Table of Contents
Description | Ingredients | Method | Nutritional Info | Notes And OptionsHow to Cook a Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast That Doesn’t Suck
Boneless, skinless chicken breast has long been the gold standard for lean protein. It is the first thing most people reach for when they decide to eat healthier. But let’s be honest, it is also one of the easiest meats to ruin. Cook it a minute too long and you end up with a dry, fibrous mess. Undercook it and you are worrying about food safety instead of enjoying your meal. Even when you get it perfect the first time, it rarely survives a few days in the fridge without turning into something closer to jerky than chicken.
I have spent years tinkering with ways to fix that. I have steamed, poached, baked, roasted, grilled, air-fried, and pressure-cooked, all in pursuit of chicken that stays tender, juicy, and genuinely enjoyable even days later. This is the method that finally delivered. It is simple, consistent, and almost impossible to mess up, whether you are making dinner for tonight or prepping for the week ahead.
This recipe is designed for anyone who wants a reliable, high-protein base they can build meals around, whether that is during an On-Protocol week or simply part of an everyday healthy routine. You can keep the seasoning basic with just salt and pepper, or change it up to fit whatever flavours you are craving that week (see the recipe notes for some suggestions and how to apply them). Once cooked, it is endlessly adaptable: slice it for salads, shred it for wraps, toss it with pasta, or quickly sear it for a more polished plated meal.
The key lies in the gentle, low-temperature oven cook and the even thickness from pounding the chicken breasts flat (a step I always used to just skip, but honestly, it only takes a minute or two and is SO worthwhile). Those two steps create a beautifully even result that is moist, tender, and full of flavour, without the guesswork or dryness that so often comes with “healthy” chicken. Because the internal temperature rises gradually, it does not overshoot while resting, and it reheats later without turning tough.
This is calm, unhurried meal prep at its best. You will spend a few minutes getting things ready, then step away while the oven does the work. When you come back, you will have the most reliable batch of perfectly cooked chicken breasts you have probably ever made, ready to sear and serve immediately, or reserve for meals later in the week.
Ingredients (Makes X Servings)
Boneless, skinless chicken breast pieces (usually about 150 - 220 grams each)
Sea salt (3 grams per 500 grams of meat / about 1/2 tsp per pound)
Black pepper and other seasonings to taste
Method #1 (for immediate service after cooking)
Pound the chicken breast pieces to a uniform thickness of about 16 mm / 5/8". I use the parchment paper I’m going to line the roasting pan with for step 3 below, centre a piece of chicken in one half, fold it over, and then pound it with something flat and smooth - a mallet, skillet, heavy bowl, or in my case, my marble mortar (from my mortar and pestle set).
Pre-salt (AKA dry brine) the chicken for 30 minutes before hand with fine sea salt - be sure to salt both sides evenly. If you want to add other dry spices or herbs, now is the time for that as well. I usually leave them at room temperature during this time, which is perfectly safe. If you’re nervous (or it is a particularly warm day out), you can keep it in the fridge during this step. Just add 5 minutes to the oven cooking time in that case.
Line the bottom of an aluminum roasting pan with parchment paper put it in your oven while preheating to 135 degrees C / 275 degrees F. This may take varying amounts of time depending on your oven - try to time it so that the preheat is done around the same time as the end of the dry brining period.
Remove the pan from the oven and place the chicken pieces skin side (the smoother side) down in the roasting pan on the parchment paper.
Cover the roasting pan tightly with foil, and place it in the oven.
Cook for 20-26 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 68 degrees C / 155 degrees F (with the 200-210 gram chicken breasts I used in my testing, they were perfect at about 22 minutes). If your chicken breasts are smaller, start checking them at 20 minutes. Larger may take closer to 26 or even longer. You may see a little bit of pinkness or translucence on the exposed surface at this point - that’s OK, because we’re going to be searing them in a pan or on a grill to finish them off.
Finish by searing in a pan over medium-high heat with a little bit of butter or on an oiled grill on high heat for 2 minutes per side with the skin side down LAST. Allow to rest at room temperature for 2-3 minutes before slicing and serving.
Method #2 (NO SEAR - for batch cooking and reheating later)
Pound the chicken breast pieces to a uniform thickness of about 16 mm / 5/8". I use the parchment paper I’m going to line the roasting pan with for step 3 below, centre a piece of chicken in one half, fold it over, and then pound it with something flat and smooth - a mallet, skillet, heavy bowl, or in my case, my marble mortar (from my mortar and pestle set).
Pre-salt (AKA dry brine) the chicken for 30 minutes before hand with fine sea salt - be sure to salt both sides evenly. If you want to add other dry spices or herbs, now is the time for that as well. I usually leave them at room temperature during this time, which is perfectly safe. If you’re nervous (or it is a particularly warm day out), you can keep it in the fridge during this step. Just add 5 minutes to the oven cooking time in that case.
Line the bottom of an aluminum roasting pan with parchment paper put it in your oven while preheating to 135 degrees C / 275 degrees F. This may take varying amounts of time depending on your oven - try to time it so that the preheat is done around the same time as the end of the dry brining period.
Remove the pan from the oven and place the chicken pieces skin side (the smoother side) down in the roasting pan on the parchment paper.
Cover the roasting pan tightly with foil, and place it in the oven.
