Secrets and features of cooking chicken breast: cooking recipes, photos, videos. How to properly cook chicken breast, how to poach chicken fillet: tips and tricks. How long does it take to cook chicken?

Boiled chicken breast is suitable for dietary nutrition. Next, we’ll learn how to cook chicken meat so that it turns out juicy and tasty.

Sometimes, due to problems with the gastrointestinal tract, you have to be content with dietary nutrition. But this is not so bad, because diet food can also be not only healthy, but also tasty. Boiled chicken breast can be considered such dishes. The benefits of meat are great; it contains useful microelements and minerals. The fillet is rich in sodium, magnesium, fluorine, zinc, cobalt, chromium, iodine, calcium and copper. The breast also contains vitamins PP, E, A, C, B.

To preserve these beneficial components, it is better to cook the product. In addition, nowadays you can prepare the perfect chicken breast using various methods using kitchen appliances. Next, let's look at how to cook chicken breast in different ways so that it turns out without flaws.

How to cook chicken breast - choice of meat, preparatory stage

In order to get the perfect dish, you must use high-quality and fresh chicken meat. Pay special attention to the choice of product. It is believed that chilled chicken meat is one of the healthiest and highest quality products on the market. And it's better than frozen. This is indeed true, but on one condition: the chicken breast is stored refrigerated for no more than forty-eight hours. Then both the broth and the chicken itself will turn out great.

And when the fillet has been stored for longer than the allotted time, then a frozen product is much better than a chilled one. If the shelf life is violated, chilled chicken breasts during cooking will emit, to put it mildly, an unpleasant odor, and it will be impossible to eat them.

Boiled chicken breast

When you buy meat fillet, before cooking, observe some features of the preparatory stage:

Try not to defrost breasts in the microwave because microwaves make the fillets drier and tougher. It is better to defrost meat in the refrigerator on the bottom shelf or in the room, but not in a warm place.
Some housewives defrost food in cold water; this is also not necessary. Thanks to this soaking, the breast will lose most of its mineral components, vitamins, etc.
The skin on the breast can be removed or left on - the quality of the boiled meat will not change. The only thing is that if you leave the skin, the broth after cooking the chicken will be richer.
To prepare a clear, beautiful broth, it is advisable to pour cold water over the meat. When it boils, turn the heat to low and cook until fully cooked. If you cook the breasts on high gas, the broth will turn out cloudy.

Chicken breast without skin
If you are cooking chicken breast for salads and it is not particularly important to you what kind of broth you get, then immediately pour hot boiled water over the meat and bring to a boil over high gas. This way the protein will coagulate faster, thereby all the useful components (vitamins, minerals) will remain inside the breast.

And after this procedure, you can start boiling the brisket until fully cooked.

IMPORTANT : Before cooking, be sure to wash the meat under running tap water. To get a rich broth from the breast, you should separate the flesh from the bone before cooking, immediately after defrosting the product and washing it. The broth will turn out transparent and aromatic if you cook it over low gas with onions, bay leaves, and spices.

How to cook in a saucepan

Place the chicken in a single layer at the bottom of the container, add salt, garlic, pepper, and other spices used.
Fill with water so that it covers the pieces by 2.5 cm.
Place the pan on a medium burner flame, bring to a boil, carefully skim off the foam if the liquid is intended for broth.
Reduce the flame to low and cover the pan with a lid. After eight minutes, take the temperature inside the thickest part of the breast for the first time. The finished product has a temperature of 73-74°C inside the thickest part. If you don't have an instant-read thermometer, use timing and thickness of the chicken breast as a guide. A thin chicken breast is cooked under these conditions for about 10 minutes, and a thick one - 14.
Remove cooked tender, juicy, soft chicken breasts to a board or plate.

If you want to cook the breast for a salad, it is good to cook it with white wine. First add wine and then water.

How to cook chicken breast - recipe for cooking fillet in a pan

Chicken breast and broth will be delicious if cooked correctly. To do this, you need to use not only high-quality meat, but also follow the recipe. By the way, do not choose chicken fillet (breast) if it weighs more than four hundred grams. Perhaps such a bird was fed with chemical additives for rapid growth.

How to cook chicken breast on the stove in a saucepan?

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Fillet – 300 g
Water - 2.2 l
Salt - 15 g
Celery – 25 g
Carrots – 75 g
Onion - 25 g
Bay leaf - 1 pc.
Peppercorns - 3 pcs.

