Transcription
I'm Frank Proto a professional chef and
coloring instructor and today I'm going
to show you how to make a perfectly
juicy chicken breast Frank
style we're talking succulent delicious
chicken breast not that dry stringy
stuff that your grandma serves this is
chicken breast
101 chicken breast doesn't need to be
dry and stringy with a little bit of
knowledge a little bit of technique it
can be Juicy and Delicious every single
time in front of me I have two different
chicken breasts one is a little smaller
one is a little larger I try and go for
the smaller ones I feel like they're
more tender they have a better texture
this chicken breast I'm going to leave
alone this chicken breast needs a little
work before we can put it in the pan I'm
going to take this chicken breast and
I'm just going to get my chef knife put
a flat hand on top and kind of cut it
right down the center you'll notice that
when I put my hand on top my thumb is
kind of pointed up my fingers are
pointed up I'm just putting light
pressure down that light pressure will
make it easier to cut and now we
basically have two chicken breast from
the one I feel like this is a better
size to cook if it's too thick it takes
a little longer you get dry ends and the
center is usually a little pink so this
way it's going to cook much more evenly
some people will tell you pound this out
with a meat mallet I don't really like
to do that because I want my chicken
breast to be nice and brown and if I
pound it out and then sauté it it's
going to be way overcooked by the time
it's ready to eat when it comes to
seasoning chicken breasts I'm a
minimalist salt and pepper only spice
rubs tend to burn when you sauté them
when you're sautéing a chicken breast
you want to make sure that before you
put it in the pan you get a paper towel
and Pat it dry that extra moisture will
stop our chicken from browning so get
all that excess moisture off before you
put it in the pan when I season I use
kosher salt and fresh crack black pepper
whenever you season you want to start
really high if I was to season like this
you get little spots of salt if you
season High you get a nice even
distribution of salt pepper go a little
bit on a fine grind with this and then
we can turn it over and season the other
side you want to season both sides
chicken seasoned ready to go let's
cook I have a stainless steel sauté pan
in front of me I like these because
they're a bit of a thicker gauge they're
heavy bottom stainless steel sauté pan
if you have a thin sauté pan what
happens is you get burnt spots and
undercooked spots I like to use cast
iron for a lot of things like this but
when I'm doing a pan sace I don't like
cast iron because believe it or not it
gets a little of that flavor from the
pan that's why I use stainless steel
there is no flavor transfer from the pan
to the sauce when sautéing you want high
temperature for a shorter amount of time
you see I put salt on this chicken
breast salt draws out moisture so before
we go in the pan again you want to dab
this to make sure they're not wet this
way we ensure proper Browning my Pan's
getting hot I like to use a neutral high
smoke point Oil we're just using a
vegetable oil here I don't use fancy
oils for this because once they go in
the pan all the flavor disappears and
you can see right away it looks like
waves it looks kind of shimmery and
that's what I want if there's a little
bit of smoke that's a good thing I'm
going to dab off my chicken breasts and
then when I drop them in the pan I'm
dropping away from myself if I drop it
towards myself I'm getting splashed with
oil if I drop it away from myself I am
not getting splashed with
oil to lower my heat down a little don't
be afraid to adjust your heat if you
have to right now now I feel like I have
the right amount of heat I took a quick
peek underneath to see that I was
Browning my chicken wasn't sticking but
for the most part at this point you want
to just leave it alone let the sauté pan
do its work don't mess around don't move
it around too much you can check
occasionally to see how you're doing
right we're getting some nice Browning
in there don't mess around with it too
much leave it alone I have a little bit
of a dry spot here cuz the pan is a
little boded in the middle so the oil
kind of went to the edges so you'll
notice that I always want my chicken
breast to be sitting in the oil what
this does is I don't have high spots and
low spots my chicken Cooks nice and even
on the surface what I'm looking for here
is that we have a nice golden brown on
that side look at that that's beautiful
and then what I'm doing is I'm
poking my chicken breast I know that
it's raw but as I poke onto it it's
super soft and as it Cooks to the right
temperature it's going to go from super
soft and kind of spongy to being really
bouncy and that's what I'm looking for
the texture of it right I don't want it
to be soft and spongy I want it to kind
of bounce back really nice you'll notice
that I only have two breasts in here I
have a third but I think that if I put
too many in the pan it's going to
overcrowd the pan what happens basically
is it starts to steam steam is moisture
and then your chicken breast does not
get brown so don't overcrowd your pan I
feel like this chicken breast is ready
to go if you touch it it's got some nice
bounciness to it I'm going to take it
out and put it onto my resting rack this
piece is a little thicker it needs a
little more time you notice that I use
my fingers cuz I have Chef hands you can
always just push down with tongs to see
how your bounciness is most people say
that chicken breast needs to be cooked
to about 165 in order for it to be fully
cooked I find if chicken breast gets
cooked to 165 it's dry I tend to go
about 150 155 because they will continue
to cook when you put them over here it's
called carryover cooking if you're
really unsure about when to take it off
off you can always use a thermometer I
kind of go by touch and feel even if
it's a little pink or a little underdone
we can always reheat it before we put
the sauce on right now I'm getting some
nice good spring back I'm going to take
