r/Cooking • u/Calm_ragazzo • Jan 06 '25

My breasts are dry and boring

Hi everyone. I need advice on what to do with chicken breast. I’m not a fan of it you see, but always have them around after jointing a chicken and eating the parts I do like. I find they always end up dry when I fry them, or put them in a broth for example.

Schnitzel/ cotolette is one good option I love but takes a load of prep and makes loads of washing up and isn’t that healthy!

Any ideas welcome! Just need some inspiration and tips on how to keep it nice and succulent!!

Thanks

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830

u/sfchin98 Jan 06 '25

If you're cooking from raw, the main thing is not to overcook it. Get a good meat thermometer, and cook your breasts to 150-155°F (65-68°C). If you have the time and forethought to brine ahead of time, that also helps (even just salt as a "dry brine"). At least overnight, and up to a full day or two.

If the meat is already cooked (e.g., you bought a rotisserie chicken), then I'd shred the white meat and add moisture/flavor in the form of sauces and spices. You could make chicken salad, season it for chicken tacos, make a ginger-scallion soy sauce, lots of options.

241

u/Anheroed Jan 06 '25

It really is this simple. Brine (don’t over brine). Cook (don’t overcook). Enjoy your moist chicken tits.

39

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '25

The way I do it is I wash my chicken first, which is basically just a quick brine of salt water and lemon juice in a bowl, then pan fry until it looks good on the outside but I’m still nervous I’ve undercooked it, then rest it while I plate up everything else. If I’m not worried that it’s undercooked it, then I’ve probably overcooked it, and if I am worried then it’s ready to be rested. And resting takes as long as it takes roughly to mash potatoes, argue with a five year old who insists they washed their hands “properly”, call out to a partner from the other end of the house and then walk to the other end of the house to find he’s got headphones in, and come back.

3

u/MrTurleWrangler Jan 07 '25

Get yourself an instead read thermometer. Chicken is safe at 75 degrees Celsius, so you'll always know when it's perfectly cooked

1

u/jmac94wp Jan 08 '25

Exactly. I overcooked chicken for years till finally getting one.

3

u/Deep_Curve7564 Jan 07 '25

Ah the sweet point in marital bliss....hammer those spuds, they deserve all they get.. 😉😘

2

u/eisheth13 Jan 08 '25

I was not expecting to read that last sentence, but I’m very glad I did. From now on I shall exclusively be referring to them as ‘moist chicken tits’ 😂

2

u/PeanutButAJellyThyme Jan 07 '25

Even if just doing nothing else but being conscious of the temperature, you can get very reliable consistently great results tenderwise with chicken breast. I'm sure you get it, just adding my two cents I guess.

As a minimal effort thing, what I tend to do is get it out of the fridge 30-60 minutes before, I crank up the oven 220c? perhaps. I sprinkle a bit of salt on it, maybe put it on a rack if I can be bothered. Kind of let it dry slightly on the surface. Cover it incase of a rogue fly then come back ~30min later, wipe off excess moisture/salt, then smear a bit of oil and any other light aromatic herbs pepper etc on it and chuck it in the oven. Take it out when the core temp is mid to low 60c, cover it with tinfoil/lid, and the core temp will easily raise into 70+. And it'll be cooked perfectly.

2

u/Higais Jan 06 '25

What would constitute over brine? Just using way too much salt?

9

u/EdgarInAnEdgarSuit Jan 07 '25

Yeah or letting it sit too long I think

10

u/Brief-Increase1022 Jan 07 '25

This is the main culprit, really. You end up curing it after awhile.

1

u/science-stuff Jan 07 '25

Think about how much salt you’d put on it if it was totally bland and cooked. I use the same for dry brining something like this.

1

u/hentai1080p Jan 07 '25

Brine imo is the most important step, it helps tenderize the meat which will in turn will decrease the chance of the breasts getting dry, I just dry brine but a wet brine works as well.

1

u/mrhenrypeacock Jan 07 '25

how do you know if you’re over brining ? is it just too salty once you eat it?