Preparation:

To make a rich broth, place the fillet and salt in cold water. Bring to a boil.
Then remove the foam and pour all the other spices into the liquid, add carrots, onions and everything else.
Close the container with a lid. Let it simmer over low heat for about 25 minutes.
The cooking time can be increased or decreased. Much depends on what kind of meat you cook. Young chicken breast cooks quickly.

This method of cooking the brisket will produce a very tasty broth, but the chicken will be a little dry.

Chicken breast fillet

What to cook from boiled chicken for main course: 8 recipes

Almost all the main dishes presented in this collection have several cooking options. You can adjust their composition taking into account your own gastronomic preferences and the products at your disposal.

Boiled chicken goulash

What do you need:

boiled chicken meat – 0.4 kg;
carrots – 100 g;
onions – 100 g;
tomato paste – 40 ml;
garlic – 2 cloves;
flour – 15-20 g;
water or broth – 0.3-0.4 l;
refined vegetable oil - how much will be needed;
salt, a mixture of peppers, paprika, herbs - to taste (can be replaced with ready-made goulash seasoning).

How to cook:

Cut the carrots into strips or coarsely grate them. Cut the onion into thin half rings. Break the chicken meat or cut it into small pieces.
Heat oil in a deep frying pan, add onions and carrots. When the vegetables acquire a golden hue, add the chicken to them and fry it with them for 2-3 minutes.
Add seasonings, salt and tomato paste, stir. After a couple of minutes, sprinkle the products with sifted flour and mix again.
Pour water or broth into the pan and simmer the food for 5 minutes. Put out the fire.
Add finely chopped garlic and herbs. Stir the food again and serve.

Goulash is usually served with a side dish, generously pouring it with meat gravy. As a side dish you can use rice, pasta, buckwheat porridge or mashed potatoes.

Burrito with chicken and bell pepper

What do you need:

tortilla – 3-4 pcs.;
boiled chicken meat – 150-180 g;
bell pepper (pulp) – 150-180 g;
onions (preferably purple) – 75-80 g;
hot capsicum – 15-30 g;
tomato – 150 g;
lime – 1 pc.;
fresh cilantro or parsley - 3-4 sprigs;
refined vegetable oil – 40-60 ml.

How to cook:

Cut the chicken into strips, fry until golden brown in vegetable oil, place on a plate.
Place coarsely chopped peppers and onions, cut into half rings, into the frying pan. Lightly fry the vegetables, add to the chicken, stir.
Pour boiling water over the tomatoes and remove the skins. Cut the pulp and fry in the remaining oil in the pan. When the tomatoes darken, transfer them to a blender glass, squeeze the lime juice on them, add the hot pepper skins cut into circles. Turn on the appliance, turning the food in its bowl into a homogeneous mass.
Grease the Mexican tortillas with the resulting sauce, distribute the filling over them, and pour the rest of the sauce over it. Wrap the filling in a tortilla.
Fry the burrito in a dry frying pan or heat in the microwave.

Burrito is a Mexican dish, so it is quite spicy. If you are not one of the fans of savory snacks, then exclude hot pepper from the sauce or replace it with a clove of garlic.

Shawarma from boiled chicken meat with cabbage

What do you need:

chicken breast fillet (ready) – 140-180 g;
thin pita bread – 2 pcs.;
white cabbage – 150 g;
Korean carrots – 30-40 g;
pickled cucumbers – 100 g;
garlic – 1 clove;
ketchup – 20 ml;
mayonnaise – 20 ml;
refined vegetable oil (optional) - how much will be needed.

How to cook:

Prepare the sauce by mixing mayonnaise with ketchup and garlic pressed through a press. Brush one of the narrow edges of each pita bread with it.
Place shredded cabbage on the sauce and cucumbers cut into circles or large strips. Place the next layer of chicken cut into strips and sprinkle with Korean carrots.
Roll the pita bread into envelopes and fry in an oil-coated or dry frying pan.

To make the sauce more piquant, you can add mustard, ketchup can be replaced with curry sauce, mayonnaise can be replaced with sour cream. This will allow you to change the taste of shawarma.

Boiled chicken casserole

What do you need:

boiled chicken meat – 0.7-0.8 kg;
leek – 0.2 kg;
tomatoes – 0.4 kg;
sour cream – 150 g;
wheat flour – 50 g;
butter – 50 g;
lemon zest – 5 g;
hard cheese – 80-100 g;
breadcrumbs – 20 g;
salt, seasonings, fresh herbs - to taste.

