So my Boyfriend says I havent cracked Chicken

ella23

My favourite which never fails and has no fat in it either.

Breast of chicken,
For the sauce:
Ballymalou Relish, wholegrain mustard, Lemon or lime, garlic italian seasoning. Put as much of these in as your palette likes, just make sure theres enough to cover the chicken. Mix all the ingredients of the sauce together.
Lay the breast of chicken on tinfoil and make a little bowl for it by folding the tinfoil up. Add in your sauce and cover full. Put in to the oven at 200 degrees for half an hour. after 30 mins, open it up and up the temperature to 220 degrees for a further ten mins. Its amazing! And the chicken is flavoursome and moist

VictorRomeo

This is quite probably my favorite chicken dish ever... It's a Thomas Keller recipe - he of French Laundry fame (once held the Best Restaurant in the World title - think it dethroned the Fat Duck)..

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/08/thomas-kellers-chicken-breasts-with-tarragon.html

It's unbelievably good.... the curried chicken goes great with the sharp tarragon sauce. Best served with a crisp white wine.... Serve with steamed rice.

Rakish Paddy

As has been alluded to by many here, chicken breast is kind of inherently boring and you need other sauces / seasonings /accompaniments to compensate.

Here is one of my absolute favourite chicken recipes, a Thai-style chicken and cashew nuts (FAR nicer than the Chinese takeaway counterpart), although it might require a trip to an Asian grocery shop to get some of the sauce ingredients:
http://highheelgourmet.com/2014/02/01/chicken-with-cashew-nuts/

Slice the chicken breast into thin slices rather than big chunks, and you can add other vegetables to the stir fry to liven it up. Off the top of my head, I'd usually include any combination of:
Peppers
Shi'take mushrooms
Water chestnuts
Thinly sliced carrot
Broccoli
Pak choi (don't add this until near the end of cooking so that it stays crisp)

SarahMollie

Thanks all - some lovely recipies for me to attempt.

For all those saying that chicken fillet is a boring cut - I know and I agree!

I have also used thighs, drumsticks etc but this also results in bad feedback - the boyf prefers the fillet.

I just want easy dinners to cook on weeknights and an easy life! He does help but he's not really a good cook on his own and will only attempt a few simple recipes on his own if i'm not there.

spaceylou

In a bowl mix:
1 - 2 chilli (remove seeds first)
zest lemon
mozzarella cheese

Slice each fillet to create a pocket and stuff with the filling. Cover and bake in oven for 45 min ish. Really nice served with either roast Mediterranean veg (peppers, courgettes, garlic, mushrooms, tomatoes etc) or salad.

Alternatively as others have suggested, marinade the chicken in flavours overnight, get BF to cook or maybe try turkey - is it slightly less bland while still being lean?

nosietoes

I second the suggestion of extra salt in the cooking stage and a squeeze of lemon/lime juice or dash of nice vinegar. Should wake up the flavours.

Loire

Zelda247 wrote: »

When you put the lid on how long does it take to cook?

About 10 mins - slit it with a knife to be sure it's cooked through

Keane2baMused

I would imagine you need to kick the seasoning up a fair bit. I know we all should be health conscious but could you possibly be way under seasoning it?

I think if you kick that up and add extra herbs, spices etc and he still isn't happy well he will just have to put up or shut up!

Kurumba

Easy chicken Indian dishes

My fave easy go to week night dinner is:
Chicken breasts chopped in to chunks
Tin of tomatos
Onion
A pepper if wanted
And a jar of Pataks paste, tikka masala or Balti I love.
Dollop of natural yogurt if you fancy it served with rice and nann bread.

So simple and much healthier than a take away Indian!

The Hill Billy

A jar of paste! I like my curries spicy, but a half jar max would do.

Alun

The Hill Billy wrote: »

A jar of paste! I like my curries spicy, but a half jar max would do.

Exactly, the recipe on the jar says 65g or 1/4 of a jar for two, and I find that just right.

