The Formula for Perfect Grilled Chicken Breasts: Light Summer Meal

Test cook Keith Dresser makes host Julia Collin Davison Grilled Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts with Red Pepper-Almond Sauce. Tasting expert Jack Bishop challenges hosts Julia and Bridget Lancaster to a head-to-head tasting of Whole Dill Pickles, and equipment expert Adam Ried reviews flatware sets. Test cook Elle Simone Scott makes Bridget refreshing Berry Granita.

Get our Berry Granita recipe: https://cooks.io/44jACv4
Get our Grilled Chicken recipe: https://cooks.io/3JBAmhk
Read our full Pickle review: https://cooks.io/3VkC6CQ

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(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) – [Narrator] Today on "America’s Test Kitchen," Keith makes Julia grilled boneless, skinless chicken breast. Jack challenges Bridget and Julia to a head to head tasting of whole dill pickles. Adam reviews flatware sets, and Elle makes Bridget berry granita. It’s all coming up right here on "America’s Test Kitchen." (upbeat music) – Boneless skinless chicken breasts are deceivingly hard to grill well. And sure there are no bones or skin to get in the way, but that also means that the delicate breast meat is left unprotected so it’s easy to dry out, and it doesn’t have a lot of flavor. But not to fear because Keith is here, and you’ve got the answer. – I do have some answers that are gonna make the chicken breast moist, full of flavor, even coming from the grill. – All right. – So we’re gonna start with four chicken breasts that are about 6 to 8 ounces each. Now the first thing we wanna do is we wanna even these out a little bit. You can see here there’s a thick end, and a thin end. – [Julia] Mm-hmm. – I just wanna make it all one thickness. So I’m just gonna put some plastic wrap over these. Now I’m not looking to make cutlets here. I don’t really want something thin, I just wanna even out the thick part, this part, so it’s more in line with the thin part. – Okay. – Half an inch or so. So that is our chicken. Now let’s look at how to add some flavor to this. So what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna create a brinerade. So the marinade’s gonna add flavor, the brine is gonna add seasoning. I have 1/3 of a cup of water. Into that we’re gonna add 3 tablespoons of fish sauce. The fish sauce is gonna add salinity. It’s also gonna give a lot of umami flavor. But it doesn’t taste fishy, which is always a good thing if you have small kids at home eating chicken breasts. (Julia laughs) I’m also gonna add two tablespoons of honey. – Honey? – Yep. This is gonna allow the outside to brown really quickly before the inside overcooks. – [Julia] Mm, clever. – I have another teaspoons of table salt. And an eighth of a teaspoon of pepper to round this out. Just gonna whisk that to get that honey mixed in. Get that salt dissolved. So typically when you’re brining you have quarts of water, right? So you only have about a cup of liquid here, that’s all it’s gonna take to kind of work into that chicken breast, season it, but it will also help brown on the outside. – Yeah, because there’s nothing in the way to prevent the brine from going into the meat. – That’s right. So I’m gonna put these in a bag. Okay. Hold that. Thank you. – Mm-hmm. – So that’s our chicken. The bag is really good at making sure that the chicken is in that brinerade for the entire time. So squeeze all the air out of it, seal it. It’s just gonna take 30 minutes in the refrigerator, and that brinerade will do its work. So the chicken has been in our brinerade for 30 minutes, but before we go out to the grill I’m gonna make a Romesco-like sauce. It’s a Spanish sauce based on red peppers. So it’s gonna start with 5 teaspoons of sherry vinegar. I’m gonna add one clove of minced garlic to that. – Nice. And when you add raw garlic to a vinegar it really tempers that harsh flavor. – I have 3/4 teaspoon of table salt. I just wanna stir this together really quickly to let that salt dissolve. Okay, that’s great. So we’ll just leave that. – Okay. – Now I have two red peppers here. We’re going to quarter these, and toss them with this oil, and then bring them up to the grill with our chicken. – Mm. – [Keith] Nothing fancy. Get the core and the seeds out. – [Julia] Mm-hmm. – Okay, I’m gonna add one tablespoon of vegetable oil. Just gonna give this a quick toss to make sure