Breast fillets: slice or not

corblimey

This weekend's recipe involves rubbing spices into chicken breast fillets. The recipe calls for the fillets to be in their whole state when preparing and cooking, but wouldn't slicing them up first

a) allow for better coverage and penetration of the spices?
b) let them cook faster?

Since I'm slicing them anyway to actually eat them, is there any reason to keep them whole during the prep and cooking stage?

Tom Dunne

I think it's a personal thing.

Would a steak look better chopped up or served whole?

I suppose for presentation purposes, a whole fillet looks better.

But as you say, chopping it up will ensure it cooks quicker.

harr

I always find it best to cook them whole,as if you slice them they can some times turn out very dry..get fillets with the skin on and lift skin and rub spices under the skin but cook with the skin on or very gently score the chicken with the skin on and rub the spice in that way.
They will cook quicker sliced yes but you will be losing flavour and the presentation might not be the best...better sticking to recipe...
Good luck

The Hill Billy

Cooking the fillets whole will allow the meat retain more moisture during the cooking process. If you wish to achieve greater penetration of the spices into the flesh, you can slash the breasts, thus increasing the overall surface area & apply more spices to this. To be honest, I don't think that you would really notice the difference in taste.

In relation to your comment about having to slice the chicken to eat it, Tom's steak analogy is good. Cooked steak strips will never be as tasty & moist as steak cooked whole & then cut when eating.

But if you wish to go for maximum spice penetration & not worry about texture or moistness you could always use minced chicken in place of the breast.

Mod note: It really would help us though if you could provide us with the full recipe when you have these queries in future. Context is everything & sometimes knowing exactly what you are trying to cook will allow us give you better advice.

tHB

corblimey

I don't have the recipe to hand, but it's very basic (one of Jamie's 15 minute meals) so just a mix of spices (a generic 'cajun' mix I think) and polenta rubbed into the fillet. I don't care at all about presentation, but the tip about moistness of whole v sliced is well taken. I will try scoring the breast a little aswell to give it an extra kick.

Mellor

corblimey wrote: »

I don't care at all about presentation,

Either does Jamie Olivier from what I've seen.
In this case, i'd say its certainly down to retain moisture

kylith

corblimey wrote: »

I don't have the recipe to hand, but it's very basic (one of Jamie's 15 minute meals) so just a mix of spices (a generic 'cajun' mix I think) and polenta rubbed into the fillet. I don't care at all about presentation, but the tip about moistness of whole v sliced is well taken. I will try scoring the breast a little aswell to give it an extra kick.

If it's a Jamie 15 minute recipe he may say to bash the fillets to about 1cm thick, this will mean that they cook very quickly and are very juicy.

corblimey

Yep, bash them thin. Did this on Saturday. Because I cook in bulk and freeze, I ended up slicing the fillets largely into thirds and frying them that way. They retained a lot of their moistness and cooked relatively quickly. I also slashed them, but failed to notice any difference from the last time I cooked this dish.

rubadub

I usually chop mine for more marinate coverage, faster cooking, and more oil penetration. I am often coating them in flour mixtures too.

I never have problems with moisture, the opposite if anything. One of the main points of slicing finely is the speed of cooking. I am wonder if people saying they are dry are cooking too long. It takes far less time for the core to reach a safe temp if it is thin. I would be interested in any links to tests on this, or theory on the physics of it. I was not too fond of chicken breast growing up, invariably overdone.

If you do look at the physics it is not simply a case of weighing before and after and saying the whole breast lost less moisture (if it actually did), the composition is very important.

i.e. you might have an overdone outer layer of dry meat which is only 10% of the meat overall but might have say 20% moisture left in it, while inside is moist. But this outer layer could be horrible, while the thinly cut pieces can be cooked faster, so there may be no sections of meat below 30% moisture in it, but overall might indeed have less water compared to when fresh.

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Would a steak look better chopped up or served whole?

Looking at all the junkmail I get -a lot of photographers seem to think chopped up looks best.

corblimey

rubadub wrote: »

I never have problems with moisture, the opposite if anything.

Thanks for that, rubadub, although I'm interested in what happens when you have too much moisture, as your post intimates