The most common mistake when preparing chicken breasts is overcooking or over baking it which dries up the meat. This is most often done when you are trying to bake a thicker piece of chicken where it happens that it ends up being raw inside or over baked and dry.
This has happened to me million times when preparing a grilled chicken for salad or my diet meal of grilled chicken and steamed vegetable until Mrs. Deb whom I babysat for taught me to brine the chicken.
Five steps to making great, moist and juicy chicken breasts are:
1 – Brining & drying
2 – Brushing
3 – Rubbing
4 – Roasting
5 – Resting
I promise you, once you try this simple and fast way of preparing chicken breasts it will make your cooking choices so much easier as you can prepare ahead and use it next day in a salad or switch up the side dish and have several meals ready at once.
INGREDIENTS
Boneless chicken breasts
Olive oil or melted butter
Salt and pepper
Powdered sweet red paprika
Optional: garlic powder
The recipe is simple.
DIRECTIONS
1. BRINING: place chicken breasts in warm (not hot) water in which you mixed until dissolved 1 large spoon full of salt and keep it in the water for minimum 15 minutes and maximum 6 hours (if you are preparing it for dinner or day later.
IMPORTANT! Rinse each piece of chicken breasts in cold water and DRY each piece with paper towel on both sides.
2. BRUSHING: brush the chicken generously with melted butter on both sides. If you prefer low calorie version use olive oil instead.
3. RUBBING: Mix together salt, pepper, sweet paprika and powdered garlic. Rub the spice mixture generously on both sides of the each chicken breasts.
For low fat version you can just use salt and pepper and squeeze some lemon juice over the meat and add a couple of slices of lemon around it in the dish while baking. You could also add fresh rosemary or other spices you like.
4. ROASTING: Warm up the oven to 230C/450 F. Line the dish with baking paper and place chicken breasts on it with leaving enough room in between each piece. Bake for 15 minutes.
5. RESTING: Before you dig in, let the chicken breasts rest for 5-10 minutes this will make them soft and moist.
As a side dish I often serve gnocchi with creamy mushroom sauce. You can also just slice the chicken and add it into a green leaf salad with tomato and brushed Parmesan cheese. Alternatively, you can serve it with steamed vegetables (broccoli and green beans) and if you still don’t want to eat chicken without a sauce you can mix honey and mustard and dip chicken in honey mustard sauce.
Katarina Štimac, fashion blog – LaKatwalk
