Baked Chicken Breast

This is my go-to chicken recipe, from the Gimme Some Oven site. It’s easy to make and easy to change up with different seasoning mixes and sauces. The brining and resting/tenting steps are essential and make such a difference in the moisture level of the chicken. I use the brining for whole chickens and turkey breasts as well. 

Brining can go anywhere from 15 minutes to 6 hours; total time after that is about 35 minutes, including prep, roasting, and resting the chicken. Because of the brining, this recipe does require a bit of lead time.

Notes & Tweaks

The original recipe is perfectly delicious but it uses a ceramic baking pan. I find it turns out better for me if I place the chicken on a rack over a foil- or parchment-lined pan. I also find it works very well on convection, and have come to prefer it that way.

If not using convection, broiling for the last few minutes adds a nice texture, as suggested, but keep an eye on it because the edges of the chicken can start to dry out after just a few minutes. 

I’ve never used the spice mix in the original recipe, although I’m sure it’s very good. I use a few different things instead:

• Bone Dust. A good, all-around dry rub for meat, fish, and even vegetables. 
• Stubb’s Chicken Rub, which I bought on a whim, but find to have a really distinct flavour featuring smoked salt, honey, garlic and mustard.
• Barbecue sauce, either homemade or store-bought.
• Herbes de Provence, homemade or store-bought.

If you go with a barbecue flavour, as with bone dust or barbecue sauce, you can also serve Alabama White Sauce for dipping.

Ready to try it? Visit  Baked Chicken Breast by Gimme Some Oven.

Image from Pinclipart.