they’re coated with that oil. Okay, that’s good. And now for our chicken. It’s been in that brinerade, that brinerade has done its job. Now typically if we were brining I would pat this dry, make sure I had a nice dry surface to help with browning. – Right. – But actually we don’t wanna get rid of that outside coating ’cause of the honey in there, ’cause of the fish sauce in there that’s gonna help with our browning. So we wanna actually keep some of that on there. Now we don’t wanna have a lot of moisture on there. I just take the chicken, and let it kind of drip in there. Just a slick on the outside is what we need. Okay, so that’s our chicken. And I also have one tablespoon of vegetable oil that I’m gonna put on the chicken. We have our chicken, we have our peppers, let’s go out to the grill and cook. – [Julia] Okay. – So I’ve preheated our gas grill for 15 minutes to make sure it’s really hot. Before we cook we wanna clean. So I’m just gonna take a grill brush and get off any burnt bits here. That looks pretty good. One more thing, I’m just gonna take some oil, and a paper towel. – And a long set of tongs. – And a long set of tongs, that’s right. I’m just gonna wipe this down. This is gonna do a couple things. This is gonna wipe off all the stuff that the grill brush didn’t get off there. It’s also gonna help lubricate the grill so the food doesn’t stick to it. That looks great. Now I’m gonna start with our peppers first. While the grill is really hot we’ll get a really nice char on these peppers. So I’m just gonna take these, put them skin side down. – You have this grill cranked all the way up. – That’s as hot as it can go right now, but that’s a good thing, especially for the peppers. That’s our peppers. So I’m gonna close the lid, we’re gonna let those go for about five to seven minutes, and we’re looking for the skin to get really well charred. It’s been five minutes, and we wanna check on the char of our peppers. Let’s see, we’ve got, oh that’s great. – Perfect. – That’s perfect. Yep. That’s gonna lend a lot of smokiness to those peppers. So I just flip these over, We’re gonna cook them for two minutes longer, and then get the second side charred. So I can smell peppers. So that usually means that they’re done, right? – It smells good. They have a very distinctive smell. – So I’m just looking for a little bit of char on that side which is perfect. So I’m just gonna take these, and I’m gonna put them into this bowl here. – [Julia] You can see how much softer they are too by how your tong really just digs into them. – I’m just gonna cover this with some foil. Covering it will let them steam and soften a little bit more, and that will be perfect for our sauce. Now we can focus on the chicken. So we’ve oiled our chicken, and I’m just gonna place this right in the middle of the grill with the smooth side down first. Now with that fish sauce and honey that’s gonna brown really quickly. So three to five minutes, and we’ll get some nice marks on that, and then we’ll flip it over. – All right. – It’s been three minutes, and we wanna check on the progress of our chicken. So I’m gonna go really gentle here, make sure it doesn’t stick. – [Julia] Look at those grill marks. – You can see this nice color. That fish sauce and honey have really done its job. In just three minutes we’ve had this beautiful browning. – [Julia] That’s incredible. – So I’m gonna close that, we’re gonna go another three to five minutes, until it’s browned on the second side, and registers at 160 degrees. It’s been another three minutes on that second side. We just wanna check our temperature here. So we’ll take our instant read. 161. – Nicely done. – I like that. Take a plate, get these off. – Those look picture perfect, Keith. That’s incredible. – Okay, that is our chicken. So I’m gonna take the chicken in. If you grab those peppers we can go in and finish this up. – All right. – While the chicken’s resting we’re gonna finish our Romesco-like sauce. And that’s gonna start with a quarter cup of almonds that have been toasted. – Mm-hmm. – I’m just gonna pulse these down until they’re finely chopped. About 12 pulses. – This is one of my all time favorite smells, toasted almonds. – Almonds. – Freshly toasted and freshly ground. – Fantastic. – Mm. – [Keith] So we’re gonna add two teaspoons of toasted sesame oil. – I was wondering why you were calling it Romesco-like sauce, now I know