Lemon Pepper Chicken Breasts by ButcherBox

Hi, I'm Yankel and today I'm going to show you exactly how to cook delicious, juicy, and absolutely perfect

chicken

breasts

every time, so we'll start with 1 package of our boneless, skinless

chicken

breasts

now that I got them out of the freezer. last night and put them in the refrigerator, they are still a little frozen so I'm going to run them under cold water just to finish the thawing process. Now when it comes to defrosting chicken breasts, what you want to do is make sure that they are completely otherwise they break down when you pull them apart, so we're just going to run it under some cold water for about 2 3 minutes to finish the process. defrosting.

Of course, you can skip the night in the refrigerator and go straight from the freezer to the cold running water bath which will save you from spending the night in the refrigerator, but it will take a little longer to defrost, probably 30 to 40 minutes, so while we let it finish defrosting, we're actually going to preheat our oven and looking at 325, we're going to a basic broil cycle, bake, broil, it doesn't really matter, the goal here is 325 degrees and all we want is for it to finish cooking because actually let's get started, everything in the pan looks like our chicken breast.

It's pretty much thawed, we're just going to put it on the tray and head over to the counter and start cooking, so the first thing we're going to do is take it out of the package and dry it off. so we got a really good sear, the sear process is where the flavor happens and we want to make sure we maximize that any kind of moisture in the pan vaporizes and slows down our sear process so it's nice and dry on both sides. I'm going to leave that paper towel like this, throw it one more time on top to preheat the pan.

We're looking for a medium-high heat and I'm using my trusty cast iron and wrench here. is to have a pan that can go straight into the oven on medium-high heat, we're going with 7.5 here, but if you're working on a stove at home, if it's a gas stove, go up to high and then just turn it a little bit. backward. on your electric burners you want to get to about 8 out of 10, so we're just going to season them with a little bit of coarse ground salt and add a little bit of

pepper

now, but today we're going to do something really basic.

lemon

pepper

, so we'll add a little more ground pepper to the pan once it has liquid in it while we let the pan heat up.

I'm going to add a little bit of cooking oil. I am using high temperature cooking. oil something that has been refined, in this case avocado oil that has been naturally refined, meaning the purities are gone and it will not burn when heated. I'm using avocado oil, but there are alternatives to our coconut oil or clarified butter with ghee, whichever world really works. Well, at high heat, any of the corn oils, sunflower oils, safflower oils, those are also very good for cooking, so as soon as the oil starts moving around the pan and we can see a little bit of steam around the edges, we'll add the chicken breast to the pan and start the browning process well, the oil has started to cover the entire bottom of the pan, which means it is hot enough to start browning, so I'm going to put those chicken breasts in chicken with the seasoning side down and once they are already in the pan, I will season the other side nice and easy.

The problem with cooking chicken breasts is that they tend to dry out very quickly, so we're going to combat that by adding a little moisture to the pan, in this case. either

lemon

juice a little bit of broth I have chicken broth and a splash of butter now you can use your favorite citrus you can use water instead of broth or any other type of liquid that you think would taste delicious a salsa barbecue sauce tomato beer wine, all of that will work great, the key is to just add a little moisture once you're done browning, if we get moisture before you're done browning we lower the temperature in the pan and then the browning process slows down so First we're going to let them head right, now I'm just looking for a little bit of brown, so take about a minute and a half on each side while we leave the chickens here on one side.

I'll give you two quick tips to choose from. Number one lemons is that I always look for a lemon with a smooth surface, usually that means the lemon will be much juicier than the ones with a bumpy surface and number two, if it is stiff, put a little weight on it, roll it between your hands and The cutting board this way breaks up some of the connective fibers inside and it's easier to squeeze and then I'm going to cut it in half, soft and pliable, okay, our chicken breasts have seared in about a minute and a half , two minutes per side, you can see. there is a nice brown crust, now it's time to start preparing our sauce, so the first thing I'm going to do is add a little liquid, in this case chicken broth and then on top we're going to put lemon and you see how. the juice easily comes out, rolling it on the counter, best trick in the world and then we will add a little butter, it will give the sauce a little creaminess and last but not least, a bunch of freshly ground black pepper that it'll give it a nice fruity element a little bit of a bite let's give it a quick stir just to bring it together and I can already tell you it smells amazing there's a citrusy lemon zest coming out of its deep chicken flavor.

Get the roast out of the mahi mahi, we're going to put them in the oven so they can finish cooking and while they're there they'll absorb all that beautiful moisture. Well, cast iron gets hot, so be careful. now we're going to head to the oven that has been preheating 325 to just the right temperature, it won't overcook the chicken, it won't break up the sauce, it will make everything come together, we'll give it 10 to 15 minutes in the oven and then we'll take the temperature see you in wait exactly it's been 10 to 15 minutes exactly let's take a look oh yeah, it smells amazing now we're just going to double check that temperature, make sure we're on point, the protein chef's invaluable tool is a good digital thermometer instant read and if you look at that juicy, moist, perfectly cooked, we're going to put them on the cutting board and let them rest for about three minutes before we start.

Meanwhile, we're slicing what we're going to do is we're going to reduce our sauce a little bit so we have this beautiful pan sauce, it's got the roast chicken juice, it's got lemon butter chicken broth, lots of good black pepper, we're going to let that concentrate. a little bit and then we will serve it on the chicken breasts. If you want to add other vegetables to your dish now while you reduce the sauce, this would be a good time to do so. Well, chicken breasts right on the counter. three minutes of standing time is a good amount five minutes is better what we want is for the juices inside to be reabsorbed into the protein fibers, which will ensure that every bite you take is as juicy as possible and we will simply let the sauce simmer.

Oh. it's going to evaporate it's going to concentrate it's going to be absolutely incredible I mean just look at that beautiful thing as the sauce reduces let's take a look at the chicken breast now there's a pretty distinctive grain running the length of the breast and you can see it Running in that direction for a super tender bite when we cut into chicken breast we want to go against the grain and that means each bite will have short grains, be easier to chew, won't be stringy and will be as tender as possible. so we're just going to give it a quick slice and you can see the juice is coming out now, which means I didn't let it sit long enough, so a couple more minutes of standing time would be great, but it's still going to be super juicy.

Moist and tender, I mean, look how it falls apart right there, perfectly cooked. Rising steam means there is still a lot of moisture in the chicken breast. Every time you cook a chicken breast, as long as you add a little liquid, you are guaranteed to do so. It will be absolutely perfect and now the sauce is reducing beautifully, it smells incredible, the browning process that we did at the beginning, that browning that ensures that everything will be incredible, I mean, it gives it color, it gives it flavor, it smells magical, this will be it. better. chicken breast that you ever had and I used ingredients that were around a couple of lemons, a little bit of chicken broth, the black pepper sauce is almost ready, so we'll finish cutting the breasts, put them on the plate and drizzle a bit. from that beautiful sauce let's go straight to the plate beautiful now this sauce is basically caramelizing the sugars in the lemon and the protein that is hooked in the pan absolutely beautiful the browned butter is just beautiful who will add so much flavor so I'm I'm going to drizzle that directly on our chicken breast.

I'm going to quickly test it just to make sure it's perfect. Wow, that's amazing. They are the best chicken breasts I have ever had in my life. Lemon butter chicken broth so simple and well sealed. gently, it just comes together, it's magical. I'm telling you, these are going to be some of the best chicken breasts you've ever had, so why don't you go cook some chicken breasts if I can do this without food coming out? mouth, I will be very happy about it. I am a miracle. See you next time.