this out and let it rest I put my
chicken on the resting rack so the meat
can kind of equalize the juices can
redistribute and we'll have a nice juicy
chicken breast so you can see my chicken
breast is nice and brown it's got some
nice caramelization and that equals
flavor I have some of my juices running
off I can always reclaim those if I want
part of the reason why chicken breast is
so easy to mess up is because it's a
super lean cut of meat there's little to
no fat on it unless you keep the skin
it's going to be a dry piece of meat so
cooking it properly is where it's
at for our chicken breast today we're
going to do a super simple pan sauce
that anyone can make you don't need to
be a culinary genius to get this right
if you're sautéing chicken breast a pan
sauce is your friend in restaurants pan
sauces don't really get made because
they take a lot of time
but this is a great technique for the
home cook the star of the show here is
that font and that is really necessary
for a good pan sauce a fond is all the
caramelized juices in the bottom of the
pan it's super flavorful it's going to
give color to your sauce uh and it's
just going to make it taste great so my
pan is getting hot I'm going to put just
a little bit of fresh oil not a lot so I
have about a couple of shallots here DIC
nice and fine so you'll notice that I
cook my shallots a little before I add
my garlic I have a couple of cloves ofar
garlic there Pan's a little dry so I'm
just going to add a little more oil cuz
I want these to sizzle and get nice and
caramelized and brown so now my garlic
and shallots are nice and brown I'm
going to add chicken
stock it stops the cooking of my
shallots and garlic and that's going to
be the main flavor base we're going to
reduce this down reduction is a really
great way to get flavor chicken stock by
itself isn't super flavorful but if you
reduce it you get a really nice chicken
flavor it's probably going to take about
7 to8 minutes to reduce you got to got
to be patient here take your time I turn
my heat up a little cuz I want this to
come to a simmer really quickly any
chicken juices that you have should be
put in there not oil but the juice that
juice comes out of the chicken while it
rests that should be put in your sauce
do not waste that so we're going to let
this come to a simmer you'll see that
it's starting to come to a boil if you
look at my bubbles here my bubbles are
really small and fine as you reduce
things like chicken stock you'll notice
that it starts to get a little thicker
and the bubbles get a little a little
bit bigger and that'll tell you your
sauce is getting to the right
consistency just watch the Bubbles at
this point I'm going to add just a pinch
of salt I'm not going to go crazy with
the salt because we're reducing this if
you season this all the way right now
and then you reduce it it's going to be
way too salty little salt a little
pepper and then we'll readjust later on
when the sauce is close to being done
the sauce is reduced by half I add my
butter and that's that's what I want I
want the butter to incorporate into the
sauce at this point I'm making sure that
I got everything off the bottom of the
pan and I'm just going to mix it up so
you can actually see my bubbles on the
side getting bigger my sauce is getting
thicker the butter emulsifies into the
sauce and makes it creamy and delicious
the classic French term for this is
Monte o bur or to mount with butter I'm
going to adjust and lower my heat and
let this go a little slower so you can
see my sauce is starting to get thick
but what I'm looking for is that nape
consistency and if I put my spoon in
there and I run my finger through you
can still see that it's a little liquidy
it's not really sticking to my spoon but
I want this this to kind of stick to my
spoon and get a little thick right so
you can see we have considerably less
liquid than we did earlier what I'm
going to do is I'm going to turn my heat
on super low uh I'm going to hit it with
some lemon juice one thing that I like
to do is take the cut side and put it on
my hand and when I squeeze I squeeze
towards my hand so that the seeds get
trapped in between my hand and the lemon
half I like to add the lemon juice at
the end because I want it to be fresh
and bright I don't want really cooked
lemon juice flavors just a little more
seasoning salt and pepper I'm going
swirl that around so the sauce is ready
and this is what I'm looking for there's
a lot less liquid in this pan right the
sauce looks
creamy it's thick I coat the back of my
spoon I run my finger through there's a
very sharp line and you can see on
either side the sauce is stuck to my
spoon and what you can do now is add
some parsley parsley has a really nice
bright fresh flavor to it I like to add
it right at the end most people add just
for color I love the flavor but look at
that see how much sauce we have it's not
a lot but it's nice and thick it's got a
nice creamy consistency and that's our
Pan sace the pan sace is done the
chicken is rested it is time to Plate
now I like to slice my chicken breast
just to give it a little more visual
peel so we can see the inside of it one
thing that I always focus on here is
this end piece no matter what I do this
end piece is going to be a little dry so
what I like to do is cut that Chef's
neack now with our chicken breast I want
to slice on a nice long angle you can
see inside it's not dry it's still got
some bounce to it it's Juicy and
Delicious not overcooked I like to put
the pan sauce on the bottom of the plate
because if you take that pan sauce and
put it on top you're kind of hiding that
nice Browning that you did not only that
it's kind of crispy and you're going to
take away that crispiness that's a
chicken breast I want to eat time to
taste let's get in there you can see
that it's nice and soft and tense tender
it is not dry and
stringy whenever I eat a chicken breast
like this the sauce is key mop up the
sauce as much as you can by the end of
this your plate should be totally clean
chicken breast can be delicious it's
just takes a little technique a little
bit of knowhow and patience it can be
juicy I promise you