Kurumba

Sorry i should have said, i use the small jar of tikka masala paste. It's the only one i can get in tesco in the small size for some reason.
For the Balti paste etc I use less than half of the bigger jars for 4 servings.

Mrs Fox

The Hill Billy wrote: »

A jar of paste! I like my curries spicy, but a half jar max would do.

Just give him a jar and hide the drinks. That'll teach him.

discus

I find the George Foreman is great for cooking chicking. If the breast is cut into 4 equal lengths, they cook quickly and stay moist. If you coat the chicken pieces in some dry fajita spices, and lightly oil the george foreman you'll have some good (and QUICK) chicken. Serve that up with a handful of rocket leaves, rice, tortilla wraps and diced red onion... If he complains I'll eat my hat.

Keane2baMused

discus wrote: »

I find the George Foreman is great for cooking chicking. If the breast is cut into 4 equal lengths, they cook quickly and stay moist. If you coat the chicken pieces in some dry fajita spices, and lightly oil the george foreman you'll have some good (and QUICK) chicken. Serve that up with a handful of rocket leaves, rice, tortilla wraps and diced red onion... If he complains I'll eat my hat.

Does that not dry it out? The George wouldn't be known for producing the most moist meat

Minder

SarahMollie wrote: »

Now I'm of the opinion that a chicken fillet will only ever be so exciting but my BF insists that I'm just bad at cooking chicken.

Any suggestions?!?!

Try Guinea Fowl as an alternative to chicken if you can find it. You will probably have to buy the whole bird. Fillet the breast meat and cook simply - season well, pan fry to crisp the skin and finish in the oven.

You could do it as a blind taste test for the bf alongside a chicken breast cooked the same way. If he prefers the Guinea Fowl, then its not your cooking (highly unlikely in the first place) more likely to the the wide availability of mass produced flavourless chicken.

Another option to try is brining the whole chicken. This Thomas Keller recipe is a great example. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roast_chicken_with_54406

blue_blue

Karaage is another suggestion. http://english.evidus.com/magazine/recipe/017.html You can substitute our regular 'corn flour' (i.e. corn starch) for the potato starch. But you can always easily pickup potato starch in any Asian supermarket.

Annasopra

SarahMollie wrote: »

Yeah, once or twice and yes always good quality - I buy all my meat from the butchers, its something i'd be fussy about.

I suppose my perception is that doing a roast dinner is a bit time consuming on a weekday after work. We mostly eat out on a Saturday and go to one of our families on a Sunday so a roast, just for the two of us, seems a lot.

I live with someone so often cook for two

On a Sunday I will sometimes roast a chicken.

After dinner I strip down the meat from carcass boil up the carcass for stock

On Monday then I will make risotto or chicken and mushroom pie using the stock and leftover meat

Annasopra

discus wrote: »

I find the George Foreman is great for cooking chicking. If the breast is cut into 4 equal lengths, they cook quickly and stay moist. If you coat the chicken pieces in some dry fajita spices, and lightly oil the george foreman you'll have some good (and QUICK) chicken. Serve that up with a handful of rocket leaves, rice, tortilla wraps and diced red onion... If he complains I'll eat my hat.

Noooooooooo

Never use a George foreman for cooking chicken breasts- all the moisture gets drained off and they end up like leather

Annasopra

I love this nigella recipe


https://www.nigella.com/recipes/crunchy-chicken-cutlets

L1011

Reading this thread with interest as it I simply can't cook chicken properly. Always turns in to stringy, icky lumps in curries and worse in anything else. Have even tried the Aldi and Quorn fake chicken products, which are simply terrible, as alternatives. Hence I haven't eaten chicken at home in about six months now when it used to be a core part of my diet.

Rakish Paddy

Keane2baMused wrote: »

Does that not dry it out? The George wouldn't be known for producing the most moist meat

The George... Moist meat... must refrain from making inappropriate jokes...