boneless, skinless and tasteless chicken breasts

Help, I've tried for years to prep this bird part in a manner which might be tasty. BLAH! Its hit or miss! Come to my rescue. Your recipes and techniques please.

Roux

marinade in

Pineapple juice
Soy sauce
crushed garlic
chopped onion
cracked black pepper
splash of veggie oil

mix up a batch to your liking

drop the breasts in, make sure they are covered by the liquid, cover and refrigerate, let them soak up the goodness for 12-24 hours

grill

chicken breasts covered by creamy italian dressing, set aside to marinade for an hour or two is good also.

Marinate for six hours or so in olive oil, some fresh lemon juice, crushed garlic, and sprigs of fresh rosemary. Then, grill. Very tasty!

Excellent suggestions Cajun. We enjoy all the ingredients you suggested for your marinade.
Thanks,
Roux

I'll go along with the marinade method and recipe. One of the tricks to juicy flavorful chicken breasts is to not overcook them.

When grilling you want to do five minutes per side over a low fire to start. If the chicken needs more time on the fire, do it in two minute increments per side until you reach an internal temp of 160 degrees. Yank them breasts off the grill and hold them in a covered container for about ten minutes. They will continue to cook and reach full temp. At the saime time, the juices will redistribute throughout the meat making for a juicier poultry experience.

Buddy

tacchino, appears your post beat my thank you to Cajun by 41 seconds! I thank you also. Appears there is hope for this hunk of bird!

quote:

Originally posted by CajunKing

Roux

marinade in

Pineapple juice
Soy sauce
crushed garlic
chopped onion
cracked black pepper
splash of veggie oil

mix up a batch to your liking

drop the breasts in, make sure they are covered by the liquid, cover and refrigerate, let them soak up the goodness for 12-24 hours

grill

chicken breasts covered by creamy italian dressing, set aside to marinade for an hour or two is good also.

Heck, that would make a hunting boot taste good!

While I love boneless,skinless chicken breasts (and thighs),I do prefer chicken on the bone...To me,any meat,poultry or fish tastes better with the bone attached.

Boneless skinless chicken breasts=tasteless chicken.

With scallions, green pepper, tomatoes, bacon, and horseradish cheddar cheese.



Lemon chicken on a salad



John

What a beautiful thing! Thanks John

Looks great, John!

MUSTARD CHICKEN

4 boneless chicken breast halves (not too big)
1/2 of a juicy lemon
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Butter or margarine
About 1/4 cup Dijon-style prepared mustard
1/2 cup unseasoned fine dry breadcrumbs

Squeeze lemon juice over both sides of chicken, then season with salt & pepper. Melt about 1/4 cup of butter and brush lightly with butter or margarine and place in shallow broiler-proof pan. Roast in preheated 425 degree oven, turning twice, for 15-25 minutes or until just barely tender. Remove from oven and cool slightly.

Spread the flat side with a layer of mustard; then turn breast mustard side down into a bowl containing the crumbs. Push with fingers to make a thin layer of crumbs over the mustard. Return to baking pan, crumb side up. Repeat with the other 3 chicken breasts.

Drizzle the remaining melted butter or margarine (should be about 2 Tbs. – if not, melt additional) evenly over the crumbs. (I like to brush the butter on to get it even but it takes practice to do it without messing up the crumbs.)

Set broiler about 6-7” from heat and preheat. Broil until crumbs are crisp and golden brown. Watch carefully that crumbs do not burn. Serve warm or cold.

Saute in olive oil with scallions, smoked paprika, lots of garlic, red pepper flakes, lemon juice, a little s&p, sprinkle with Italian parsley at the end. This is Spanish style. You can cook it in one piece or bite-size chunks. Add a little sherry during the cooking time, too. We love chicken breasts made this way.

I'm inspired by the great suggsetions! Perhaps many of us wiil be motivated to use the thoughts expressed. know I am.
Thanks again!

I use this marinade (overnight), then grill:

2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T fresh lime juice
1 t oregano leaves
1/2 t granulated garlic
1/2 t crushed red chili pepper
1/4 t paprika
1/4 t dry mustard
1/4 t oregano leaves
1/4 t ground cumin
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper

makes about 1/4 cup

and of course, it had to be John A to post beautiful photos of all his delicious meals!! That looked great! Rouxdog, definitely over cooking kills the flavor! warning, I once overgrilled chicken breasts on my little indoor Hamilton Beach grill and broke a tooth on one of the tough edges (the tooth was already bad). I've learned to just marinate for at least 1 hour and grill slowly. sometimes I add a slice of provolone or swiss and some bacon on top just to give it a little more flavor....okay okay and a lot more calories

We're getting some excellent responses. Naxet, hows that diet coming along? Don't be thinking cheese,well maybe a little, think herbs, spices and vegetables! These things work together well to make sauces, etc. One of those little inexpensive emersion blenders does miracle work for sauces. Stay tuff!
Ole Rouxdog
Report back to us often!

Here's an easy one that works with either boneless/skinless or natural chix

Paul Newman's Balsamic Vinagrette
Chicken (pierced with BBQ fork)

......in a ziplock bag in the fridge overnight (at LEAST 4 hrs and no more than 8)

Grills up over indirect heat on the grill with a really nice balsamic glaze.....and GREAT with yello (saffron) rice!

quote:

Originally posted by waiterhell

Here's an easy one that works with either boneless/skinless or natural chix

Paul Newman's Balsamic Vinagrette
Chicken (pierced with BBQ fork)

......in a ziplock bag in the fridge overnight (at LEAST 4 hrs and no more than 8)

Grills up over indirect heat on the grill with a really nice balsamic glaze.....and GREAT with yello (saffron) rice!

