Pan-Seared Chicken Breasts

By DreiFromBK

For a chicken breast recipe with flavorful, moist, and tender meat, we gently parcooked boneless, skinless breasts in the oven, then seared them on the stovetop. Salting the chicken breasts helped keep them moist, as did cooking them covered in the oven. To get a crisp, even crust for our chicken breast recipe, and to keep the meat moist and tender, we turned to a Chinese technique called velveting, dipping the partially cooked chicken in a protective coating of oil and cornstarch.

Ingredients

• 4 4
• Ingredients
• 4 4 to 8 skinless chicken breasts (6 to 8 ounces each), trimmed of excess fat (see note)
• 2 2 1 teaspoons kosher salt or 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1 1 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 2 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1 1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/2 1/2 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 1 1 recipe pan sauce, optional (see related recipes)

Preparation

Step 1

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 275 degrees. Using fork, poke thickest half of each breast 5 to 6 times; evenly sprinkle each breast with ½ teaspoon kosher salt (or ¼ teaspoon table salt). Place chicken, skinned side down, in 13 by 9-inch baking dish and cover tightly with foil. Bake until thickest part of breast registers 145 to 150 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 30 to 40 minutes.

2. Remove chicken from oven and transfer, skinned side up, to paper towel-lined plate and pat dry with paper towels. Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until smoking. While pan is heating, whisk butter, flour, cornstarch, and pepper together in small bowl. Lightly brush top side of chicken with half of butter mixture. Place chicken in skillet, coated side down, and cook until browned, 3 to 4 minutes. While chicken browns, brush with remaining butter mixture. Using tongs, flip chicken, reduce heat to medium, and cook until second side is browned and thickest part of breast registers 160 to 165 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer chicken to large plate and let rest while preparing pan sauce (if not making pan sauce, let chicken rest 5 minutes before serving).