How to cook:

Separate the chicken meat from the bones and cut it into medium pieces.
Cut the onion into rings, simmer until soft in melted butter, mix with chicken.
Add lemon zest, sour cream, seasonings and salt to the poultry meat and onions, stir. Transfer the resulting mixture into a heatproof dish.
Cut the tomatoes into circles and place them on top of other products.
Finely grate the cheese, mix it with breadcrumbs, and pour this mixture over the products in the mold.
Place the pan in the oven, preheated to 180 degrees, for 35-40 minutes.

The casserole will turn out so tasty and appetizing that it can be served at a dinner party, and not just for a family meal.

Omelette with boiled chicken

What do you need:

boiled chicken meat – 100 g;
chicken egg – 2-3 pcs.;
sour cream or mayonnaise – 60 ml;
onions – 50 g;
refined vegetable oil - how much will be needed;
salt, spices - to taste;
fresh vegetables or pickles (optional) - to taste.

How to cook:

Fry finely chopped onion in vegetable oil. Add finely chopped chicken to it, lightly brown, sprinkle with seasonings.
Beat the eggs with mayonnaise or sour cream, adding a little salt.
Pour the egg mixture over the poultry meat.
Fry the omelette over low heat, covered, until it thickens sufficiently.
Allow the omelette to slide onto the plate by tilting the pan over it. At the same time, fold it in half.

Place fresh or pickled vegetables on the free part of the plate, after which the dish can be served.

Boiled chicken pancakes

What do you need:

boiled chicken breast – 1 piece (2 fillets);
chicken egg – 2 pcs.;
onions – 0.2 kg;
sour cream – 60 ml;
wheat flour or potato starch – 50 g;
salt, seasonings - to taste;
refined sunflower oil - how much will it take?

How to cook:

Finely chop the boiled chicken meat and onion or grind it using a blender.
Add eggs and sour cream to the crushed products, stir until smooth.
Thicken the dough with flour or starch, salt and pepper.
Heat oil in a frying pan. Spoon out the prepared dough. As soon as the pancakes are browned on one side, turn them over with a spatula and fry on the other side.

When removing pancakes from the frying pan, it is better not to immediately place them on plates, but first put them on a napkin so that it absorbs excess fat. When serving the dish, it doesn’t hurt to add sour cream.

Hot sandwiches with boiled chicken meat

What do you need:

loaf – 150-200 g;
boiled chicken meat – 150 g;
green onions or other greens – 10-15 g;
ketchup – 20 ml;
garlic – 1 clove;
mayonnaise – 20 ml;
hard cheese – 30-40 g.

How to cook:

Mix ketchup with garlic passed through a press, spread it on slices of white bread.
Place sliced chicken on pieces of loaf and brush with mayonnaise.
Sprinkle the chicken with herbs and finely grated cheese.
Place the sandwiches on a platter, place in the microwave, and run it at maximum power for 2 minutes.

If you don’t have a microwave at home, you can cook sandwiches in the oven. Then you will have to bake them for 10 minutes at 180 degrees.

How to cook chicken breast - juicy fillet for salads

If you plan to cook chicken breast as a separate dish or for a salad, then it should be boiled in a special way. Such a brisket will turn out juicy, aromatic, tasty, and during its cooking there will be a minimum loss of nutrients.

How to cook skinless chicken breast for salads?

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Chicken fillet – 275 g
Salt - 17 g
Water – 425 ml
Pepper - 6 peas
Bay leaf - 1 pc.
Carrots - 1 pc.
Parsley (root) – 15 g
White wine – 125 ml

Preparation:

Defrost the chicken breast and rinse under running water.
Prepare vegetable broth. To do this: wash and peel the vegetables, cut them into pieces and fill with water.
Add spices, bay leaf, add water and cook until half cooked.
Place the breast in the boiling broth and add wine, salt, let it cook a little.
It will take about twenty minutes to get the finished product.
Cook the meat over low heat, cover the container with a lid.

When the chicken breast is ready, cool it, cut into portions, add sauce and you are ready to eat. The broth can be used for its intended purpose or made into a sauce or dressing.

Chicken fillet. How to cook correctly?

Popular chicken breast salad recipes

Now let's move on to preparing salads. There are a lot of recipes with chicken breast. They are suitable for a festive table and as an everyday dish.

