Ive tried making chicken breast on my own multiple times but they always end up not tasting good. I used to buy pre-cooked frozen chicken breast from kroger that were pretty food, but i no longer live near a kroger. Any suggestions on frozen, pre-cooked, or ready to eat chicken breast?
Edit: Thanks for all the responses!!
If salt is not a problem for you, you could brine them. Use 1 level tbsp of Kosher salt per cup of water, and let it cool if you’ve heated the water to dissolve the salt. Soak the chicken in the solution in the refrigerator for about 2 hours. Remove the chicken, rinse, dry, season, and cook it. Your Kroger chicken was probably brined.
Some recipes for brine include sugar or other seasonings, but I find just the salt and water do fine. You can try adding other things. This also works well with pork.
The biggest thing my wife and I finally realized was to tenderize the breasts ( hit it with the hammer) and let them defrost naturally and not in the microwave. This gets rid of any rubbery texture. We of course put the spices and such on or marinate. When we cook we use the oven or grill.
Getting good at cooking them yourself is worth the investment if this will be a staple in your diet.
For me, two things that made a big difference:Using a meat thermometer (it’s very easy to overcook a breast and they get dry fast). Breast should get to 165, you can take them off heat just before that as the residual heat will finish.
The second is cutting the fatter part of the breast to a more uniform thickness. Otherwise the thinner end is dry and overcooked by the time the fatter part is properly to temp. I use the cuttings for stir fry or crock pot meals as the smaller pieces cook fast and do better cooked with sauce.
Is there an Aldi by you?
They have a couple pre-seasoned chicken breaks in their fresh meat section, all you do is pop them in the oven and they are fantastic. One is a cilantro lime, another is tomato basil, and my favorite is a spicy southwest one.
All you have to do is pop them in a pan in the oven on 400 degrees for 40 min or so.
If money is not an issue the chick n steakes from market day are so good. Not tough. Always come out juicy for me. But to go along with other posts I do brine in kosher salt water for at least 30 mins if not more before cooking.
To make chicken breast (or any poultry, really) really delicious you need to brine it for 12-24 hours. Brine and then cook a large batch to warm up when you’re ready to eat it. Chick Fil A brines their chicken breast in pickle juice and it is BOMB.