Cook for 24-30 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 71 degrees C / 160 degrees F (with the 200-210 gram chicken breasts I used in my testing, they were perfect at about 25 minutes). If your chicken breasts are smaller, start checking them at 24 minutes. Larger may take closer to 30 or even longer.
Pull the pan from the oven and allow the chicken breast to rest at room temperature for 2-3 minutes before slicing and serving. Or, if not serving immediately, uncover the pan and let cool uncovered for 10 minutes, then refrigerate in a sealed container. This helps prevent condensation and sogginess. Either way, residual heat will finish cooking the breast pieces completely.
To reheat and sear for service, remove from the fridge and let sit at room temperature for 15-20 minutes, then sear in a pan over medium-high heat with a little bit of butter or on an oiled grill on high heat for 2 minutes per side with the skin side down LAST. Serve immediately.
Nutritional Info
Per 100 grams (raw) boneless, skinless chicken breast:
Calories: 3,720 kcal (excluding fiber calories)
Protein:
22.5 g
90 kcal
83.8% of total calories
Fat:
1.9 g
17.4 kcal
16.2% of total calories
Total Carbohydrate: 0 g
Total Fiber: 0 g
Net Carbohydrate:
0 g
0 kcal
0% of total calories
This nutritional analysis is an estimate only, based on available knowledge regarding the nutritional content of the individual ingredients. Nutritional content of foods is HIGHLY variable, so you should always base your dietary intake on whether it meets your needs and progresses you towards your goals rather than any theoretical numbers on paper.
Notes and Options
Pounding the breast pieces flat ensures more even cooking, and the pieces will cook through to the correct temperature in the oven about 20 minutes faster. The downside is that fewer pieces will fit in the roasting pan (E.G. in my roasting pan, which measures about 10x13” on the bottom, I could fit five breasts in the pan without pounding them, and only three pounded flat). Of course, I could just buy a second (or bigger) roasting pan...LOL.
If you prefer NOT to pound the chicken breast pieces flat, this method still works quite well, but cooking times can roughly double depending on the thickness of your chicken. Definitely use a probe or instant read meat thermometer in the thickest piece to verify cook temp in the centre if you go this route.
On that note, the flattened chicken breast pieces can make getting a thermometer probe centred in the piece pretty challenging for constant monitoring. Even checking with an instant-read thermometer can literally be hit or miss depending on how accurate you are with probe placement. Here are a couple of alternatives to really nail the cook time without a thermometer:
Since this is a recipe / method you’ll probably use again and again, you can just start with the longer recommended oven cooking times and work backwards from there by a minute or two with each attempt until you get the perfect, juicy result.
Alternatively, you can cut the biggest piece through at its thickest point when you think they should be done and do a visual check. The centre should be completely opaque, with no glassy or translucent spots. If you see even a faintly shiny pink centre, it’s not quite there. When you cut into the thickest part, the juices should run clear to very pale yellow. If you see any pinkish or milky fluid, give it a few more minutes.
I tried other methods for the first cooking stage, including moist methods like poaching, steaming (both in a tray in the oven and in the Instant Pot), but I found that they produced results that were somehow both really wet AND kind of stringy. Not very pleasant. The low-oven method I settled on above resulted in a nice texture and retained a juicy mouth feel, and retained that texture after cooling and using again a day or two later (either as-is, or seared before serving).
I did NOT personally try sous-vide cooking the breast pieces first because I don’t have sous-vide equipment as part of my kitchen arsenal. I have, however, eaten many a chicken breast prepared this way (sous-vide cooked and then seared for serving), and I have to say I still prefer the finished texture of the low-oven method better.
Recommendations from other reverse-sear recipes I found suggested brushing mixtures of oil and flour or oil and corn starch onto the breast pieces before pan searing to get a more pronounced “crust” and deeper browning. While it will definitely achieve those aims, I prefer not to bother with this step. If I wanted the chicken crusted, I wouldn’t be using this method.
After pieces have been seared and then refrigerated, re-searing them to reheat them will likely result in either drying them out or making the surface pretty tough. Honestly, the best way I’ve found is to reheat individual portions, covered, in the microwave on 80% power for about 1 minute. For multiple pieces, you’ll need to experiment and find what works for you in your microwave, but I’d maybe try adding another 30-45 seconds per additional piece.
Looking for more flavour options? Try these:
Include some ras el hanout (a Moroccan spice blend) in your dry brine stage to add some earthy North African flair. Delicious finished with a squeeze of fresh lemon.
Add some cumin, garlic powder, dried oregano and ground cayenne in your dry brine stage to give the chicken a Tex-Mex kick. Finish with a squeeze of fresh lime juice.
For Greek / Mediterranean flavour, add garlic powder, dried oregano and dried thyme to the dry brine stage and finish with fresh squeezed lemon.
Rub with harissa paste (North African red chile paste) after salting, and for even more punch, brush with a little fresh harissa paste just before serving.
A bit more time required, but you can marinate with the sea salt, tandoori or tikka paste, yogurt and lemon juice for at least a couple of hours before cooking.
You can also experiment with including various fresh herbs and other aromatics in the pan for the oven cooking stage. Fennel fronds, fresh thyme, and rosemary all work well. Note that the extra thermal mass in the pan might lengthen cooking times though.