why. Sesame oil is not traditionally in Romesco. – No. – But what a cleaver edition. – Yeah. And it really brings out the nuttiness of the almonds. So I also have 1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika, a little pinch of cayenne, and then remember our vinegar and garlic mix from earlier, that’s gonna go in. And now our peppers. Nice color on these. – And I don’t see anything here for peeling which I’m relieved. I hate peeling peppers. – No, we’re not gonna peel them. We’re gonna process this fairly smoothly so you’re not gonna taste the skins. And you don’t wanna lose all that flavor that’s on the skin either. So I’m just gonna process until it’s nice and smooth. It’ll take about 45 seconds. Okay, let’s check the progress. – [Julia] Ooh it’s pretty. – That’s great. – [Julia] Mm-hmm. – Now if this is too thick you can add a little bit of water to this to thin it out, but this looks perfect. So I think I’m gonna call it good. – [Julia] All right. – I’m just gonna transfer this over to a nice serving bowl. The sauce is also really good on the fish too. – [Julia] Oh, yeah, I imagine. – Okay. – [Julia] I mean it is picture perfect chicken. – [Keith] I know. Look at those beautiful grill marks. – [Julia] Insane. I’m excited to taste this chicken. – [Keith] I think you’ll be happy with it. – It actually has flavor. I mean you could just throw this on a green salad, add it to a quinoa salad, make a quick dinner out of it. It just tastes like a perfectly cooked grilled chicken. – Yeah and you don taste the honey, you don’t taste the fish sauce, all you taste is browned chicken. – Mm-hmm. And this sauce. (Julia laughs) I mean it’s so easy. I love that little bit of sesame seed oil in there. Just as you said it brings out the almonds. Keith, this is terrific, thank you. – You’re welcome. – So there you have it. If you wanna make the ultimate grilled boneless, skinless chicken, start by pounding the breast to an even thickness. Soak the chicken in a brinerade spiked with fish sauce and honey. And grill the chicken over a hot fire until they register 160. From "America’s Test Kitchen," the final word on grilled boneless, skinless chicken breasts with a red pepper almond sauce. The sauce is a keeper. – The sauce is a keeper. No more cardboard chicken either. – Are you ready to take your cooking to the next level? Introducing the complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook". – [Bridget] Featuring every recipe from every episode of "America’s Test Kitchen." That’s thousands of recipes. That texture is unbelievable. Reviews. – Gadgets you didn’t know you needed. – [Bridget] And tips. – Yes there’s some terrible choices, but there’s also some amazing choices. – We’ve spilled all of our secrets, and included our insider notes alongside each recipe. – [Julia] Plus, there’s a handy shopping guide so you know exactly what to grab when you’re at the store. And, of course, it makes an excellent gift. – [Julia] Get your copy today at americastestkitchen.com. (upbeat music) – What do fried chicken, a deli sandwich and barbecue have in common? I won’t eat them unless there’s a pickle involved. (Bridget and Julia laugh) And it should be a whole pickle ’cause I like ’em crunchy. And it should be a dill pickle. So that’s what I’ve brought here. Traditionally vinegar pickles are made, as you might imagine, vinegar, salt and cucumbers. And they can either be pastured to be shelf stable or refrigerated. I will tell you that when we did a tasting of pickle spears we found a huge difference between the refrigerated and the shelf stable. Not so much here with the whole pickles. And I think our theory is a whole pickle can withstand the higher temperatures of pasteurization better for the shelf stable. So that was a defining factor. So in addition to shelf stable and refrigerated you have lactofermented. So there’s no vinegar here. They were put in a salt brine. The bacteria that’s naturally occurring in cucumbers begins to convert the natural sugars into lactic acid. So that preserves the mechanism, the tartness that you don’t need the vinegar from. That will also make the pickling liquid cloudy or Milky. And so the one here that looks a little cloudy is lactofermented. – Jack, my hands grew. (Jack and Julia laugh) – So garlic and dill are the most important flavors here. And we found that if it were competing spices they would kind of drawn out the garlic – Sure. – Anything that you’re noticing? Anything that you’re liking? Julia, why don’t you go first? – Yeah. This one, C, not such a fan. It’s a little on the watery side, not a ton of flavor. The little ones, the cornish ones as I call them, they have a sharp little flavor that I wasn’t expecting, which I kind of like. – [Jack] Okay. – I would put these on cheese board, and so with a cheeseboard I think that would be lovely. A and B are my favorite. B has a pronounced garlic flavor that I love. It has a lot going on in the flavor, and I dig that. This is your average American barbecue style pickle, and I love everything about it. I love the color, it’s a little fluorescent. I love the crunch. It tastes like a pickle. – All right. And if you were gonna pick a favorite? All right, you’re gonna go with B. – Mm-hmm. – Fist of all, I would eat all of these very happily, and I’m going to. This one tastes a little less lively than the other ones. – Okay. – I think it’s because the exterior, it’s not that it’s squeaky, but it just feels a little softer. – Okay. – But I’d still eat it. This one is brash and bright, effervescent. Almost too powerful. Almost too puckery. – [Jack] Okay. – I’m gonna disagree with you. This is, I think, my favorite one. – Really? – Because it’s just really fresh. I’m not getting a whole bunch of spices, but I am getting just like fresh pickle. – There’s a flavor there that I can’t identify. Wine is what came, vermouth maybe, that I don’t like in a pickle. – And these. (mouth pops) Boy, they are sour. (Julia and Jack laugh) They’re good. The best part of these is they hit you twice. (Julia laughs) Going down the throat. Oh. – It’s a good thing they’re so small. (Julia laughs) – I’d say there’s more flavor in that than the three of these combined. – True. True. – I don’t think I could eat too many of them. – All right, so C for you. – I think so. – B for you. So let’s start with A, which is the Mt. Olive. This was our runner up. This is a teeny bit softer. This is a shelf stable one. – Okay. – But that was delicious. And our favorite of the shelf stable, if you wanna not crowd the refrigerator with a pickle jar, go ahead and keep that in the pantry. – Why not? – B is the lactofermented. And it’s a lot of pickle. – [Julia] A lot of pickle. – It has a lot of spices, which I think you were picking up on there’s more than just garlic and dill. Our tasters really wanted garlic and dill, and felt like there were too many other flavors. But you love the fact it was more complicated. – Yeah. – You’re just a complicated person. You chose the winner from Boar’s Head. So this is a refrigerated pickle. It’s just basically cucumber, garlic and dill. It’s crisp, it’s fresh, and then D is the McClure’s. We all thought these are really sour. There’s a lot of vinegar in those pickles. Even though they’re little they pack a punch. – Yes. (Jack laughs) They were. – Oh and they just were too tart, too sour. I like a sour pickle, but that’s a sour pickle. Bridget did pick the winner. – There you go. – Which comes from Boar’s Head. Nicely done. – Looking for kitchen inspiration on the go? Check out the America’s Test Kitchen mobile app. Cook with confidence and take our recipes, reviews and more wherever you go. – [Julia] Access thousands of fail proof recipes, equipment reviews, how to videos and full episodes of our TV shows. – With smart searching, favorites and other tools, it’s your ultimate kitchen companion. – Download the America’s Test Kitchen mobile app today. (upbeat music) Today we’re talking flatware, and I’m excited to see what Adam has to say because it’s not just about style. – Oh, it’s about so much more than style. I was shocked the kind of strong opinions people have about flatware. – [Julia] Mm-hmm. – It’s too bulky. It’s too dainty. It’s too long. It’s too short. It’s too heavy. It’s too light. We wanted to get to the bottom of it, so we tested nine different sets here. – [Julia] Okay. – A set comprises place settings, usually five pieces. There can be anywhere between four to 12 place settings. There can be serving pieces or not. So to try and even the playing field in terms of price we figured it per utensil, and that range was $9 at a high to $0.95 at a low. – Ooh, I like the low. – You know, we had a whole squad of testers use these in real world conditions, both here and in their home kitchens. Our squad included a couple