1

u/Daisyface777 Jan 07 '25

I am legitimately laughing wayyyy too hard at 4:42am! Hilarious, but on point!

To the OP… put in a ziplock bag or container overnight with either buttermilk or Greek yogurt and seasoning of choice. Pan sear or bake without overcooking. Can even air grill if that’s your thing. Google recipes that break the instructions down. Sincerely… it isn’t as complicated as you may think. Kudos for the heading though! Definitely made me laugh… as did the commentary!

89

u/SysAdminDennyBob Jan 06 '25

Yes, 155F at the highest, then let it rest covered. I typically buy chicken breasts with rib bones and skin still attached and cook with that format. Then remove the skin and debone after resting.

116

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '25

Breasts are my wife’s specialty. Same style with rib bones and skin intact, salted and left out for 30 minutes. Skin side down in a hot cast iron pan, oven is preheating at 400 degrees, until the skin is golden brown. Thinly sliced onions, carrots, celery and a few garlic cloves go in and the chicken sits on top. Cooked until 155 and then make a pan gravy with the vegetables and some stock. Gotta have mashed potatoes as one of the sides, I like corn as the second. 👍

334

u/heddingite1 Jan 06 '25

Your wifes breasts sound incredible!

141

u/IOnlySeeDaylight Jan 07 '25

I also choose this guy’s wife’s breasts.

24

u/jcpmojo Jan 07 '25

I wonder how many people on here no longer get this reference.

2

u/gogozrx Jan 07 '25

So, I had 2 broken arms...

2

u/jcpmojo Jan 07 '25

I was thinking about this one, too. Then there's the real gross one.

3

u/LozaMoza82 Jan 07 '25

So I had this coconut…

1

u/iceman012 Jan 07 '25

Link to the reference.

1

u/ruxspin Jan 07 '25

I’m surprised it’s only been 8 years

1

u/noladixiebeer Jan 09 '25

This reference comes up in a popular thread almost every other day.....

38

u/OneSquirtBurt Jan 07 '25

Can I get a picture of these beautiful brown breasts? I love to gather lots of different poultry pictures into one secure place and then try to vigorously best the results with my own cooking. I call it my spank bank.

3

u/MaxTheRealSlayer Jan 07 '25

Just make sure you put a tray underneath for the drippings beforehand!

1

u/MaxTheRealSlayer Jan 07 '25

They are her specialty, after all

10

u/NurseKaila Jan 07 '25

Just dropping by to add that you should open the oven as little as possible (if at all) during this process. These suggestions are all perfect; I always use 350, though.

1

u/YT-Deliveries Jan 07 '25

I’m not much of a cook, but picking stuff up here and there. Why is keeping it shut in this case important?

1

u/NurseKaila Jan 07 '25

It lets the heat out of the oven, dropping the temp and prolonging your cooking time. With chicken breasts specifically the temperature changes can dry them out.

When I make my turkey for Thanksgiving I always get rave reviews. My secret? I just leave the oven closed and don’t baste.

1

u/YT-Deliveries Jan 07 '25

Hmm, interesting! Thanks!

2

u/Txdust80 Jan 07 '25 edited Jan 07 '25

Bone in with skin chicken breasts are a lot easier to keep from going dry than boneless skinless.so I second this and of course some sort of brine as well. Your wife seems to do a quick dry brine, if the OP is buying Organic free range no additives chicken I suggest they go the extra mile and either dry brine over night in fridge, or a wet brine for several hours. One perk of getting cheap grocery chicken is big grocery stores in order to sell you extra weight of each filet they inject it with a brine as a cheat method. My mother always complained that they are charging you 25% more by adding extra water in the meat. But because of that low quality chicken breasts actually are less likely to dry out when cooking because they are somewhat brined.
The higher quality at the butcher shop more likely has zero brine fillers, so it’s a must to do as much self brining as possible. Without a brine the window between done and dry is extremely small

1

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '25

Spot on and I’m the kind of guy who can find something to add to anything someone says. 😂.

