How to ensure tender and juicy chicken breast

Thursday 18th April 2024

Do you find that when you cook chicken breast it’s dry and rubbery? This is partly down to chicken breast being a lean cut of meat with low fat content. Fat helps keep meat moist during cooking. Without enough fat, the chicken breast can become dry when cooked. This means we need to take extra care when cooking it.

To get the most juicy chicken breast, you want to cook it at high heat for as short a time as possible. Cooking chicken can be scary; even our professional chefs are not immune to this. When serving chicken at a large event, the pressure is on! We all know the repercussions of eating undercooked chicken; it is drilled into us as soon as mum lets us anywhere near the kitchen. So it can feel safer to overcook chicken. To give you confidence when cooking chicken, a foolproof method is to use a food thermometer; the chicken must reach 75 degrees Celsius. You can buy one for under £10 and guarantee all the chicken you cook will taste restaurant-quality.

At Rachel’s Event Catering, we use a probe for all the meat that we cook and think that it is an essential piece of kit for every kitchen! Once you have mastered cooking chicken, even the simplest of recipes are delicious. Why not order for yourself a probe and try making one of our buffet staples, Thai chicken bites?

An affordable food probe https://amzn.eu/d/aowJlGK

Juicy Chicken Thai Bites
Juicy Chicken Thai Bites

Recipe for Rachel’s Event Catering Thai Chicken Bites

Serves 4 (as a side dish or starter)

Ingredients:

  • 2 chicken breasts
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 2 cloves of chopped garlic
  • 1 tsp chopped ginger
  • 1 tsp lemongrass paste
  • 1/2 tsp chili paste
  • Small bunch of finely chopped fresh coriander
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C.
  2. Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces and place them in a bowl.
  3. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well.
  4. Place the chicken mixture on a lined baking sheet.
  5. Place the baking sheet into the preheated oven for 12 minutes.
  6. Use a food thermometer to probe a few chicken pieces from different places on the tray and check that they all reach 75°C. If not, place them back in the oven for another 2 minutes until they do