Tenderizing is a must, it makes a huge difference. Put many, many, small holes in the chicken.

John

I usually pound out my breasts, the marinate overnight in Spiedie sauce and grill them on my stovetop grill pan. Very tasty and the larger surface area means they cook up quicker and retain more moisture.

Regardless of which of the many great methods of preparing boneless chicken breasts presented here you use, the outcome also depends on what kind of boneless you buy. Most of the boneless sold at retail around here comes in shrink wrapped styrofoam trays that were packed hundreds of miles from here by such producers as Purdue, Tyson, and supermarket house brands. For some reason, they are always tough. I suspect that while they claim to be "fresh", they were handled and transported well under 32 degrees Farenheit. I was once at a chicken festival in Delaware near the headquarters of Allen's. Allen's contributed the use of a refrigerated trailer. The LED readout on the refrigeration unit on the trailer read 28 degrees Farenheit.

I buy my boneless breasts at a in-town supermarket that gets their poultry in waxed cardboard boxes. Some of the boxes, such as those containing whole chickens, are packed with ice. I have never seen what is inside the boneless boxes. The meat department fills the styrofoam trays in-house. Those boneless chicken breasts are definitely more tender. Uusually they get Perdue, so it is easy to compare them to the pre-packed packages of Perdue sold at other supermarkets.

Anyone have any "inside information" why this is so?

Don't worry Rouxdog, I haven't done the cheese/bacon smothering thing in a while

quote:

Originally posted by CajunKing

Roux

marinade in

Pineapple juice
Soy sauce
crushed garlic
chopped onion
cracked black pepper
splash of veggie oil

mix up a batch to your liking

drop the breasts in, make sure they are covered by the liquid, cover and refrigerate, let them soak up the goodness for 12-24 hours

grill

chicken breasts covered by creamy italian dressing, set aside to marinade for an hour or two is good also.

CajunKing, I like your marinade. I was doing a chicken breast saute once with red and green bell peppers, butter, rosemary, and thyme. On a whim I added a handful of flaked cocoanut and drained pineapple chunks. I called it Hawaiian chicken, but it may have been more Thai inspired. Whatever the name, the diners loved the flavors and it looked beautiful.

This isn't really diet food unless you're on Atkins, but it's tasty and easy enough to keep boneless, skinless chicken breats coming through our kitchen regularly even though we're not dieting.

Skillet Chicken Florentine

Olive oil
2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 thawed package of frozen, chopped spinach (or ten ounces fresh)
2 cloves garlic, crushed (minimum, original recipe called for 2- we like it with more, but we think there is no such thing as too much garlic)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan (original recipe called for 1/4 cup of both, but again, we like it with more)

Warm a little olive oil in a heavy skillet and brown the breasts over medium. Remove the chicken.
Add a few more tablespoons of olive oil, the spinach and garlic, and stir for a few minutes. Then add the cream and cheese, and get the mix spread evenly over the skillet. Put the chicken on top, cover the skillet, and let everything simmer on low for about fifteen minutes. Serve with the spinach mix over the chicken. I also like to have some pita bread or crackers around to eat excess spinach mix on, but my husband doesn't do this.

Enjoy.

A real down home chicken breast recipe I used to do a lot is Poppy Seed Chicken, a true comfort food casserole. It was love at first bite when I tried this recipe years ago. This is basically how it goes:

Simmer several chicken breasts in water about 20 minutes or until done. Remove, set aside to cool.

Drain water from cooking pot, add 16 ounces of sour cream, 1 can cream of chicken soup and close to a half bottle of poppy seeds to pot blend and heat gently till warm. Meanwhile, cut cooled chicken up into stew sized cubes. Combine with sour cream mixture.

Butter a 13 X 9 casserole dish, fill with chicken sour cream mixture. Crush at least one stack of Ritz crackers and cover the casserole with them. Melt a half stick of butter and drizzle evenly over the crackers.

Bake at 325 for 20 to 30 minutes.

This recipe can be modified to reduce fat...plain yogurt works, as well as low fat sour cream.

This recipe is not my own, I first encountered it about 20 years ago in James Villas book, My Mother's Southern Kitchen:

http://www.amazon.com/My-Mothers-Southern-Kitchen-Reminiscences/dp/0688171745

Blackened in a cast iron skilled and served on a salad, they're pretty tasty. They also work good at saltimbocca.........with the prosciutto, sage and asiago or provolone cheese, finish with white wine and sauteed mushrooms. The trick is NOT to overcook them!

The boneless, skinless chicken breasts do get old especially if they're served on their own as an entree and not just as an ingredient in something like a salad or stir-fry.
What I usually do is marinate them in the fridge for several hours in Pappy's XXX BBQ sauce (having poked them with forks to help absorb the sauce)and then throw them (at room temp) on the charcoal grill. What's left of them is chopped up / sliced to make sandwiches the next day.
I find them tolerable if they have a good marinade or cheese sauce of any sort (the spicier the better for me) but if they're bland ehhhhhh.

Andrea

I like to soak in Good Season's salad dressing mixed with Lawry's lemon pepper marinade. Add a raw egg, dip in bread crumbs and flour. Fry the cutlet in some canola oil. Make chicken parmesan with spaghetti, lots of tomato paste in the sauce to make it bold!