First I have to say, I love your picture ‘‘hit the gym’’. KU is gonna be the shit next year, along with Kentucky.
But to answer your question, you really need to pound the chicken beforehand to tenderize it and also get a good marinade. I do this and my chicken is never dry. Also, it’s very important that you don’t overcook them. Grilling anything for too long will make it nasty dry.
Brine.
Pretty simple, don’t over-cook them? I think people just cook their meat far too long when they have this problem. I think someone mentioned above, you only need about 5-6 minutes on each side tops. I usually do like 7 on one side and 2-3 on the other in my grill, but you see the total time is about the same. I cook mine on the grill on med. high(~200-225 degrees).
You can marinate/baste them as well. I love this stuff called Chef Drews Zesty Italian, but reg. old italian dressing works fine too. Olive oil would be good. Sometimes I will grill the night before, cut up in small strips with shears, mix in a little Franks Red HOT…cover and eat the next day…sometimes melting a slice of mozzarella over it.
But as you get better at it, you learn you don’t need marinades to make things moist, just need ot know how long and at what temps.
Lastly, I don’t know if there is any truth to it or not, but I never cook anything while still frozen. I thaw everything completely.
THanks for all the replies.
I’ll start by buying a tenderizer and pounding the chicken before I marinate.
Then I will remember to cook around 250 F, 5 minutes per side approx.
Does this sound right?
Yeah you are off to a good start. Though I have to admit I’ve never needed to beat or tenderize anything, but I’m sure it helps. The time and temp deals are a good start, just be mindful if you come across your odd extremely small/large piece to change the time accordingly.
I buy rotisserie chickens from my butcher. He knows what he’s doing. Otherwise I just drown dry breasts in olive oil.
I am about to post a walk through of how to brine, cook, and properly barbecue a chicken breast on T-Nation. I’ll send you guys the link once i’m done.
[quote]hit the gym wrote:
THanks for all the replies.
I’ll start by buying a tenderizer and pounding the chicken before I marinate.
Then I will remember to cook around 250 F, 5 minutes per side approx.
Does this sound right?[/quote]
Stick them in a nice marinate in the fridge over night (or all day if you’re at work). I like food with a bit of a kick, so I’d use a orange juice, mango salsa, cilantro, ginger, onions, lime, hot peppers, and a pinch of sea salt for my marinate. Mmmmm, making me hungry thinking about it now!
Crank the heat in the BBQ so it’s smoking hot
Throw the chicken on to sear the meat on both sides
Reduce the heat to a medium-low setting and cook for 8 mins per side (approx)
As I’m cooking the chicken, I’ll crack some freshly ground pepper from my pepper mill onto the meat.
No need to pound the crap out of it.
I cook up about 20-30 breasts at a time on the BBQ, then I take them all inside, dice it all up, measure it out and dump into tupperware containers.
Enjoy.
I just cook them in the frying pan with salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder and/or soy sauce. Med heat.
Make sure you always use completely thawed meat. If it’s still frozen, it will be dry.
Boil it till it is done then either throw it on the BBQ for flavor or in a pan.Boiling doesnt dry it out.
I put them on the Not-a-Forman grill frozen. You really have to cook the piss out of them to over do it. I will be trying some of y’alls ideas I’m really tired of boring old chicken tits.