Preparing Tender, Flavorful Chicken Breast

I love chicken. It's a very versatile meat that can go with almost any ingredients you put on it. But like any other meat, chicken is not very enjoyable when it’s tough and feels like rubber in your mouth. So I’m going to share a technique that I learned on how to get very tender, flavorful chicken.

What you’ll need is:

• Baking soda/meat tenderizer (make sure it’s salt free)
• Olive Oil (not extra virgin)
• Corn Starch

First you have to know how to properly cut the chicken to get the tenderest cut. When you look at a chicken breast, you will notices that it has strands of meat. These are the muscle fibers. If you cut with the muscle fibers, you won’t get the tenderest chicken. But if you cut against them, you will get a tenderer cut. You should cut your chicken according to what size you want, but try not to let the cut be too big. I personally like to cut small pieces of chicken because I’m an impatient cook and it cooks faster.

Once you’ve cut your chicken, you’re going to want to put the pieces in a bowl. Put about a forth a cup of olive oil, to each two chicken breasts, in the bowl. Then sprinkle about a table spoon of baking soda/meat tenderizer on the chicken. The baking soda helps to break up the muscle fibers on the chicken to make it tenderer. Sprinkle a table spoon of corn starch on the chicken. The corn starch is to help the chicken pick up any spices or sauce flavors you put into it and draw the flavor deeper into the meat. Once you’ve done that, cover the bowl and let it sit for at least twenty minutes before you decide to cook it.