See also: How to replace crab sticks in salad: 5 replacement options

Salad “Chicken with Orange”

✍ Ingredients:

chicken fillet – 200 gr.;
orange (without peel) – 1 pc.;
hard cheese - 200 gr.;
lettuce leaf – 40 gr.;
lemon – 0.5 pcs.;
salt, vegetable oil - to taste.

Preparation:

Place coarsely chopped lettuce leaves on a plate.
Cut the boiled breast and cheese into cubes. Place everything on a plate with salad.
Finely chop the orange. Place on a plate with salad on top.
Season the salad with lemon juice. Add salt and vegetable oil.
Stir before serving.

Salad "Lady"

✍ Ingredients:

chicken fillet – 100 gr.;
canned peas – 150 gr.;
fresh small cucumber – 1 pc.;
fresh dill – 1 bunch;
natural yogurt (sour cream) – 3 tbsp;
salt - to taste.

Preparation:

Cut the chicken fillet into small pieces. Cut the cucumber into cubes. Place in salad container.
Drain the peas and add to the salad.
Finely chop the dill. Add to the salad and mix everything.
Add salt. Add sour cream or yogurt. Mix the salad well and serve.

For a healthy, low-calorie salad, skip mayonnaise. Light natural yogurt or low-fat sour cream is suitable as a sauce. Find more dressing recipes here.

Chicken and beans salad

✍ Ingredients:

chicken fillet – 500 gr.;
red beans (canned) – 400 gr.;
walnut – 100 gr.;
garlic – 2 teeth;
sour cream – 3 tbsp;
salt, pepper - to taste;

Preparation:

Divide the cooked fillet into small fibers.
Chop the walnuts into small pieces. Finely chop the garlic or grate it.
Place everything in a salad container and mix.
Salt and pepper. Pour in sour cream and mix well.
You can decorate the salad with fresh herbs on top.

How to cook chicken breast in a slow cooker, steamer, or microwave?

Kitchen appliances can be an excellent tool for preparing such a product. But before you start cooking chicken breast, read the instructions for your electrical appliance. Often there are ready-made recipes for dishes, which indicate the exact time required for their preparation.

in a double boiler for about 35-40 minutes. To do this, prepare the chicken breast (rinse under running cold water, cut off the bone, remove the skin). Then rub it with spices, salt and cook. Then try the meat for toughness. If it is not ready yet, then leave it in the steamer for another ten minutes.

In a slow cooker

It will also take about thirty minutes to prepare the product. To do this, you need to use the extinguishing mode. The meat must be immediately placed in water with vegetables, spices, salt, and then simmered until cooked. Do not open the lid of the electrical appliance immediately after the process to allow the chicken breasts to simmer a little more.

Chicken breast cooked in a slow cooker
In the microwave , you can cook the breast in 35-40 minutes. To do this, you will need special utensils for cooking in the microwave (glass, clay, etc.). Place the fillet in it with water, salt, bay leaf, spices, and vegetables. Place in the microwave and turn on maximum power for ten minutes. After that, turn it to medium power for fifteen minutes and let the meat stand in the microwave for another ten minutes with the lid closed, and only then take it out.

IMPORTANT : If the chicken is old and its meat is tough, then it is better to poach it in hot boiled milk with the addition of bay leaf and spices. In this case, the breast will turn out juicy, soft, tender, even in a double boiler such a dish will turn out worse than in milk.

Cooking in different ways

You can cook the breast in the following ways

Microwave

Pre-defrost the chicken breast and marinate it in sour cream and spices. Sour cream is used to soften meat. Place the marinated meat in a baking bag and place in the microwave at 800 W. Total cooking time: 15 minutes.

For another quick and tasty recipe for cooking chicken breast in the microwave, watch the video.

Steamed chicken breast in a slow cooker

For this dish you can use either fillet or bone-in breast. First you need to remove the skin and bone, part of the fat, if any. The fillet is rubbed with spices and placed inside the multicooker. The amount of water used to create steam should be at least a liter. Mode – “Steamer”, total cooking time – 40-50 minutes.

How long does it take to cook chicken breast: cooking time, cooking tips

Approximate cooking time for chicken breast:

If you cut the tender breast meat into small pieces, it will cook faster. Just ten minutes will be enough.
Chicken fillets with skin and bones should be cooked for about thirty minutes.
And fillet without skin or bones is cooked for about twenty-five minutes.
The fillet, divided into halves, is cooked for almost twenty minutes.

How to cook juicy chicken breast?
Subtleties in cooking and choosing breasts :

To preserve the flavor of the meat, do not add too aromatic spices to the broth. Otherwise, not only the smell, but also the taste of the fillet will change.

