[Skip straight to recipe]
165 calories, 31 grams of protein for 100g (3-1/2 oz) of chicken breast (skinless/boneless).
This is a tasty, cheap and low calorie meat dish you can make for a light meal, or healthy snack. Use chicken thighs if you want something juicier, but there's a reason why chicken breasts are the staple food of most body builders who are trying to cut (gain/maintain muscle without gaining fat. )
Ingredients
That's a great ratio of 5.3 calories per gram of protein.
209 calories, 26 grams of protein for the same amount of chicken thigh (skinless/boneless)
That's still a decent ratio of 8 calories per gram of protein.
This is a tasty, cheap and low calorie meat dish you can make for a light meal, or healthy snack. Use chicken thighs if you want something juicier, but there's a reason why chicken breasts are the staple food of most body builders who are trying to cut (gain/maintain muscle without gaining fat. )
Easy Preparation
Preparation is very easy, with the dish being marinated overnight (or up to 2 days), then either panfried (on low) or baked until a safe temperature (73C or 165F).
I generally use frozen chicken in this brine, and allow the frozen chicken to thaw in fridge while being marinating. We use a slightly higher brine salinity (8%), to factor for using cheap frozen chickens, which may leak water and dilute the brine. Lower this brine salinity to 7% if using fresh chicken.
Prepping this the night before allows the meat the safely thaw in the fridge (4C or 38F) and to absorb the brine (this can drop to as little as 30min if using fresh chicken).
It's also easy to prep bags of pre-marinated frozen chicken, and just move bags to the fridge the evening before you want chicken.
Tender & Delicious
Using some baking soda, we raise the ph of the meat slightly, which disrupt meat protein bondage when heated, helping it stay moist and juicy. This gives a generous margin of error for those who are prone to overcooking their meat. It also lower the temperature for the maillard reaction to happen, encouraging browning.
Using soy sauce, we introduce some extra glutamates to the meat. Optional garlic powder also browns easily, and can be added near the end of the cooking process.
Basic marinade
We use soy sauce as our salt ingredient, and the customizable recipe below allows you mix other salt substitutes, using your own preferred ratio. Different soy sauces have different salinity (indicated by their sodium level), and the recipe allows you to customize this for your own ingredients (miso, fish sauce, oyster sauce etc).
We use an equilibrium brine of 1.5%, so regardless of marinating times, your meat will never be over salted. [Further explanation]
Factoring for liquid from the thawing chicken, we target a brine salinity of 8% ( vs a 6-7% traditional brine if using fresh chicken). This further inhibits salmonella growth, and is supposedly a more efficient brine.
Ideas for customizing your own marinade include adding slices of ginger (traditionally used in Chinese cooking to offset gamey flavors from chicken), or szechuan peppercorns (which have a flavor compound that also penetrates meat) in the brine.
PREP
1) In a sandwich bag or food safe container, mix your marinate and frozen skinless chicken. Ensure chicken is fully submerged. If using a bag, vacuum and seal, and place into your fridge (4C - 38F or below) overnight (6 hrs to 48 hours). In theory, once the chicken has thawed (a whole chicken can take up to 24 hours to thaw, chicken thighs can thaw in under 5 hours), some brine will have diffused into the surface of your chicken. This will be further pushed into your chicken once it's heated.
Optionally, add additional herbs to the marinade, as long as you are not adding anything acidic. You will know it is acidic when you see bubbles of CO2 forming as it reacts with the baking soda. However herbal flavors do not penetrate well into the meat. Salt takes 24 hours to penetrate an inch, time according to your chicken size.
COOKING (Pan Fry)
1) Remove the chicken from the marinade and pat dry, then add a pinch of garlic powder and a rub it on the chicken with a little olive oil.
2) Preheat your frying pan,
3) Over a very low flame, add some oil on the pan and place the chicken on it, for 8 - 10 minutes.
4) Flip the chicken and fry again on low flame for 3-5 minutes (ideally with the lid on), or until the chicken has reached a safe temperature of 73°C / 165°F
COOKING (Toaster Oven - Ideal for Chicken Thighs)
1) Preheat oven if necessary
2) Remove the chicken from the marinade and pat dry, rubbing on a little olive oil on the top of the chicken.
3) Bake at 250C till the middle of the chicken has reached a safe temperature of 73°C / 165°F (mine takes 12 min, but this will depend on your chicken size and oven). Using the top shelf of the oven will encourage browning.
I like to fold a little tray out of aluminum foil and throw some frozen veg into it while I'm baking the chicken.
Pepper and hotsauce to finish is also awesome.
EXAMPLE (using the old calculator)
 |
| I decided to use both Light and Dark Soy in this marinade, so I check their sodium content. I also weigh three pieces of chicken breast, which amazingly come to 150g. |
 |
I type the sodium content (in mg) and unit size (in ml) from the soy sauces into the calculator, making sure to scroll down to type the information for the 2nd bottle as well. I type in the marinate weight of my meat (150g), and my ideal brine percentage (2%). If it turns out too salty this time, I can change that percentage to 1.8% next time. I decide that I want to use a 50:50 ratio by weight, so I read the calculations that tell me I need 20g of each soy. (I found i made a mistake on my units elsewhere, and have corrected it) The total water volume for a 5% brine is 145 ml, which I approximate to being 145 grams (1ml of water weighs 1 gram) |
 |
| I pour 20g of each soy into the sandwich bag, as well as other (non acidic) ingredients. This time, I also added 30g of mirin, 10g of sake before topping up with water. I slipped up a bit and topped it to 147.6g instead of 145g. There's also a pinch of baking soda (0.5g and 1g of white pepper. |
 |
Finally, I label it with the date and put it in the fridge. I should probably have put the time as well, but sometimes I like to live dangerously. |
 |
Before pan frying, pat the chicken dry, Dust with a little garlic powder, Put a few drops of cooking oil (I'm using coconut oil) on it. IMPORTANT : Rub the garlic powder to distribute it well on one side. |
 |
This is an overnight brine (8 hours) The soy doesn't completely penetrate the chicken. |
 |
Pan-Fry the chicken gently for 10-15min on a low flame. NON-Garlic powder side down. I partially put the lid on my frying pan to trap the steam. |
 |
Set your timer for 5 minutes Garlic powdered side down. You should let the meat rest a few minutes before cutting, but it should be tender and juicy. |
 |
| Serve it with some steamed broccoli and chickpeas tossed in Indian masala Broccoli sauce: 50/50 light soy / chinkiang vinegar, minced garlic and pinch of sugar, then microwaved for 10s. |
Nutritional Information
(I'm guessing at the amount of salt that the chicken has absorbed)
SCIENCE / GEEKING OUT
We cook the chicken low and slow so that the inside temperature of the chicken heats up, and stays hot long enough for any bacteria to die, while at the same time, the surface of meat has been treated with a mildly alkaline solution that reduces it's tendency to dry out, and browns faster.
Genuine ideas on salt diffusion and brining
Spruce eats on brines
Comments
Post a Comment