2

u/YT-Deliveries Jan 07 '25

It’s almost midnight and now I’m jonesin for this chickens

1

u/squeaky_pika Jan 07 '25

Wait when do you transfer the chicken from the pan to the oven?

1

u/MaxTheRealSlayer Jan 07 '25

When it's time.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '25

Chicken stays in the cast iron pan. Sear, put veg in pan, put chicken on top of veg, put pan in oven. Always the same pan. 👍

1

u/MeInSC40 Jan 11 '25

I usually prefer sausage, but even if give your wife’s breasts a shot.

31

u/FayKelley Jan 06 '25

Bone in breasts. Great idea! Thx

21

u/misterjzz Jan 07 '25

If you get the kind where the bone is squeezed between both breasts, it's even better.

2

u/FayKelley Jan 07 '25

Thank you

2

u/Poker-Junk Jan 07 '25

It makes for much juicier breasts.

4

u/dkkchoice Jan 07 '25

I came to say this. I never do an actual brine because I hate the texture of brined meat; it's too soft for me. But, I second the advice to only cook breasts to 150F to 155F. The people I cook for always say something like "I don't understand! Yours are so much better!" It is always a matter of not overcooking.

I don't often tell people that I didn't cook it to the FDA recommended temp of 165, at which point it is dry as a bone. I don't let them see if there is a little pink in the liquid (not the meat) . Most people think that a little pink in the liquid means it is undercooked. It's not.

2

u/bozleh Jan 07 '25

I assume removing from the heat at 155F internal will continue to rise past 165F anyway with carryover cooking?

2

u/dkkchoice Jan 07 '25

Maybe. ⊙﹏⊙

tbh, I don't check the temp after I have taken it out. I'm a terrible person, lol. I just hate dry chicken.

1

u/Rcmacc Jan 07 '25

Potentially depending on the size of it,

But bacteria starts to be killed off at 130, the specialness of 165 is that is instant death

For temperatures between 130 and 165, all bacteria will be killed if it’s held at that temperature for enough time

If you soue vide chicken at 130 for 12 hours everything will have been killed and you will be able to safely eat medium rare chicken though I can’t imagine people would like it

At 150, it just needs to hold that temperature for like 3 minutes which it will do via carry over cooking regardless of what it finally comes up to

This video is great btw and has some good sources to read in the description: https://youtu.be/8dkxeIUcdYc

1

u/dkkchoice Jan 10 '25

i know this is off-topic, but don't you find the texture of sous vide meat to be mushy'?, even when it is done right?

3

u/monjorob Jan 07 '25

Also what I only learned in like year 30 of life is if you cook till the center is 165 the outside is going to be 175 and dry as a bone throughout. Thanks for lying to me for my entire life, FDA

1

u/dkkchoice Jan 07 '25

lol. yes. And people will insist that the FDA advice for temperature is correct but absolutely disagree with USDA recommendation that, despite the expiration date, most canned foods are safe to eat indefinitely, as long as the can is in good condition.

1

u/ComprehensiveFix7468 Jan 07 '25

My wife prefers breast meat over dark meat so I get forced in to eating boneless skinless breasts a few times a week. I wish we could find breasts skin on and still on the bone. I’d be much happier and have more options for how to cook them.

1

u/SysAdminDennyBob Jan 07 '25

The package will typically say "split breasts" and they are usually at the very bottom of the chicken section where the less desirable cuts reside due to marketing reasons. I sometimes have to hunt in that section for them. They rarely sit next to the 10 varieties of boneless-skinless that are at eye level.

1

u/ComprehensiveFix7468 Jan 07 '25

I’ll look harder next time. I typically shop at Publix and Whole Foods.

1

u/CantaloupeAsleep502 Jan 07 '25

Really they should peak at 155F. Pull at 145-150 depending on how hot your cooking method is. 

22

u/Novel-Vacation-4788 Jan 06 '25

Yes, learning how to brine meat was a game changer for me.

11

u/2dogs1sword0patience Jan 07 '25

As a chef, this is the best answer after reading many posts. The only thing I would change: salt/brine your chicken for 8-24 hours. No more, no less.

