It's no coincidence that professional athletes, and health nuts alike all fill up on chicken, and baking it preserves its healthy state. A three ounce baked skinless chicken breast contains 25 grams of protein at only 1.5 grams of fat. Leave the skin on, and you're only looking at 7 grams of fat - small price to pay for a whole lot of flavor. Sure, there are quite a few ways to cook a chicken, and I love the taste of every one of them, but for my money, baking chicken breast is the most effective way of combining both healthy and delicious cooking.
Another plus is that it's pretty cheap. I personally prefer to buy fresh cuts from the butcher, but if you're on a budget, you can pick up a bag of frozen chicken breasts to save a bit. No harm in eating frozen chicken, even if you forget to thaw it in time for dinner, I can think of a dozen crock pot recipes that don't discriminate against frozen poultry. You could cook a turd in a crock pot long enough, and it would taste delicious.
Ok - so baked chicken is very good for you and it's reasonably priced. As far as I'm concerned, that's usually good enough. My wife, however, likes things to taste good (I suppose I don't mind too much). Lucky for us, there are a thousand delicious baked chicken recipes that are all worth trying. See, baked chicken is to cooking meals as what vodka is to mixing drinks - it goes with absolutely everything. You can shred it and make chicken salad, barbecue chicken pulled sandwiches, buffalo chicken dip, and shredded tacos. You can cube it and create chunky chicken noodle soup, Mexican chicken soup, or throw it on a pizza. Not to mention, you can leave baked boneless chicken breast whole and serve it with pasta, rice, couscous...whatever. This is one versatile bird...darn shame they had to kill it.
Like I said, my wife bakes chicken all the time, and we eat it with everything. Before I wrote this post, I asked her for her secret, and I almost wish I didn't. It's painfully simple, yet one of the best baked chicken breast recipes on the planet (I think she stole it from Ina).
The Ultimate Baked Chicken Breast Recipe
- Preheat the oven for 350
- While it's getting hot, coat the chicken breast with olive oil and salt and pepper
- Put it in the oven and bake it for 35-40 minutes
Dude, that's it. That stupid little recipe keeps the chicken breast moist and tender, while giving it enough room for flavor to add to any of the dozen baked chicken recipes listed above. Honestly, sometimes I just like to eat it like it is. Chicken, olive oil, and salt and pepper is where it's at, and it's still great for you. Yeh, olive oil is technically loaded with fat, but as long as you don't drink a bottle of it at a sitting, it actually has more health benefits than detriments.
The above recipe is an excellent base for something more elaborate, or, in my opinion, delicious on its own, but if you want a million more chicken recipes, head on over to AllRecipes.com. They'll teach you more than you'll ever want to know about cooking poultry and anything else. I hope you learned a little something.
