TIPS ON COOKING A SUCCULENT BREADED CHICKEN BREAST

The Chicken Breast - perhaps the most popular poultry cut there is.  It's lean, low in calories, low in fat, succulent and juicy and quick and easy to cook.  But is it really easy to cook ?  Doing it wrong can turn that chicken breast from a succulent piece of meat to an overcooked and dry dish that you won't even bother to question on why Gordon Ramsey threw a plate full of what you thought was perfectly cooked chicken breasts into the trash bin as seen in Hell's Kitchen and MasterChef.  With my tips, kiss those worries good bye since these are sure fire tips that will earn the respect of the chicken breast and yourself.

1. POUND IT !! - place a piece of chicken breast at the center a two feet plastic sheet, smooth side up.  Fold the plastic sheet covering the whole piece of chicken.  Start pounding using a meat mallet starting at the center moving towards the side.  Pounding the chicken breast evens out the meat thus evening out the cooking process.

2. PAN FRY AND NOT DEEP FRY - chicken breasts need not to be submerged in oil.  Since the chicken breast cooks easily plus with the evening out it in tip 1, all it needs is a thin coating of oil enough to cover the teflon pan you are frying the chicken in.  Besides, deep frying will certainly make the chicken breast dry plus it's messy, costly and will send you on a cholesterol high !!  Tip - add 1 T of butter with the oil to make the chicken breast tastier.

3. MEAT THERMOMETER - seasoned chefs would normally know if the chicken breast is perfectly cooked by just eyeballing it.  But even then, some chefs do make mistakes (as evident in Hell's Kitchen and Top Chef).  It's best to buy a meat thermometer.  Insert the meat thermometer horizontally and not vertically.  Once it reaches 160 C, your chicken breast should be perfect.

4. THE RIGHT HEAT - when heating your teflon pan, start at a high heat until almost smoking.  Once it reaches the smoke point, turn down the heat to medium then start cooking your chicken breast maintaining this temperature.  Cooking your breast at high heat will give you an uneven cooking (cooked outside but still raw and pink inside).

5. RIGHT TIME-  it literally takes 5-7 minutes on each side but then again, if you have the meat thermometer, just wait for it to read 160 C.

6. THREE'S A CROWD - if you are pan frying several chicken breasts, avoid overcrowding the pan.  Overcrowding lowers the heat thus lengthening the time of the cooking process.

7. SEASONING - salt, pepper and lemon juice is what it all needs.

8. SBP - or what chefs normally refer to as Standard Breading Procedure - a simple process of :
     - coating the chicken in flour
     - dipping it in egg
     - then coating it in breadcrumbs (Japanese breadcrumbs would be the best since it doesn't burn easily).
After the process, gently pan-fry the chicken in the hot oil.
*- some people, after doing the SBP would opt to bake it.  Baking would normally result to a dry chicken breast since we are using a dry heat method as opposed to pan-frying which is a moist heat method.  But if you are conscious of your cholesterol level then by all means, bake it (350 F for 15 minutes).

9.  REMOVE THE OIL - after frying, place the cooked meat in a strainer or a ceramic dish covered in paper towels to remove any excess oil.

10. SEPARATE THE SAUCE - if the chicken breast will be served with a sauce (like Chicken Katsu or Lemon Chicken, do not mix the cooked chicken with the sauce since this will make it soggy thus making all the efforts you made in cooking a crispy chicken breast all go to waste.  Serve it separately or add the sauce just before serving.

There you have it....hopefully these tips will help eliminate the notion that chicken breast is dry and tasteless.  It is in fact juice and yummy if cooked right.