Boiling Chicken Breast (or any meat) before cooking to cook evenly

I found that putting chicken breasts in a ziplock bag and letting them sit in a bowl of water thaws them fairly quickly "changing the water helps too". Albet not as quickly as a microwave though however in my opinion too long on dethaw in a microwave seems to make the chicken taste off.

I will side with your mother here. If you do it right, you'll get better meat.

What dries meat out is not the method (baking, frying or boiling), but cooking for too long. If your meat is frozen, and you fry it until the centre is done, the outside will be overcooked.

But if you start the meat in a much gentler cooking method with lower temperature, such as boiling, you will get much better meat quality. It is up to you to decide how much to cook the meat in the beginning, the closer it gets to done, the shorter it will spend in the second stage in the pan. Ideally, if you have a sous vide bath, you can throw it in for several hours (!) until it reaches the perfect temperature inside, then just give it a very quick sear in a sizzling pan, or char it with a torch only, to develop a very thin tasty crust without even rewarming the inside.

What you shouldn't do is boil the meat until it's overdone, then give it another 15 minutes in the pan. Chicken breast will end up in tasteless strings with such a treatment.

The truly BEST way to cook meat evenly (frozen or not) would be a "low-temp cooking" process (AKA sous vide). If you can surround the meat with water at exactly the target temperature of the meat (e.g. 60 Celsius for chicken) you don't need to worry about it getting overcooked. Most sous vide restaurants sear both sides of the meat before and/or after the low-temp part happens to attain good color.

That said, the equipment to properly low-temp cook things is a bit beyond most home-cooks. Thus you're totally right - boiling meat is generally the worst way to cook it for flavor. Braising meat can be a good solution, but that's very different from a boil.

Edit: This situation has changed in recent years - decent Sous Vide machines are available at home-cook prices ($125 - $200 USD, not exactly cheap, but still affordable). I've got one and can get my chicken, steaks, etc exactly as done as I'd like them.

I cook thick skinless/boneless chicken breasts all the time. And most of the time I am using the frozen variety. I would love to thaw the chicken out in the sink with cool water for a few hours. Do I ever remember to do this?

No.

So I have tested cooking chicken hundreds of times on the stove top. (Chicken is about 1 pound per and upwards of 2 inches thick)

What I have found:

1. The most important part is the beginning. You must sear each side until dry and brown. You will need stove on high and there will be a lot of water melting off. Don't flip the first time until the pan is waterless - applies to cooking multiple breasts at same time. Once you flip there won't be as much melting on the other side. Once the second side is brown add a little olive oil and flip again. Continuing cooking until raw chicken is not visible, both sides are browned (not burnt).

2. Add water to go up to about 1/2 to 2/3 the height of chicken. I also add salt/pepper and other seasonings here.

3. Keep cooktop on as high as possible. The goal is to have no water in pan once done.

4. You will flip chicken every 5-10 minutes to make sure it is cooking evenly. A large frozen piece may take 30 mins.

5. If water is gone before chicken is cooked through then add about a cup at a time until it is done.

6. You can overcook easily using this method so don't just let small pieces shrivel up in the water. If cooking different sizes, take out the smaller pieces, set them aside and throw them back in with 3 minutes to go. So when you are "done" pan should not have water - very important because as the water evaporates, the flavor let out into the water makes its way back to the chicken. Rebrown your chicken on each side quickly (on high with no water this may be 30 seconds per side).

7. Enjoy your chicken. Seasoned properly and with the right amount of time/water this works great. Maybe not as good as fresh but good enough. The hard part is knowing your pan/stove. You want your water to evaporate but not so quickly that you are throwing water in every minute. On the flip side if you put in too much there isn't a way to drain it out without draining out a good deal of the flavor.

If you are starting from frozen meat and want it cooked as quickly as possible, the only method I can recommend is cooking it in sauce. Pounding the chicken breast or butterflying a thawed breast would definitely yield better results then boiling the breast in water. However neither of those methods are possible with a frozen piece of meat which is what you are starting with.

It is true that boiling the meat would dilute the flavor of the chicken. However this can be offset by making a dish where the cooking liquid is consumed. One suggestion is using a jar of chicken soup and simmer until the breast is cooked, then chop of the meat and put it back in the soup. Another is to cook the chicken in some tomato sauce and then serve it with pasta.

Boil the chicken, add chicken stock to enhance its taste. Remove from water when tender, coat it with egg and flour(add garlic powder, salt, chili powder little sugar on the flour), fry it. Result: Tender juicy fried chicken

Sous vide is the best choice for “pre-cooking” chicken, IMHO. You can do it without a sous vide machine (although it’s kind of a PITA) by putting each breast in a ziplock bag. Seal the bag except for a tiny corner and submerge the bag in water to force the air out, then completely seal the bag. Bring a saucepan large enough to hold the breasts filled with water to just under a simmer, and keep a close eye on the temp (you’ve got a thermometer, right?) - keep it at about 145°F and immerse the chicken in the hot water. They’ll be cooked through in about an hour, and you can finish them off by searing them quickly in a screaming hot oiled pan. Put a teaspoon of butter, a sprig of herbs, and a slice of lemon in the ziplock for extra flavor.

You could also poach the breasts in barely simmering white wine, which is a lot less of a nuisance, and imparts a delicious flavor to the meat.

Mom is right and if you season it first the pours open up during the process getting flavor deep into the meat without long marinade process. Then crisp skin by frying. You will have more flavor than ever before