Recipes Remastered: Grilled Chicken Breast

Chicken breast a protein that everyone should know how to cook well, and to do that, we’ll be doing a fairly deep dive into things like protein strands, temperatures/times, and the best condiment in the world, mayo. We are looking at Sam the Cooking Guy’s grilled chicken breast a great recipe as is, but we’ll use cooking science and technique to make a version that is more nonstick with better browning and is super moist every time.

Links & Stuff
► Join our Cooking Community: https://community.ethanchlebowski.com/
► Grilled Chicken Recipe: https://www.ethanchlebowski.com/cooking-techniques-recipes/the-science-of-great-grilled-chicken
► Sam the Cooking Guy Grilled Chicken Video: https://youtu.be/lz-IV2Z16j0
► SOURCES
– The Food Lab by Kenji Lopez: https://amzn.to/2COYNc2
– Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecuing and Grilling by Meathead Goldwyn: https://amzn.to/38n7UfC
– Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat: https://amzn.to/3dVao5W
– Mayo Article – https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/dining/mayo-meat-marinade.html
– Mayo Article – https://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-fo-grilling-with-mayonnaise-recipes-20170610-htmlstory.html

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► Useful Kitchen Gear
– Budget Whetstone for sharpening: https://amzn.to/31MlFDf
– Salt Pig: https://amzn.to/37Xi5XZ
– Scale: https://amzn.to/2Cu5HmP
– 8-inch Chef’s knife: https://amzn.to/2QLYvWr
– Nicer 8-inch Chef Knife: https://amzn.to/2W06SR1
– Magnetic Knife Rack: https://amzn.to/2YYs5ML
– Cast iron: https://amzn.to/2tu4Bmo
– Baking Sheet: https://amzn.to/3aE9dq3
– Wire Rack: https://amzn.to/2YeC9lM
– Saucepan: https://amzn.to/2SbVU9X
– Wood cutting board: https://amzn.to/2Qkw1UQ
– (NOT cheap) Amazing Pan: https://amzn.to/2rW8wYY
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MISC. DETAILS
Music: Provided by Epidemic Sound
Filmed on: Sony a6600 & Sony A6400 w/ Sigma 16mm F1.4
Voice recorded on Zoom H4n with Behringer Mic
Edited in: Premiere Pro

Affiliate Disclosure:
Cook with E is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Episode 3 Premise: (0:00)
Sam’s Recipe Breakdown: (1:19)
WTF does brining do?: (2:23)
Dry Brine vs Wet Brine: (3:33)
What temperature should you cook your chicken?: (4:15)
Why cooking chicken below 165 is still safe: (4:40)
Why mayo instead of oil?: (5:45)
Step by step recipe: (7:17)
Side by side taste test: (9:45)
Discussion of browning: (12:00)

#GrilledChicken

So if I see anyone at the end of this video making unseasoned chicken breasts and they don’t pound it out flat so it cooks evenly I’ve failed as a teacher for this video welcome to episode 3 of recipes remastered today we are looking at Sam the cooking guys best grilled

Chicken breasts a great recipe as is but we’ll use some cooking science and techniques to make a version that is more nonstick with better browning and is super moist every time with these techniques you’ll learn how to make consistently great chicken breasts no more cooking big hunks of chicken

Breasts like this that are done in one end but still raw in the other hey everyone I’m Ethan a home cooking nerd who likes buying better ways to cook and share them with all of you welcome to another episode of recipes remastered where we take a look at recipes from

Popular chefs or cooks and see where we can make improvements based on cooking techniques and ingredients that show up in the final product what we’re gonna look at today is chicken breast a protein that everyone should know how to cook well but in order to understand how

To cook it well we need to dive into a couple of things like protein strands and temperature and time as well as the best condiment in the world male so as we do in these recipes first we’re gonna review the original then I’ll let you know the improvements and then lastly

We’ll do the step by step recipe and finally the taste test let’s hop it just sort of Sam’s recipe he placed his chicken breasts in a bag with a little drizzle of olive oil he bashes his chicken breast flat which helps even cooking and is a huge key to

Making better chicken breasts I didn’t have a whiskey bottle so it was a pan for me for seasoning he adds a little more olive oil with plenty of salt and pepper on one side before letting it out at room temperature for 15 minutes once the grill is hot for grill pan in my

Case the chicken is placed down and the other side is seasoned with a little more oil salt and pepper then flipped over before finishing cooking on the other side to check the doneness Sam slices in to test the color and there we have some mighty tasty grilled chicken

He also makes this bangin jalapeno cream sauce which I made too but it’s not the focus of this video as that’s more of a taste preference of what you like on your grilled chicken for this video my improvements are going to focus on taste and texture by using a brine cooking the

