A 1001 ways to prepare a chicken breast

Ok, in the spirit of this forum, and acknowledging that carnivorous/omnivorous bodybuilders are alone responsible for the profits for the Purdue family, I thought a thread on preparing chicken breasts would be cool.

I'll take the easy ones, and then add some more thoughts.  I'm assuming skinless, boneless for most of these.

First of all a preparation hint:  Unless you are stewing  chicken or some other slow-cooking method, its flavor and texture are optimized if you remove it from heat when it is a light, whitish pink (not glossy pink).  It will finish cooking after you remove it from the heat.  The trick is "just done".  Otherwise, you lose a lot of flavor and it gets chewy.


1.   Grill (d'oh)--best flavor, with salt and pepper, grilled with olive oil.  Indoor or out.

2.   Bake it.

3.   Braise it (but this seems the least flavorable of the methods).

4.   Season it when it's done with: hot sauce, ketchup, or vinegar (especially balsamic).

5.   Before cooking, seasons with salt and pepper, Mrs. Dash or other herbal seasoning mix, Cajun spices.

6.   Marinate it in Teriyaki sauce (note:  adds significant sodium; use low sodium brands).

7.   Make a chicken taco or other like Mexican dish.  Cut it up and put it in a whole-wheat tortilla, or corn tortilla (not the fried ones!).  Add traditional condiments, but watch out on the cheese and sour cream.  Salsa and lettuce are always good.

8.   Make a salad.  Cut up your grilled chicken; place on top of your favorite lettuce (be adventurous.  Iceberg is boring.  Try Romaine, leaf, Bibb, Mesculan, or mixes thereof).  Gussy up with whatever vegetables you like.  (Oven-roasted red, yellow and orange peppers are fabulous).  Be conservative with cheese and croutons (whole wheat or multigrain if you can find them).  Eat.  If you must use a dressing, make sure it uses a good oil (olive, canola, not soybean), has no corn syrup, and use it sparingly.  You can season it with just balsamic vinegar (but watch that if you're cutting), or your own balsamic dressing made with olive oil, salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar (and optionally mustard).

9.   Chicken sandwich:  grilled chicken breast, seasoned or not, place on whole-wheat bun.  Add reasonable condiments as your regime allows.

10.   Make a soup or stew out of it.  Boil the chicken breast(s).  Remove from heat.  While it's cooking, peel a potato or two (if allowed in your plan), carrots (the baby carrots cut down on preparation) and any other vegetables you like:  celery, tomatoes, peppers, etc.  Saute some onion and fresh garlic in a little bit of olive oil until onions are the way you like them (usually transparent, watch them!).  Add your vegetables and water to cover.  Boil until the carrots are done (easily pierced with fork).  Add the chicken and low-salt chicken bouillon (you'll have to estimate the liquid content; alternatively, you can add it when you add the water, just measure the water out).  Adjust the liquid by adding more water if you want.  If you want to add a pasta, now is the time to do it.  Season with pepper (no salt; the bouillon has enough).  It looks like a lot of work, but I can whip this up in less than 30 minutes.

11. cook it with steak. chop up some steak, chop up some chicken. cookem together. its pretty good.
 
12. put it in a ton of veggies and make stir fry.

Excellent post, gzinkl- Let's see how quick we can get this up to 1,001!
Here's something I do on a pretty regular basis.
cook a batch of brown rice, whole grain.
In a half a bowl of cold water, mix three tablespoons of curry powder, half teaspoon of cumin, one teaspoon of garlic salt, add crushed red pepper to taste.
When the rice is fully cooked- No more water in pot- Add this mixture and simmer with fully cooked (I normally bake them out of convenience) chicken breasts immersed for about five minutes. Normally, I just throw the chicken in there whole- But to add more flavor throughout the chicken, you can cut it into strips before simmering.
Throw the whole thing into a tupperware container, bring it to work, and piss off all your coworkers with the stink. Some people just don't like curry.

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OR- For those of you who don't mind taking some time, you can make a different sort of curry, homemade- Very interesting flavor.
Heat 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a non-stick pan.
When oil is heated, add half a medium onion, finely chopped. Making sure not to brown or burn onion, (use low heat), stir gently for five minutes.
Add 4 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly, and an equal quantity of ginger. Again, be careful not to burn or brown anything- Low heat.
After five minutes, add half a teaspoon of cumin and half a teaspoon of turmeric, along with seeded chillies to taste- I normally use five or so japanese chillies, but I really like things spicy-continue to stir gently.
Add five tablespoons of tomatoe puree, continue to stir on low heat for about ten minutes. If mixture start to stick at any point, add some drops of water.
Lightly blend mixture with 4 ounces of water, return it to pan, and add cooked diced chicken- I normally use a couple of breasts- Continue to heat on low for eight to ten minutes and serve with brown rice.