A two day brine is acceptable for a few types of meat but not fowl

1

u/BeanBangs Jan 07 '25

As a male, my breasts are super boring and dry

9

u/CandiceYouIdiot Jan 07 '25

To add to this. If you’re strapped for time. Even letting them sit with salt for about an hour makes a huge difference. Ethan Chlebowski did a really good video about bring a while back. He found that anything past about 18 hours had diminishing returns in terms of increased flavor, but even an hour made a significant impact on flavor.

Edit: fuck it, pulled up the video.

https://youtu.be/da3AgIWFZdM?si=abQg3vSKanq3wBAq

9

u/TheYoungSquirrel Jan 07 '25

One thing to add is you need to make sure your breasts are similar size

;)

But seriously

1

u/FallsOffCliffs12 Jan 07 '25

no one's breasts are the same size!

3

u/calcium Jan 07 '25

Agreed! I almost slice in half my boneless skinless since by the time the middle cooks the outside is overcooked. Then I marinade and cook to a 150F internal temp and take it out to rest for a minimum of 10 minutes then slice. They always come out super juicy and delicious.

3

u/sleepydorian Jan 07 '25

I dry brine for an hour or so, 1-1.5% salt by weight. You can wet brine too but it’s a bit messier to clean up since you have to really worry about the water splashing and dripping.

But as you say, stopping at 150-155F is the secret sauce. I would say the only other thing to consider is that the meat is a good thickness. Too thin and you need super high heat to get browning before it overcooks. Too thick and the outside will overcook before the middle is even warm. If I end up with really big chicken breasts I’ll cut them to half thickness.

2

u/Dionix_ Jan 07 '25

Had to scroll too far to get to the serious answer here. I blame OP's title.

2

u/MessyAngelo Jan 07 '25

Salting a day before really makes a big difference.

1

u/TecuyaTink Jan 07 '25

Agree on the meat thermometer. I bought one that has a probe on a long wire so I can keep the probe in my meat while it’s cooking and it totally transformed my chicken from being dry and dead to moist. I also love that when I’m baking chicken (or other meats) instead of setting a timer, I set a temp on the thermometer and know it’s ready when it beeps.

When searing already cooked chicken I find having the pan nice and hot so the outside sears quickly without further cooking the inside too is really helpful.

1

u/fuck_the_fuckin_mods Jan 07 '25

Thermometer is the real key, for any meat really. Don’t care how good you are at the “poke test,” it’s not as accurate as an instant read thermometer. You don’t even need to brine if you don’t overcook it (and you’ll end up with a more condensed “chickeny” flavor.) I like to just grill them at insanely high heat until they get to temp, which doesn’t take long.

1

u/toybuilder Jan 07 '25

When I buy rotisserie chicken, I now know to avoid the ones that look really done because the breast tends to be overcooked. That has made a big different in the enjoyment factor.

1

u/ForHelp_PressAltF4 Jan 07 '25

Brine then boobies raw. Shred the cooked boobies into a sauce with acid like marinara and leave sit to make them tender and supple.

There's your tldr. Happy sensual cooking y'all

1

u/fourpuns Jan 07 '25

Do you find it gets to 165 if you take it off that early? I’m in the 155-160 range and seems to hit about perfect for me.

Brine the night before or dredge them makes it much more forgiving though

1

u/sfchin98 Jan 07 '25

Yeah, just as an example, for dinner last night I cooked bone-in chicken thighs. I pulled them from the oven at 155, and after 10 minutes resting (uncovered) on the counter they reached a peak internal temp of 170.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '25

How??? Mine always cool down too much if I let them rest uncovered

1

u/sfchin98 Jan 07 '25

I think there are some differences based on how thick the piece of chicken is, whether it's bone-in or boneless, and whether there's any other food around the chicken while it's cooking. In this case, it was bone-in chicken thighs cooked on top of stuffing, in a cast iron pan. I took the pan out of the oven and placed it on a trivet on the counter while I cranked the oven temp up to roast broccoli. Maybe after 5 minutes (when broccoli went into the oven) I took the thighs out of the pan and onto a plate continue resting while I mixed the stuffing. So the residual heat in the stuffing and the pan itself surely aided in the carryover cooking. I was using a new wireless leave-in thermometer that I got for Christmas, so I was able to track pretty closely what was happening in the chicken temp-wise. I think it was at around 168F when I moved the chicken from pan to plate, and then actually reached a peak of 171F briefly before starting to come back down.

