Does everyone just lie about cooking chicken?
So,
Everything says a regular sized boneless chicken breast takes about 5 minutes on each side to come to temp.
Well, I have been cooking these super tiny cuts of chicken and it’s been over 15 minutes on each side and it’s still not to 160.
What gives?!
by KillerQ97
50 Comments
This always happens to me as well when I do chicken breast. I even tenderize it before and I feel like it takes forever to cook. Yet everything I see says like 5 min on each side
Well, you’re cooking it on a cast iron griddle instead of direct flame, also I think 5 min per side is not enough time.
Usually I would cook pieces like that for roughly 20 min… on my grill over direct medium to low heat… 350-400 degrees.
Flip every 5 min or so
30 mins is overlong for pieces, IMO. Is your thermometer accurate? Are you covering the grill? Did you cut into a piece to check the doneness?
More info would be helpful.
I’ve been doing alot of beer can chicken lately, and I’ve discovered everything takes alot longer than it says when going by the internal temp (not just chicken). But thankfully I generally don’t have a timeline, so I don’t mind waiting with a extra cold brew or 2.
I don’t have a good answer why tho… sorry.
Maybe I’m missing something but this looks like a stove, not a grill.
for breasts, I prefer to pound them flat to make them thin and even. i lightly dredge in corn starch and some seasoning and pan sear on each side. You’re trying to cook thick pieces of breast that requires a lot of time to get to temp, making it dry. either cut to smaller pieces to reduce cooking time or pound flat as I suggested.
or just buy thighs
Using it in a griddle is definitely affecting the time. When I do breasts over regular gas flames, it’s almost exactly 5 minutes per side. Boneless thighs, I’ll usually baby sit them more and flip em every 3-4 minutes, they’ll take a little longer but I’m happy getting the fat fully rendered and getting a nice char.
Thermopen don’t lie. That chicken looks good
I don’t lie about cooking chicken. I do it standing up.
Idk about on a skillet on the oven but my chicken breasts are huge so I cut them in half to have two thinner (normal size) breasts and grill them on med high for 5 min a side after preheating the grill on full blast for 8-10min
Heres a little trade secret if youre cooking stove top/griddle…. Cover it. Youre going to lose most of your heat doubling cooking times. Sear your meat hot and fast, cover it cook it, uncover it and let some moisture cook out.
Cast iron on top of stove or in the oven take longer than grilling over a flame. I usually get to temp pretty well with 5 min a side over direct flame and then 5-7 min on indirect area of grill
Just wait until you discover drumsticks.
I do my chicken thighs fit at least 20 minutes total, flipping and turning about every 5 minutes.
Breast always takes more time. I cook thighs, much faster and also tastier imho!
you have a busted thermometer
Chicken breasts vary a lot in size. Then it depends on how you prep them. Are you fileting them in half? Using your meat hammer to get them in a uniform size?
Also chicken is one of the things I don’t like eating at barbecues. People either overcook it or undercook it.
On my smoker it takes about an hour or so to get to 180 for dark meat, but it also takes an hour to get the fire the way I like it, so it really takes well over 2, almost 3. If the things is full, then the back takes almost two hours. Even at pretty high smoking temps.
On the Webber I usually only do boneless thighs and those are fast to 140, then I smoke them to 180. It’s like 5 minutes to almost done if the fire is roaring, but then maybe 20-30 or so to 180. They get decent char with the Webber. I use a mix of lump and real wood that breaks up when splitting stuff for the smoker for the Webber.
i do 1 1/2 – 2″ thick breast, 350, 6 minutes per side. what temp are you cooking at?
I grill half chickens on my Weber Genesis often. 350 to 400 degrees. Takes about 35 minutes. Juicy inside, nice brown crispy outside
Recipes LIE about time! Like every time I have seen a recipe claim that caramelized onions will only be 10-15 minutes. Lies!
If they are thick and the cooking surface isn’t too hot, it will take longer. I cook chicken breast until the thickest area is 145 and let them rest in a pile 10 minutes. The residual heat increases the temp inside. The resting lets the moisture redistribute. USDA says that will kill any pathogens.
Mm
It depends on what you’re cooking on too. My grill comes up to almost 550-600 degrees and I keep the lid closed after turning to keep the heat in. 10-12 minutes total for a smaller boneless skinless breast like you have here isn’t unreasonable. If you’re cooking it on a stovetop burner on a griddle, without having anything covering it to keep the heat in, especially on a burner that isn’t a power burner pumping out higher and hotter BTUs, it’s going to take longer.
All that to say…it definitely does seem like a lot of recipe writers underestimate timing for prep and execution of a lot of dishes!
You have to turn the grill on, dude.
If you’re cooking it for 30 minutes IDK how to help you.
Chicken breast 5 mins per side is usually boneless and also flattened for uniform cooking. Your chicken looks like quartered chicken breast and is not making good contact with the grill.
