Topic: Dry Pre-cooked chicken breast. Any advice?

[livo]

I know that chicken white or breast meat is drier than red meat like thigh or drumsticks.  I also think there is a big difference in meat today with massively grown meat birds.   I recently did Misty Ricardo's pre-cooked chicken following the instructions to the letter including the sauce covering and additional oil.  I thought it was fine but the only criticism from anybody after our banquet last night was that most of my (very fussy chicken eating) family, thought the breast meat was a little bit dry.  Mind you there was nothing left.

Maybe I cut the pieces too big. I do like large pieces. Maybe I over-cooked but it is a moisture cooking process. I'm not sure.  Perhaps I should arrest the initial process when the meat is only 75% done and finish it in the actual dish assembly.

I did see a video on Chicken 65 by Chef Harpal Singh, where he is quite emphatic that chicken breast must be cut on the diagonal to the meat fibres in order to obtain tenderness.

Any thoughts or advice would be gladly welcomed.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Two thoughts (well, maybe three).

• I would have expected larger pieces to remain more moist than smaller, if the moisture is intrinsic and not extrinsic
• I would never pre-cook to completion, only to the point where the flesh is white and starting to become firm
• My wife knows a lot about meat cutting; I will bounce the idea off her (and our chef).

** ** Phil.

_{(Note added after reading Sverige's message below -- I use only free-range chicken, and have never had a problem with inadequate moisture retention).}

[Sverige]

Best advice would be to buy the same pseudo-chicken the BIRs use. Avoid expensive fresh cuts and get the cheapest frozen 70% chicken "with added water and protein".   

[Les]

I did see a video on Chicken 65 by Chef Harpal Singh, where he is quite emphatic that chicken breast must be cut on the diagonal to the meat fibres in order to obtain tenderness.

Any thoughts or advice would be gladly welcomed.

The Chef is quite correct, The muscle fibres run top to bottom (back to chest), Not along the breast from back to front, ( head to tail), as far as I remember. hope this makes sense.

[George]

Any thoughts or advice would be gladly welcomed.

My thought is that if your are aiming to emulate the poor standard of most BIRs chicken, then if it's dry and near flavourless (unless tikka) then you are probably succeeding. If you seek something superior, then don;t use breast meat or, at the very least, don;t pre-cook it.

[livo]

I am not familiar with the pseudo-chicken you mention Sverige. I've never seen it in our grocery aisles.
Having never been any where near an actual British Indian Restaurant, as in located in Britain, I'm not able to compare my output with the standard you mention George.  It doesn't sound great though, so mine may well be pretty good after all.

I will try the diagonal cuts next time around with lower degree of cooking to see if there is any discernable improvement.  I'm quite happy to eat the dark meat and actually prefer it in some cooking, but the main dish I've been tryng to emulate is for people who prefer white.  Life is full of little challenges.

It's funny how things have changed. When I was a University student 40 years ago living in shared digs, chicken generally, and breast fillet in particular, was only rarely affordable on our low income budget. Today it is the cheapest of all meats.  Breast was always more expensive than thigh but recently this is often reversed. 

[ScottyM]

Not sure how long you cooked it and what type of tempreture but if chicken cooked in liquid comes out dry then the temp was too high.

Bring the stock to boil, add chicken and bring it to 90c. Basically no bubbles...as hot as it will go without simmering bubbles showing. The odd tiny ones rising to the surface are fine but you never boil chicken like you will see some takeaways do. Especially as they are using brine injected meat and you are most likely not.
If your meat is full of brine you can get away with it.

20 mins is more than enough time to cook any size chunks of chicken and retain the all moisture.
It is all about tempreture control.

[livo]

I have this all sorted now but good of you to provide a good piece of advice for anybody reading.

[mickyp]

When cooking chicken curries i tend to start with Blades Tikka, (large cuts) marinated for 24 hours then placed in the oven at 280 for half the normal cooking time. The meat will still be pink inthe middle, i then put them straight into the pan after the spice stage and carry on.
Pre cooking until half cooked allows you to complete the cooking of your dish without drying it out. Also i feel starting with Blades or similar imparts another layer of flavour.

[Peripatetic Phil]

When I used to pre-cook chicken (I no longer do, I pre-cook only lamb), I never pre-cooked to completion.  Just enough to turn the breast white (from pink) and to introduce  just a little firmness into the texture but no more, and certainly not firm all the way through.  As far as chicken tikka (in the BIR sense), that is a no-no for me when pre-cooking for a curry ; I like my tikkas as tikkas and my curries as curries, and no fusion between the two,

** Phil.