Tenderized Chicken Breasts

[smashtoad]

All,

I love chicken. One thing I don't like, however, is real thick chicken. You know how once you get past the delicious outer skin on fried chicken, the very most inner meat can be kind of...well...bland?

I'm thinking about some kind of tenderized chicken breast, smashed out maybe 50%, rubbed up and grilled crispy, so you'd get more flavor in every bite.

Anyone got a favorite type of dry rub or coating for such a thing?  Not really looking for a sauce...something crispy.

Let's do this!

[1luckytexan]

investigate brining.

but really, chicken breast is not a great piece of meat. It's dry, and only get dryer without brining.

try chicken thighs for 'nearly' foolproof grilling or BBQing.

I admit, I sometimes try to dream-up some way to BBQ chicken breasts - like brining them, then sandwiching some cheese between 2 of them - wrapped in bacon!

but, I haven't experimented with that yet.

[ncsmoker]

Brining is the best way to add flavor and moistness to chicken breast, I also prefer the legs or thighs. The standard brine is 1qt water, 1c salt and 1c sugar. After that you make it your own. Add any herbs you want rosemary, thyme, sage, red pepper flakes, etc. Teriyaki sauce also makes a good flavorful brine. Brine pieces 4-8 hrs, a whole chicken 8-24 hrs. I keep 1 and 2 gallon resealable bags around to hold the chicken and brine in. While we are talking brining watch out for the turkeys you get in the grocery store most are water added with salt, so they are already brined. These I just put a butter rub under the skin.

For rubs I have two one for meat and one for poultry.

The poultry one is pretty straight forward. I will mix it with butter and rub it under the skin.

1T salt
1T each parsley, sage, rosemary
2t sage
2t pepper
2t brown sugar
1t oregano

Please feel free to alter this to your desires.

The meat rub I have been using since the 90's and every body loves it. This is great on ribs, pork butt and brisket, even chicken if you like a spicy rub on your bird.

3T coarsely ground black pepper
3T dark brown sugar or 4T demerara sugar
3T paprika
2T salt
1t cayenne
1t oregano
1t thyme
2t garlic powder
1t onion powder

The demerara sugar is slightly less sweet but doesn't brown as much as the brown sugar. I really like using it. I saw some of the completion BBQ teams using it and tried it. Some people like to add some cumin, personal preference again.

If you have any questions pleas ask.

Tom