Chicken to 155 degrees Fahrenheit and using mail instead of oil let’s talk about that so first off what does brining actually do it leads to a moist texture and an internally seasoned meat let’s talk texture first from salt fat acid heat we learned that when an unseasoned protein is heated the protein

Strands uncoil and clumped together which releases water molecules so the chicken juice ends up on your plate instead of in the chicken breast additionally the longer it is cooked the more moisture it loses which is why chicken cooked to 165 degrees becomes dry and stringy but how does the salt

Actually work well it disrupts the protein strands from uncoiling and clumping together so fewer water molecules are released to sum that up brining helps the meat remain moist through chicken juice retention let’s talk about taste again from salt fat acid heat we learned that salt will move

Across a cell wall from the salty side to the less salty side through osmosis and then through the slower process of diffusion the salt will become evenly distributed on both sides so over time the salt moves into the food internally seasoning it meaning every bite is perfectly seasoned rather than an only

Salty exterior and an unseasoned interior so if you have the time to let the salt go to work brine it that brings up the next question though do we dry brine it or do we wet brine it from the food lab by Kenji Lopez all he ran an

Experiment testing both and based on the data the wet brine had a tiny bit more moisture retention but he goes to say that this is mainly water and that he actually prefers the taste of a dry brine however in the science of great barbecue and grilling meathead Goldwyn

Says that most times he does dry brines but he will use a wet brine for things like pork loin chicken breast or turkey breast now I’ve done both before for turkeys and chicken but I don’t have a cold hard preference myself so I thought this video would be a perfect time to

Taste test both side by side so I can improve my own recipe in the same video regardless of the method just make sure you salt because not using salt would be the biggest mistake of all all right let’s move on to cooking temperature from the science of good barbecue and

Grilling meathead goldwyn notes that you can’t tell when chicken is safe by wiggling the meat waiting for the juices to run clear or looking at the color of the flesh the only way that you can tell is by using a thermometer that being said I’ll be cooking my chicken breasts

To 155 degrees Fahrenheit and I think you should too let me explain why so if you stick to the USDA’s guidelines of 165 degrees Fahrenheit you get chicken that is dry and stringy and tough but 155 is about the upper limit for chicken breasts that is still going to be juicy

This begs the question though is 155 degrees safe so from the Food Lab determined in a safeness of chicken is based on both temperature and time so if you look at this chart we see that at 155 degrees we have to hold the chicken there for just 40 4.2 seconds to reach

The same level of safeness as 1 65 so to do this I just bring the chicken breast to 155 on the grill place it on the cutting board and it actually stays at 155 degrees for a couple of minutes well over the 45 second threshold also chicken becomes fully white at 150

Degrees Fahrenheit so if you were going only based on color there’s a good chance you aren’t even hitting the 165 degrees already so get a thermometer play around with the temperatures and see which one yields your favorite texture 155 is the highest that I go

Because as you can see it’s almost 30 to dry out even at 155 finally our last improvement use Mayo instead of oil these days I almost always use Mayo instead of oil and butter for things like grilling chicken or toasting some burger buns and it’s been becoming more

Mainstream due to articles like these from the LA Times in The New York Times UC Mayo is an emulsion of eggs and oil and because of that it is more viscous than oil or eggs alone meaning it spreads and stays on the meat a chicken breast with oil just drips off while

That Mayo isn’t gonna go anywhere this creates the ultimate nonstick lubricant for more delicate proteins like chicken or fish as meathead Goldwyn says in his book coating fish with oil works to prevent sticking but Mayo works better Oh look it after all my conversation about not sticking dammit another benefit is

That Mayo improves the mayor or Browning reaction as it cooks the water evaporates away leaving a thin layer of oil and egg protein which increases that browning and lastly you can mix whatever spices or sauces into that mail that you want and it’s gonna stick to the outside of the chicken

Unlike foil based marinades this isn’t to say you can’t make great chicken with oil but with mayo it feels like turning cooking on easy mode alright that was a lot of chicken talk let’s take 10 seconds to decompress listen to some relaxing music then make them step by

Step and do our chicken taste tests to start off gather your chicken breasts and place a piece in a large plastic bag removing the air and sealing the end using a cast iron pan bash the chicken on the thick upper portion to flatten the chicken evenly roughly 3/4 or about

1 inch thick now it’s time to choose your Briony method I’ll show you how to do both for the dry brine weigh the chicken breast and note that weight down calculate 1 to 1.5 percent salt depending on your preference and sprinkle it evenly on both sides of the

Chicken for this one it was 295 grams of breasts so I did 1.5 percent salt meeting about 4 grams you’re gonna let that chicken brine uncovered in the fridge for at least 1 hour or up to overnight now for the wet brine weigh the chicken breast and note that weight

Down mine was 231 grams calculate 2.5 times the 231 grams to get the amount of water I rounded to 500 80 grams then I calculate 5 percent salt based on the water weight which was 29 grams which I add to the water and stir vigorously