lefties. And they tried food with a variety of textures. With the spoons that meant ice cream that was frozen pretty hard. – Ooh. – And lentil soup. – Good test. – We also, of course, cleaned them up, and we did some abuse testing. And testers made some judgments about the aesthetic quality of them. You know, aesthetics is always open for debate, comfort is not open for debate. Pick up that spoon, and see what you think. – Okay. Ooh, that’s lovely. It really does just balance in your hand without much effort at all. – It sort of falls naturally where it should. – Yeah. – And now why don’t you try one that’s not as well balanced down at the end. – (laughs) I couldn’t even lift it off the table evenly. I’d spill soup on myself with this. – So a nice gentle curvature to the handle made a difference. Why don’t you pick up that fork and- – Ooh, that’s nice. – [Adam] Yeah. – It just naturally fits in my hand. It feels like an extension of my fingers. – And it’s a lot more comfortable than something that’s just long and straight. – Yeah. – Another issue was whether the issues were rounded or smooth. If you’re really digging into some hard ice cream or something, if you have a nice smooth, rounded edge, that’s comfy, right? – Yep. – Why don’t you pick up that spoon? And imagine really gripping that, and digging into some hard ice cream or something. – It’s really digging into my skin. – Yeah. That’s a sharp edge, and it’s a little less comfortable. Why not go for a more comfortable rounded edge? – It’s a lot less comfortable. – Yeah. There were not huge differences among the forks, but the knives do present some differences. Why don’t you put a piece of steak with that one at the very end and see what you think. – [Julia] Okay. – You know, if you eat a lot of red meat at your house, it’s worth having a set of good steak knives. – Just rubbing it back and forth is not doing anything. I have to put a little bit of muscle into it. And it’s really ragged. That’s not- – [Adam] You could get through it. – Yeah. – But why don’t you try the other knife? – All right. Fresh piece of meat here. Oh, hello. – Way easier, right? – Yes. – The difference is micro serrations. The better knife has little tiny serrations towards the tip, the other one is just smooth. Testers definitely preferred the serrated ones. There are two sets of winners. This is the Our Table Cecil Satin 45-piece set. This is the overall winner. Testers love this. It’s 45 pieces, so it was eight place settings of five pieces each. – Mm-hmm. – Plus five serving pieces. So it was an average of $4.44 per utensil at 200 bucks for the whole set. Really well proportioned, really handsome, really comfortable. Terrific flatware. – It feels like an extension of your hand, like a good piece of silverware should. – Right. There was also a runner up for a little bit less money. This is the best buy. This is the Oneida Voss 45-piece set. Same deal, eight place settings of five pieces each with five serving pieces. The whole set was $125, and the per utensil cost was $2.78 for that one. – This also feels pretty good. – Yeah. – [Julia] Very interesting. Thanks, Adam. – Not just style, right? – So there you have it. If you’re in the market for some new flatware, check out our winner, the Our Table Cecil Satin 45-piece flatware set at $200. Or for the best buy the Oneida Voss 45-piece flatware set at $125. – At America’s Test Kitchen, recipe development is serious business. – Head over to americastestkitchen.com, and unlock 14,000 expert developed recipes, and 8,000 unbiased product reviews all rigorously tested by our team. – Access every episode of every season of your favorite cooking shows. That’s 38 seasons of inspiration. – And with the ATK members app you’ll have 30 years of expertise at your fingertips, anywhere, anytime. Join us and become a smarter cook. – Start your free all access trial membership at americastestkitchen.com today. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) I have serious breakfast envy. While I’m standing over a bowl of cold Cornflakes the Sicilians have it all figured out. There in the morning they’re having a sweet little bun alongside a ball of freshly made granita. Now sometimes it’s coffee flavored or nut flavored or fruit flavored. And it all gets washed down with a hot espresso. Perfect for a summer day. And perfect for me. Elle is here, and she’s gonna show us how to make this great dessert. – That’s right, we’re gonna make berry granita. It takes very little effort, not many ingredients, and no special equipment. – [Bridget] We’re the special equipment. – We brought our special equipment. (Bridget laughs) All right, so we’re gonna start with one pound of raspberries and blackberries here. – [Bridget] Okay. – In the blender. And the thing that sets granita apart from its cute cousin sorbet is the sugar content. – Right. – We found that a 1/2 cup of sugar is actually the sweet spot. Too much sugar would not allow it to freeze. Add a little pinch of salt here. And 3/4 cups of water. And finally 1/4 cup of lemon juice to really make these berries pop. – [Bridget] Bright and sassy? – That’s how I like my berries. Everything’s in there. So we’re just gonna blend this on high for one to two minutes. (blender whirs) All right, that’s been about two minutes. It’s looking pretty pureed there. – It’s looking gorgeous. – Okay so I’m gonna strain this into our 13 x 9 glass dish, and this is just to get out any seeds and skins. – Yes. – We want smooth. All right. So we’re using glass because we’re gonna do a lot of scraping of this granita as it’s freezing, and we don’t wanna scrape aluminum, right? – [Bridget] Right. – The other reason is that the glass creates an insulation between itself and the counter so the granita does not melt quickly while we’re trying to serve it. – Very smart. – Yeah. We’re all set here. We’re gonna put this granita in the freezer for an hour. – Okay. – Okay, Bridget, this is what our granita looks like after one hour in the freezer. You’ll notice that the edges are frozen, but the middle is a little slushy. – [Bridget] A little slushy. – Yes. It’s gonna require a bit of stirring, and we’re gonna just bring these frozen edges to the center. I like to break all the edges up first. – This is super important for granita to get that right texture. – [Elle] Yeah. – [Bridget] You wanna catch it before it solidifies into a giant block. – Yes. I like how that’s looking so far. All right, so I’m gonna do this same process every 30 minutes to an hour for two to three hours. – Okay. – Okay. Back in the freezer. So, Bridget, it’s been three hours, and look at our granita. – It’s a big difference. – It is a big difference. The color is beautiful. We still have to scrape it with a fork to loosen it up a little bit. But it’s so tender and soft. I can’t believe this is how people are eating breakfast around the world. – What a great way. – I know, what a way. – We’ve got Tang, and that’s what they’re doing? – Just as a reminder, you can make granitas with any berries that you want. It’s customizable. You can also add like lemon or ginger or Prosseco. – Yes. – So this is all scraped. Gonna serve us up some granite. – [Bridget] That is beautiful. – It’s so light and fluffy. Great texture. Ready to celebrate? – Yes. – Here we go. (claps hands) A little splash for you. A splash for me. Cheers. – What an elegant dessert. Absolutely cheers. Those ice crystals, a little bit crunchy. – Yes. – A little bit chewy. – Yeah. – Very slushy. – Yeah, very slushy. And that lemon juice really did make these berries pop, it’s amazing. – This is gorgeous. – Well thank you. – I’m reconsidering my Cornflakes big time right now. So if you wanna make this absolutely beautiful berry granita, process one pound of berries with just half a cup of sugar, use a glass pan to freeze the mixture, and use a fork to stir ice crystals right back into the center. So from America’s Test Kitchen, the effervescent, the bracing, the super fresh berry granita. You can get this great recipe, and all the recipes from this season, along with select episodes and product reviews. Those are all on our website. That’s americastestkitchen.com/tv. (upbeat music) I shall slash another scoopful. – We hope you enjoyed this video as much as we enjoyed making it. – Don’t forget to hit that like button and subscribe to our channel. – And if you’re ready to take your cooking to the next level, head over to americastestkitchen.com, and get a free all access trial membership. – While you’re there you can sign up for our free email newsletters and download our app. – [Julia] With unlimited access to over 14,000 of our test kitchen recipes, and 8000 product reviews, you’ll have everything you need to cook and learn. – So I ask what are you waiting for? – Let’s make something great together.