An old bird differs from a young carcass even in appearance. If you take the breast of an old bird and squeeze it, it will be too tough, unlike a young one. To prepare such a breast, you need to separate the fillet from the bone, and then halve it so that it is better cooked. Old meat should also be poached in milk - it will be soft and juicy after cooking.

If you want to cook chicken breast for salad, then get rid of the bones. Cut meat perpendicular to the direction of the grain.

After reading all the tips, you will prepare soft, appetizing, juicy breast. And if you decorate it beautifully with vegetables, herbs, and add sauce, then such a dish can become a table decoration. Bon appetit!

Chemical composition of chicken breast

Chicken meat is an excellent source of not only protein, but also vitamins and minerals. Breast contains almost all vitamins A, B, C and PP. It contains choline, which cleanses the liver of fats, potassium, which helps with hypertension, magnesium, sodium, iron, phosphorus, chlorine - elements without which our body cannot function normally.

Here is a table of the elements contained in chicken breast.

How long to cook chicken for salad

You should not cook the poultry breast for longer than 15 minutes. Even if you boil a whole breast of a large chicken for a salad, this time will be enough for it to fully cook.

Also keep in mind that constantly piercing the meat to check its doneness is not a good idea. Chicken is meat and in itself is somewhat dry, since it is a product with a high protein content and a low amount of fat.

If you also pierce the breast with a fork or knife, making a decent hole, then most of the juice from this place will simply flow out into the pan!

It’s better to undercook the chicken fillet for a couple of minutes than to play it safe and overcook it in boiling water.

Useful tips

There are some rules, without which chicken meat will most likely turn out tough or tasteless:
Recommendation regarding cooking. You can cook chicken breast in two ways - by placing it in water with spices and vegetables such as carrots and onions, or you can simply boil it in water with the addition of salt, bay leaf and pepper. For salads, it is better to cook meat in water with spices.
In order to prepare the salad, you need to take already well-chilled or slightly warm chicken meat. If, after the fillet is ready, you take it out onto a plate and allow it to cool in this way, then almost all the moisture will evaporate and the meat will become dry. To prevent this, it is better to leave the chicken breast to cool slowly without removing it from the finished broth - this will prevent it from drying out too much.
Chicken breast can be boiled whole, with bone and skin. But this will take more time - 40-50 minutes. Just keep in mind that the skin slightly increases the calorie content of the fillet itself, since the fat from it is transferred to the meat during cooking. A skin-boiled chicken breast will be soft and quite juicy.
Boiled chicken meat will turn out juicier if the breast is not cut into small pieces before boiling. Of course, it will take a little longer to cook, but the result is worth it.
If for cooking you will use not a chilled breast, but a frozen one, then a few hours before cooking you must allow the meat to thaw well at room temperature. Only in this case the fillet will turn out more tender and juicy.
During the cooking process, you can optionally use various spices that will give the meat a unique taste and aroma. But you need to add them in small quantities, as you can kill the whole taste of chicken meat.
In order for the meat to retain all its juiciness, salt the water in which it will be cooked not at the beginning of cooking, but 10 minutes before the end of cooking. The thing is that the salt will penetrate into the fibers of the meat, which is why they will begin to coagulate much more strongly. If you salt the almost finished breast, it will retain all its softness.
If you need to cook chicken meat for a salad as quickly as possible, then it is important to pay attention to the volume of water in which it will be cooked - for normal cooking, it is enough to take an amount that will cover the breast by only 2-3 centimeters.

Knowing how many minutes to cook chicken breast before adding it to a salad can help you use it more often in many recipes. And the main thing to remember is that white chicken meat is considered dietary, and during cooking it is important to maintain its juiciness and prevent it from becoming tough.

Juicy chicken fillet in the oven

This is the best chicken breast recipe for salad. This recipe turns out chicken fillet juicy, soft and flavorful. Chicken fillet baked in the oven in this way is excellent for preparing salads; it is much tastier than boiled, which has a positive effect on the taste of the salad.

Wash the chicken fillet in cold water and dry with paper towels.
Salt, pepper, add turmeric.
Sprinkle generously with sunflower oil and rub the breast well with your hands.
Place foil in a baking dish, place the breast on it and seal it well.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and bake the breast in it for 30-35 minutes.
After 30 minutes, unwrap the foil and leave the fillet in the oven for another 5-10 minutes until the fillet browns on top.
After the breast has cooled, it can be used for any salad.