Mybe consider baking to 140 them just searing on the flattop. It will give you time to cook veggies
Sounds about right? I don’t know anyone that says it takes 10 minutes to cook a chicken breast unless it’s completely burned on the outside
5 min each side, finish off in the oven. Perfect chicken every time
no they don’t. some of us cook it in the oven when its not deep fried or grilled on a kettle or in a smoker. learn how to use time and heat.
When I use my Blackstone for chicken breast, it’s pretty hot, the surface is seasoned so it doesn’t stick and I use a dome, so it takes about as long as what people say.
These are very thick. I’d say 5 minutes a side to about half of that thickness.
What did you season them bad boys with? I would absolutely go to town on them bad boys
I average 20 minutes on low heat–over charcoal for chicken, but I want it to taste good, and not like ash, so…
You don’t really need white meat at 160. 160 is the temperature that kills bacteria instantly but at 150 the bacteria will still die after 15 minutes which between cook time and rest time will be plenty.
No, I think people are really cooking chicken
I wouldn’t trust any source that says to cook for X minutes without also saying the cooking temperature and final desired internal temperature of the meat.
That’s so funny…I used to overcook chicken because my kid had half raw chicken one time, and never ate it. It used to be so tough but I thought it was awesome and that I was king of the grill.
Then one day I accidentally heated the grill to a too low temperature, and though it took forever, it was the best fricken chicken I ever made. I was embarrassed and proud at the same time. Now it’s always slo and lo.
The stove looks nice, does it happen to have a flame broiler? that would be faster
Who cooks boneless breast on a grill?
Boneless chicken breasts either pounded flat or cut in half lengthwise so that they’re really thin can cook in less than 10min. But yes, in general, I have also found that all times are longer than advertised
The only good chicken is the thigh of a chicken. Leg meh, wings ok. Breast suck. I hate white meat so ..
Yes!
Everyone frequently lies about cook times. The reason comes from recipe writers wanting to compile cookbooks full of “thirty minute or less” recipes. They do this by employing two methods, one that is (arguably) fair and one that is not.
The first mechanism they use to shave time off the recipe is by including extensive prep. You’ll see a recipe with ingredients like “4 carrots, washed, ends cut off, peeled, fine dice.” When you have a whole list of ingredients that require a lot of prep, it can take more than thirty minutes just to get started on a thirty minute recipe. Even worse, you’ll sometimes see recipes that have ingredients like “2 cups chicken broth (see Quick Chicken Broth” on page 156)” then you look there and see a two hour recipe for chicken broth, with its own ingredient prep list.
I say this is arguably fair, as explained by Kenji, because different people have different prep skills. A pro chef might be able to take a list of ingredients and knock it out in five minutes that would take you half an hour. Including it introduces huge variance to a recipe and makes it hard to give *any* idea of how long it actually takes.
The second mechanism they use to reduce recipe time is to lie. Straight up look you in the face and lie, right through their teeth. They’ll say chicken hits internal temp in five minutes knowing full well their test cooks saw it take several times as long. That’s if they have test cooks, which they generally don’t, and are physics-ly impossible to achieve.
People see this and also want to gloss the truth because they don’t want to be the idiot that takes an hour to do a fifteen minute recipe. So that’s how it goes.
The other thing that frequently gets lost in the mix is that professional test kitchens often use professional cooks and commercial equipment, which can shave a lot of time too. But mostly it’s just lying.
I never cook breasts to 160 that’s crazy dry. Breast to 145 and hold for 5 minutes. Perfectly safe. Food safety is time AND temp. 165f is for Instant kill. It’s overboard paranoid for food safety reasons.
160 is IMHO a bad temp for breast and thighs. 145 for breast and it’ll carryover to 150+. 175 for thighs.
If you want them to cook quick then pound them with a mallet or filet them.
If you’re pulling breasts at 160, I hope you enjoy dry chicken. Provided the chicken is from a reputable source, you should pull breasts at 145-150, and can cook thighs and other fatty/dark meat to 160.
I usually just wing it
It’s one of the harder pieces of meat to cook, especially breasts but once you do it for a little bit, you’ll get it
5 minutes? For chicken?! Please give a source for that, because it’s ridiculous.
20 minutes minimum, maybe closer to 30. Frequency of flipping depends entirely on what cut you’re cooking. Like, a bone-in skin-on breast? I’d do at least 15 minutes, maybe more like 20 with the bone side down, then flip for 3-5 minutes (depending on seasoning and flame height, indirect vs direct heat etc), then shorter intervals on each side until the skin is nice and crispy but not burnt.
Just get a decent thermometer (Thermopop)
Flip as needed, You’ll get the feel for perfectly crispy skin and juicy interior.
You also don’t have to go to 160. It’s time AND temp. 155 for 15 seconds is just as good as 165 instantly.