Tender, Succulent Chicken

[literati]

Ok, my chicken is good but I want it to be melt-in-your-mouth tender. Ideas?

[Hello Kitty]

Roast sticky chicken recipe, hands down. Sometimes in the crock, other times in a slow oven. It's awesome!

[ks_piper]

Super easy and pretty tender...

dredge boneless skinless breasts that you've sliced or tenderloins in a mixture of flour, salt, pepper and whatever other seasoning you like - I used Spice Hunter's Tandoori Blend last night.

Put 1 TBL olive oil in a non-stick braiser or other shallow pan over med-hi heat. Add chicken when the oil is warm. Cook until browned on the exterior and meat is cooked through. I flip them once or twice to evenly brown them.

Should have a slightly firm/crunchy exterior and a nice tender interior. :)

[j*east]

The biggest difference I have found is in what kind of chicken you buy. I get the best results from kosher, organic, or (the absolute best) kosher organic. The koshering process (which has something to do with salt, but I honestly don't know what) makes the chicken *really* tender. I use a brand called something like Aaron's kosher organic, which you can find at Trader Joe's. Lacking that, I'd aim for organic in your grocery store (or kosher, but it's harder to find in some areas) or anything local at a farmers' market.

I'm not a fan of mass-produced Perdue stuff.

Oh, and the other thing is to brine the chicken before you cook it. (You can skip this with kosher chicken.) You can do a search for "brining chicken" to come up with a zillion resources.

My personal source on many things cooking is America's Test Kitchen (PBS show) and Cook's Illustrated (magazine and cookbooks).

[blondetwin22001]

Beer in the Butt chicken is awesome!! It is very juicy and tender!! You can buy the stands at pretty much any store, and all you do is stick a can of beer or soda in the stand, put the chicken over it and cook it on the grill. I usually will bake mine for a little while first then finish it on the grill. Yummy! My family loves it and it is so much cheaper buying a whole chicken instead of chicken breasts.

[jenjunum]

I think the best way to get tender chicken is to not overcook it. Whatever you need to do for that to happen do it. Use a thermometer and take it off the heat and cover it about 10 degrees before it's "done" it will continue to cook.

The best chicken I've had was dredged lightly in flour with salt and pepper and pan fried in butter & olive oil.

I've also had good results cooking chicken on a really hot cast iron grill pan.

I also think that thinner chicken breasts are easier to cook than thick. Butterfly or flaten the breasts first (or have your butcher do it).

[tlew12778]

Also, dark meat is more tender than white. I always roast thighs and they melt right off the bone. You can also simmer them on the stove top and you'll get similar results.

[mgrace]

Try marinating your chicken. I throw a couple of chicken breasts in a Ziploc with Newman's italian dressing. Tastes good and keeps it moist.

[vwinkel]

Second vote for beer can chicken on the grill. That is the juiciest and most tender chicken I've ever had. There are a ton of recipes out there for that, but I use the BBQ Bootcamp recipe.

Remember that book Under the Tuscan Sun? She put a chicken recipe in that book that was really simple and very juicy. I will have to look it up, but it was butter and fresh herbs. You placed it in the oven and I remember it being very tender.

You might also want to try a flavor injector. You can inject butter or marinade into the chicken to make it tender.

[KarenS]

Definitely don't overcook. That's the kiss of death for chicken.

Kosher or organic chicken is best. Brine it or marinade it.

Most people today are so worried about salmonella or whatever htat they cook their chicken until it's tough and dry and yucky. Cook it until it's *just* done, not overdone (as someone else said, take it off the heat 5-10 degrees before doneness, because it will keep cooking off the heat).

It took us a while to be able to cook chicken well ... but once we learned, we've had good luck every time.

Karen