Chicken?

SparkPoints: (20,576)
Fitness Minutes: (17,059)
Posts: 548
10/4/11 9:16 P

I love chicken and cook it often. The recipes here on Spark are great. I take boneless breasts and pound them so they're about 1/2 inch. Spray a skillet with cooking spray. Lightly season both sides of chicken and brown over med high to high heat. (About 2 mins each side) Then, I'll add either marinara sauce and top with mozzarella, salsa and top with shredded cheddar, or mix together 1/2 cup of chicken stock with 1/2 cup of lemon juice (I also like to add sliced mushrooms and parsley to this). Cover pan and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes on medium heat. Quick and easy and makes the protein for a meal, or chicken to top salad with.

Edited by: ZELDA13 at: 10/4/2011 (21:18)

SparkPoints: (11,393)
Fitness Minutes: (2,507)
Posts: 444
9/27/11 11:33 A

A couple of things - since you are pretty new to making it, you might try flattening the chicken out some so it's a thinner piece. This will ensure that it's cooked all the way through without having to overcook the outside of it which can result in really chewy chicken that's hard and crusty on the outside.

Here is one of my fave but very basic ways of cooking chicken that if you slice it into strips after it's cooked gives great flavor in wraps, on salads, overtop some pasta or as I really like...just eat it as is with some roasted cauliflower and sauteed kale:

*Pound out 2 (4 oz each) boneless skinless chicken breast to 1/4 inch thickness
*Season with sea salt and pepper
*Heat a skillet (nonstick works fine) over medium-high heat and add 1/2 tbls olive oil and 1/2 tbls I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light. Add the chicken breasts and cook 2 minutes on first side, flip and cook another 2-3 minutes or until chicken is cooked about 3/4 of the way through.
*Take chicken out of the pan and put on plate and cover lightly with foil
*To the pan add an additional 1/2 tbls of ICBINB and 1/4 cup of dry white wine (may substitute chicken broth) and squeeze 1/2 of a large lemon in the pan. If you taste at this point it will taste very lemony and almost sour and is very runny. Let the sauce come up to a slight boil and then decrease heat and let it simmer until the sauce has cooked down to just a very small amount. Put your chicken back in let it kind of marinate in the sauce...keep turning it to coat it in the sauce and finish cooking completely. Serve sprinkled with fresh parsley for beautiful color and flavor.

You won't end up with much sauce - if you make more of the pan sauce, it's wonderful served over some whole wheat pasta with green onion tops and lots of chopped fresh parsley. Other things that are great added: Mushrooms, scallions, shallots, capers, etc. It's a very quick, easy and lower fat version of piccata. Happy Cooking!

Posts: 605
9/27/11 11:09 A

arbitrarykitchen.blogspot.com/2011/09/chic
ken-hunters-stew-for-orzo.html Or the version I put on Spark, recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?
recipe=1816383 I'm not claiming it's healthy, and I can't figure out where the sodium is coming from. (Tomato paste is contributing a small fraction of the problem.)

Get bone-in breasts, I can't remember if that includes skins or not. It's half the price of boneless skinless, though the best advice I've gotten about how to calculate it is to guess how much lard is present even after you strip away with the parts you pick out.


Chicken-fried chicken.... Pull the ribs away from the breast, lightly cutting when neccesary. You should end up with a tenderloin and breast. Cut away the thin half of the breast, cut the thick part in half sternum-to-wing.

Mix flour with ground spices, (can't remember which ones,) dip the damp chicken in the flour, then in two beaten eggs, then into something dry. (Corn flakes, pork rinds, bread crumbs... dipping back into the flour was okay but not right.) Cook in a lightly greased pan, flip, and cook until done. (The previous instructions were a prompt to find proper instructions.)


As for just frying breasts... High heat for a minute or so in a greased pan, then cover and cook on low in the presence of liquid. My pork chop recipe involves a dredge before a high-heat sear then a braising under onions and possibly apple slices, same with sliced beef liver. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braising


Honestly, if you can fire up the oven with similar energy costs, low-heat baking might be the way to go.

Edited by: KELEKONA at: 9/27/2011 (11:12)

Posts: 166
9/27/11 10:28 A

I am not a great cook and I really am trying to improve. I love chicken and usually end up buying it pre cooked in strips lol.

I would love to start cooking it myself. But everytime I try it does not go well. I want to make a lovely perfect copy of the strips I can buy for salads. But mine never ever turns out like that.

I get boneless, skinless breasts. I put them in a skillet and they end up with this nasty hard crusty stuff on them. Nothing like the precooked strips I buy. I end up having to cut away the entire outside before I can eat it.

Please can someone help me?