I just tried this one, recipe from friend. It sounds SO weird, but I swear it is soooo good and talk about tender! I think the pickle juice makes the chicken so tender due to its acidity- alike lemon or tomato juice on chicken does.
 
chicken breasts (cut in chunks)
pickle juice (yes, pickle juice- I used classic dill)
salt and pepper
italian seasoning (any powdered version from grocery store).
 
mix alltogether so chicken is well covered in juice. let sit 30-90 mins. drain, then cook in a non stick pan sprayed with Pam until no longer pink.
 
melt in your mouth

Now that its summer you can bulk smoke them.  Throw about 10-14 chicken breasts in a smoker with a double rack.  Season with salt, pepper, garlic, and chopped basil.  Smoke 'em for 3 hours and you have delicious chicken for the rest of the week.

i just made this last night because i was wondering what i could do with the crap in my fridge.... i made every meal for about a week and a half..... i just went on a cooking spree and i did this with some of the chicken.....
 
 
marinated 2 chicken breasts in low sodium teriaki sauce for a few hours.
 
chopped 2 celery stalks, 1 whole green bell pepper, and half an onion.
 
chopped chicken into chunks the tossed in a pand lubed with olive oil.... added blackend seasoning and more teriaki.
 
once the pink was almost gone i threw in the veggies and cooked untill onions started turning clear..... now i have some pretty  dank
homemade stir fry.
 
chopped

One of my fav's is lemon pepper w/ either a lemon juice and pepper marinade or the seasoning.  I got a huge tub @ sams club for like 4 bucks.
 
Theres a rice I use called basmatic that still has the husk on, it tastes different but good I grill up some lemon pepper chicken and serve it on a bed of rice.  Hasn't gotten old yet.

I wrap chicken breast in tinfoil and put salsa, cheese, black beans and corn in the wrap and bake it.  Its a mexicanish chicken meal!! 

Chicken in foil is my favorite way of cooking it.

I also boil chicken.  Just take the breast and put it into a pot with water.  I add garlic to the water to give the chicken extra flavor.  When the chicken is done boiling, it shreds very easily.  Then I mix in some barbeque sauce and serve it over some rice.

Here's a plug....RONCO's SET IT AND FORGET IT Rotissere. It's the best invention EVER. I cook in it like 5 days a week.

Or you can do what Ronnie Coleman does...frozen chicken in the microwave, then squeeze some bbq sauce on it...yummm.  "Good ol chicken", as he says.

 
8 chicken thighs, skinned
1 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
2 red peppers, seeded and sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 1/4 cups passata
2/3 cup dry white wine
1 tsp dried oregano
4 oz can cannelini beans, drained
3 tbsp breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper to taste
Fry the chicken in the oil in a non-stick or heavy pan until golden brown. Remove and keep hot. Add the onion and peppers to the pan and gently saute until softened, but not brown. Stir in the garlic.
Add the chicken, passata, wine and oregano. Season well, bring to the boil then cover the pan tightly.
Lower the heat and simmer gently, stirring occasionally for 35 minutes or until the chicken is tender and the juice run clear, not pink, when pierced with the point of a knife.
Stir in the cannelini beans and simmer for a further 5 minutes until heated through.
Sprinkle with the breadcrumbs and cook under a hot grill until golden brown.

 
Creamy Lemon Chicken with Vegetables - serves 4
Preparation time: 10 minutes - cook time: 20 minutes
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (1 pound, 4 ounces)
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) reduced-fat cream of chicken soup
Grated peel and juice of 1 large lemon
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) mixed peas and diced carrots, drained
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley or dill
Sprinkle chicken on both sides with pepper. In large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add chicken and cook 3 minutes per side, until well browned and no longer pink in the center. Add soup, lemon peel and juice, and stir to mix with the pan drippings. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer 5 minutes, stirring 2 or 3 times. Stir in vegetables and parsley; cover and simmer 2 to 3 minutes longer until heated through.

 
One-Dish Chicken and Rice Bake - serves 4
Preparation - 15 minutes, cooking time - 45 minutes.
1 can chicken soup
1 cup water
3/4 cup uncooked regular white rice (or whole grain brown for better source of carbs)
1/4 tsp paprika
4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
In a two-quart shallow baking dish, mix soup, water, rice, paprika and pepper.
Place chicken on top. Sprinkle with additional paprika and pepper. Cover.
Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

The easy way is to just buy a bag of frozen chicken breasts, dump a bottle of marinade in the bag and let sit for a while. Cook it up and it should last you a couple days. If you get tired of it, cut up a breast and use it with eggs to make a chicken omelette.

Hot n' Spicy Chicken Stuffed Chicken - serves 4

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup milk
4 thin slices of ham
1/2 cup of shredded mozarella cheese
1/4 cup of jalapeno peppers (substitute if needed)
1 1/2 cups of bread crumbs
Chilli Powder - You decide how much
Any other hot solid you can think of

Work on a clean surface. Layout out the 4 chicken breasts and cut a pocket in each. In a bowl, chop up the ham into small bits, add the peppers and add in the cheese. In another bowl, dump the bread crumbs in it. Add chilli powder, the more the hotter. Mix it up until the crumbs are reddish. In another bowl, pour the milk in and dip the chicken breasts in the milk. Dredge each chicken breast in the breadcrumbs. Stuff the inside of the breaded chicken breasts with the mozarella, ham and pepper filling.

Place on a pan and bake at 400°F for around 40 minutes or until done.