advice sought for cooking chicken breasts

[Zengarden]

Have purchased a log of goat cheese with figs and intend to stuff this into chicken breasts (bone in) and cooking them.

Can I get some advice on how to cook the chicken without turning them rubbery? Nothing worse than dry chicken breast meat.

Thanks.

[Zengarden]

This is what I did in the end (with good results):

I deboned the breasts and them split them so that I had a place to put the goat cheese. The next step was to tie them up (a bit clumsy with this). Then they were dredged in flour, rolled in a milk/egg combo, rolled in Italian breadcrumbs, and then fried in oil until brown. The entire pan was then put into the oven for 35 minutes.

Moist and delicious.

Perfe

[KiltedCook]

I would bone the breasts out, wrap them around a golf ball sized lump of cheese, then wrap that in a piece of puff pastry and bake at 400F for 45 minutes. A figgy goat cheese version of CHicken de Paola (which uses sundried tomatoes, chopped cooke spinach and cream cheese). Yuummm

[link_930]

The only thing that's worked for me consistently is to stab them all over with a fork and brine beforehand. Make sure they aren't too thick as well... good luck!

[lexpatti]

If they are full chicken breast and you want a nice roasted skin - like this recipe for awesome chix breast - I would do the same - 450 for 35 min. (hot and fast to seal the juices and have a nice roasted skin):
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...

[Shane Greenwood]

Hot and fast is right, but it doesn't "seal in the juices". That is actually a food myth. What hot cooking will caramelize the meat, which creates more flavor. Cooking hot let's you cook fast, which means less time to dry out the meat. Since chicken breast has no connective tissue you can use this method for best results. If you cook it too long it will dry out because there is not enough fat in there. Also, I would debone the breasts and pound them out to a uniform thickness, then roll in your stuffing and tie them. Sear in a hot pan for a couple of minutes per side, then bake in a hot oven till done. Balsamic vinegar reduced is a nice sauce/drizzle with fig and goat cheese.

[horseshoe]

The key is to not overcook.

[HaagenDazs]

Precisely. Chicken breast is safe and done when it reaches a temperature of 160 F. Anything over that and you are overcooking it and drying it out. Use a thermometer. Remember that your chicken breasts will keep cooking (carry over cooking) another 5 or so degrees even after you take them out of the oven.

[ipsedixit]

After stuffing, rolling and tying up the chicken breasts, I would first saute them in a pan, then pop them into a prehated 325 oven for about 10-15 minutes (depending on their thickness).

[anni]

I agree. The only thing I might do different is to pound them out slightly to even the thickness.