it's flavorful,
and it is incredibly juicy. Now it's your turn to go master the art of perfectly pan-roasted chicken, starting with my chicken cacciatore recipe or my roast con pollo recipe, and we'll see you on the next video.