Until it is dissolved and it may take a little bit of time since the water isn’t warm now just add the chicken breast of the brine making sure it’s completely covered over top and then let it sit in the fridge for at least 1 hour or up to overnight

When you are ready to cook the chicken remove both from the fridge and Pat the exterior dry with a paper towel now instead of oil add 7 grams of mayo to a bowl along with a bunch of fresh ground pepper or any other spices sauces that you have slather the chicken

Breasts with the seasoned male so there is a thin layer all over it you can add more Mayo if you would like but I find half a tablespoon is usually a good amount for one chicken breast at the stove heat a cast-iron pan or griddle over medium heat place the

Chicken on the pan and cook for about three to four minutes on one side then flip it and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes with the thermometer start checking the internal temperature of the thickest part of the chicken pull the chicken off once it reaches 155 degrees Fahrenheit or whatever your desired

Temperature is and then verify that the chicken maintains that 155 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 45 seconds to ensure its safety remembering that chart from earlier let her rest for 5 minutes before slicing and enjoying and now let’s do our taste test I had everybody

It is now time for the taste test so I’ve got Sam’s right here I have the wet brine in the middle and then I’ve got the drive around on the right side so we’re gonna try all three of them and see what they taste like I’ll compare the differences once I

Actually get to them here and it’d be easier to tell want to do side by side cleanse palate a little bit oh yeah oh yeah all right so let me explain what’s going on here first off all three of them are great right the keys to great chicken breasts are salting whether you

Apply it right before whether you wet brown it wet you dry brine it the biggest mistake of all would not be salting it at all like this one so if I see anyone at the end of this video making unseasoned chicken breast and they don’t pound it out flat so it cooks evenly

I’ve failed as a teacher for this video so that’s the big thing make sure you salt make sure you pound it for even cooking and then cook it to the right temperature so with Sam’s what we get is you get hit with the salt right on top it’s it’s really noticeable salt forward

I would say but the difference is between the ones that are brined is that salt has actually worked in internally into the chicken so as your budding through each bite and chew through is really nice and internally seasoned whereas this one it’ll taste really salty on the exterior like it actually

Depends on how you put it on your tongue so if I put this chicken on my tongue face it with this face down it’s going to be completely different than if I put it with the exterior where all that salt is however with these brines it tastes the

Same throughout because it’s got that internal seasoning so it doesn’t really matter if I put my tongue here to bite it if I put it there to bite it it’s gonna taste salty and seasoned throughout and then as far as the Mayo goes so I mean you guys can see like

These got some really nice deep browning from that Mayo this one I mean it did get brownie it didn’t get great and even this side which I let go quite a bit longer you can still see it’s not it’s not as brown as this side which actually

Wasn’t on that long it’s compared to that underside of that one because generally the underside sits on longer because I don’t want to flip it and then ruin the the top grill marks so Mayo for me is literally like turning cooking on easy mode like I rarely use olive oil

Much anymore it used to be my number one oil for everything like just the default you always use olive oil but then once I started using Mayo I really I haven’t turned back since then like I’ll throw it on chicken chicken thighs and like I

Said it is it is a low lower calorie and you can get more spread evenly with Mayo so that’s a that’s a bonus for me whether that’s something you care about or not I’ll let that up to you and then as far as the taste goes you really do

Not notice the mail like it’s a little bit tangy I’ll give I’ll get like some people say there’s no taste but I will say it is a little bit tangy and then outside of that making sure you use a thermometer to get it to the temperature

That you want and like we saw in this video you don’t have to cook it to 165 this is what chicken to 165 looks like and it is so dry it is not good I mean I didn’t season easier this is like the worst chicken breast you can make

Cooking it the temperature is the only way that you’re gonna know you don’t know by color you don’t know if the juice is you don’t know for sure unless you actually use the temperature and the time using that chart I’d talked about in the early of the video and I think I

Actually probably cooked Sam’s too probably a right at 155 or maybe a little bit lower I got I’m actually really pleased with how I cooked this without using a thermometer but I’ve cooked a ton of chicken breast so I usually have a fairly good eye but if

You are newer to chicken breast you don’t really understand when you should pull it pick yourself up a thermometer this is the thermo and mk4 there’s like a high-end one but they make a thermo pop it is like $30 there’s a bunch of there’s a bunch of

Stuff on Amazon you can find reviews for great thermometers but definitely an essential item in my kitchen I uses all the time to meet again another way to turn cooking on easy mode but I think that’s gonna wrap it up for this video so next time you make chicken think

About salting think about cooking it to the correct temperature and I’m telling you try out Mayo instead of oil or olive oil you won’t go back that’s gonna wrap it up for me I will catch you in the next one peace you