Food - Drink
The Trick That Will Make Your Chicken Breasts Better
By ALISON SPIEGEL
It's simple enough to cook chicken breasts, but it's far more difficult to make them moist and tender. There is a crucial step you should always take to prevent chicken breasts from turning out dry and tough, regardless of whether you are grilling them or searing them in a pan.
It is essential to pound chicken breasts to an even thickness before cooking them because when each piece of chicken is a different size, it will cook at a different rate, making it possible for the thicker breasts to remain underdone while the thinner ones dry out. Pounding also makes the chicken breast more tender.
The best tool to use is a meat mallet, but if you don't have one, you can also use a rolling pin, the bottom of a mason jar, or even the back of a skillet. Wrap the breasts in wax paper or plastic wrap and pound them until they are as uniformly and evenly thick as possible—between a quarter and a half inch.