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soft juicy chicken

post #1 of 9
3/10/02 at 8:29pm
Thread Starter 
When pan-fring chicken breasts, they often turn out dry, tough, and chewy without much chicken flavor.

I want my pan-fried chicken to turn out soft and juicy.
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post #2 of 9
3/11/02 at 5:15am
Hi there. I'm not an expert but seems to me you probably cook'em for too long and at a too high temperature. Use medium-high heat and turn them often.
K

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post #3 of 9
3/11/02 at 5:19am
Try using free-range chicken breasts - the Kosher breasts, and Bell & Evans are both good. Sear them on top of the stove, and finish in the oven. Or sear on top on medium high, turn heat down to med-low, cover, and finish cooking.
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post #4 of 9
3/11/02 at 6:09am
Just my experience cooking at home... I agree with the advice posted before me the only thing I wanted to add is I find that everything comes down to the quality of the chicken regardless. The larger ones at the grocery stores by my home are always horribly dry and tasteless and have nothing to do with my cooking technique.

I saute chicken most of the time on a med. high heat. Half way through I cover with foil and turn the flame down for around 5 min. (to cook the center) then go back finish on med-high. You have to becareful not to over cook it, I pull them before their done and let them sit for a couple minutes to come up.
"Bakers are born, not made. We are exacting people who delight in submitting ourselves to rules and formulas if it means achieving repeatable perfection", Rose Levy Beranbaum
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post #5 of 9
3/11/02 at 7:16am
[QUOTE]Originally posted by W.DeBord
[B]Just my experience cooking at home... I agree with the advice posted before me the only thing I wanted to add is I find that everything comes down to the quality of the chicken regardless. The larger ones at the grocery stores by my home are always horribly dry and tasteless and have nothing to do with my cooking technique.
_____________


I really would suggest trying the kosher brands, or try brining them. Christopher Kimball has excellent instructions on brining in his Complete Poultry book, and I believe they're also up on the www.cooksillustrated.com website (for free!!) If you can't find the instructions, let me know.
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post #6 of 9
3/14/02 at 7:43pm
A couple of ideas for when your cooking your chicken breast at home.

1. Season and maranade them BEFORE they hit the HOT saute pan. Season them with what ever you like such as fresh or dry herbs, seasonings or spices, pepper, what ever. Add a bit of oil to this quick maranade, this will help in several ways. First it will allow the flavors of your maranade to mix easily and flavor the chicken. It will aso help with the acutual physics of cooking the breast when it hits the HOT pan.

2. Start out with hot pan as mentioned above, add the chicken breats to the saute pan but make sure you do not over crowd the pan. What your aiming for is to sear the outside of the breast on both sides. Once this is done you can then reduce the heat and cover for tender juicy chicken breast.

3. Any poultry needs to be cooked to an internal tempature of 165 degrees. Think about using a little 12 dollar thermometer to test the internal temp .... this is far better than "guessing" which often times leads to over cooking and dry chicken.

I hope these tips help ;-)
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post #7 of 9
3/15/02 at 4:08am
Take some kosher, or sea salt.....add this to cold water.
Soak the chicken in this for about an hour. Rinse...... Then
coat the chicken in a mixture of seasoned flour & corn flour (not cornmeal---another name--masa harina)...2/3rds flour to 1/3 corn flour. Remove excess flour...add to hot oil (but not smoking). Lightly brown the chicken.....
Place on a half sheet pan, and finish baking in a 425 degree farenheit oven until the juices are clear. Do not overcook.

Now you have the best chicken in the world......Southern Fried.

You can cook this completely in a heavy bottom pan on top of the stove...but you need to watch it closely so it does not burn.

If you cannot find the corn flour where you are......just use all wheat flour. It still comes out great.

Chef Nosko
Boston, MA
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post #8 of 9
3/15/02 at 5:57am
This may not be totally responsive as it omits the pan, but I have often made my "fried" chicken in the oven. Season chicken pieces. (I prefer using only dark meat if not using a whole cut up chicken.) Coat them in freshly and roughly ground good quality bread crumbs. Place on a wire rack over a sheet pan in a high heat oven (mostly to compensate for the heat loss as you open the door), reduce to moderate heat immediately and bake til done, turning halfway through. If using a variety of parts, remove the smaller ones as they finish instead of leaving them all for the same amount of time.

While this is not Southern fried chicken, it's tasty and cruncy, and has the advantage of not adding any fat to the bird. The crumbs get "fried" from the chicken fat as it renders. I did this often when my children were young. I would sometimes do extra, remove some when a little less browned, and freeze them for a future dinner.

I think this would benefit from using either Kosher or brined chickens.

BTW: when I brine, I not only add salt and sugar, but a variety of spices that infuse flavor as well as juiciness. Patrick ODonnell has a great recipe that I model my brining on. Last Thanksgiving's brined turkey was declared the best ever. thanks to Patrick.
" ...but in the spirit of 'stop, think, there must be a harder way, 'I figured starting from scratch might be more gratifying.'' (Judy Rodgers)
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post #9 of 9
3/18/02 at 10:03pm

most commn problem

cooking white meat/poultry is tough... be it chicken or turkey. a lot of answers are really good here and if they seem not to work, try breading the chicken. bread frist in seasoned flour, then in egg, and then in bread crumbs or another kind of crumbing. when the pan and oil are hot, place the chicken inside. the heat will then brown the breading that is on the chicken, keeping the chicken nice and moist. it creates liek a barrrior between the chicken and the heat.

also, a lot of people say to cook the chicken to 165. i am not arguing the fact however, some people dont take into cosideration of something called carry-over cooking. that means that the juices are so hot inside the product (in this case, a chicken) that it continues to cook the product without any additional heat. so try taking out the chicken at 155-160. people that take the chicken out at 165 and add on another 5-10 degrees for carry over cooking causing the chicken to be over cooked.

hopes this helps
Chef Isaac... Culinary Arts and Honey are a sweet mix! http://www.sweetascanbeehoneyfarm.com
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