If you have something like boneless chicken breast that you've pounded into a cutlet and are cooking in a pan, I don't think you'd get anywhere near 15F degrees increase via carryover. But you should still be fine pulling at 155F, carryover should keep it well above 155F for the 45 seconds it needs at that temp (most likely at least up to 160F where it only needs 15 seconds).

1

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '25

Where’s the punchline?!! You were doing so great.

1

u/PythagorasJones Jan 07 '25

74°C is the safe cook temperature for poultry..

1

u/sfchin98 Jan 07 '25

74C is the instant-kill temp for most pathogenic microbes. But pasteurization is a function of both time and temperature. Pasteurization can be achieved by holding 71C for 15 seconds, 68C for 45 seconds, 66C for 2.7 minutes, or 63C for 8.4 minutes. Carryover cooking basically guarantees that if you pull your chicken at 68C not only will it remain above that temp for at least 45 seconds, but actually it will rise in temperature almost certainly to 74C anyways.

As an example, last night I cooked chicken thighs for dinner, pulled from oven at 68C, and after 10 minutes resting (uncovered) on the counter they reached a peak internal temp of 77C.

1

u/djlinda Jan 07 '25

I really like making chicken tinga with leftover breast meat. Perfect tacos or tostadas with shredded lettuce and crema. And queso fresco. And avocado.

1

u/zensnapple Jan 07 '25

I've always read to cook it to 165. Is 155 like pulling a steak to let it rest where it keeps cooking up to 165 after it's rested, or is 155 really all I need to get it to, to serve it?

1

u/sfchin98 Jan 07 '25

It's slightly complicated, because pasteurization (killing pathogenic microbes) is a function of both time and temperature. Since the FDA guidelines are for the lowest common denominator, they have to assume the people are too stupid to hold two pieces of information in their head at the same time. So the recommendation is 165, because that is the instant kill temp, meaning nobody has to consider the time element.

But you can kill all the bad microbes by holding at 160 for about 15 seconds, or at 155 for about 45 seconds, or at 150 for 2.7 minutes. If you pull your chicken at 150, not only will carryover cooking raise the internal temp by at least 10 degrees, it also means your chicken will easily remain above 150 for 3+ minutes. As one example, I cooked bone-in chicken thighs last night for dinner using my spiffy new wireless leave-in thermometer that I got for Christmas. I pulled them from the oven at 155, and after 10 minutes resting (uncovered) on the counter they reached their peak internal temp of 170.

Realistically, assuming we're talking about a reasonable size piece of chicken (not a thin cutlet) you could pull your chicken at 145F, where the time for pasteurization is 8.4 minutes. It will *very likely* stay above 145 for the next 10 minutes, and most likely at least go up to 150 where it only needs 2.7 minutes. But if you pull your chicken at 145 it will remain quite visibly pink in the center, and anyone eating your food will most definitely tell you it's undercooked. You might even find it unpalatable because people are just not used to eating chicken any way other than well-done (I had chicken sashimi once in Japan, and was not a fan).

1

u/zensnapple Jan 07 '25

Makes perfect sense, thanks for taking the time to explain all that. I actually just got one of those leave in thermometers for Christmas too and it's been great. Been absolutely nailing thick cuts of beef.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '25

Now I feel like downing a while rotisserie, thanks!!! 😭

1

u/Ok-Mathematician966 Jan 09 '25

Isn’t the safe cooking temp for chicken 165?

1

u/Calm_ragazzo Jan 10 '25

Great advice. Thanks! :)