13 Healthy Chicken Recipes That'll Make Dinner A Breeze (2024)

FAQs

What is the tastiest and healthiest way to cook chicken breast? ›

Safer, healthier cooking methods for chicken include sous vide, steaming, pressure cooking, and microwaving.

Choose chicken without the skin for less saturated fat and cholesterol. Healthy preparation options include broiling, baking, roasting, steaming, or grilling foods.

Use Cooking Spray

One of the best ways to make fried chicken healthier is by eliminating cooking oils. Instead, use cooking spray, which has about 9 calories for every 1 second of spraying. Another perk to using cooking spray over cooking oil is that your kitchen will stay a lot cleaner!

Poached Chicken

Poaching is great because it adds virtually no fat to your food, yet yields subtle flavour and moisture. To poach your chicken, add your ingredients (chicken and any other vegetables, aromatics, and spices you like) to a skillet or pot, and add a cooking liquid such as broth, wine, or coconut milk.

Add a touch of spice to your chicken breast by combining paprika, cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, ginger, garlic and olive oil to create a paste. Then cover your chicken breast with the paste and pat down to secure.

Good choices include leafy greens, cooked beans, corn, non-sugary cereals and grains, berries, apples and most other fruits and vegetables. Despite often voracious appetites and a willingness to eat just about anything you might give them, there are some foods to be avoided.

But there's a healthier, equally delicious way to eat comfort food like fried chicken. And it's all thanks to your oven. By cooking chicken in the oven, you'll use little oil, which will minimize heart health risks. Aside from being healthier for your heart, this chicken is also high in protein (8 g per serving).

Pan frying is a method that requires lower temperatures and incorporates monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil, canola oil or avocado oil. This is a healthier alternative since it requires cooking with more nutritious oils at lower temperatures.

A rotisserie chicken is better than some of the other alternatives. Even with additives, a rotisserie chicken is a far healthier choice than a fast food run, says Allers. “It's still lower in fat and calories than fast food. It's serving its purpose – it's fast, but it can still help you create a balanced meal.

Is KFC fried chicken healthy? ›

Overall, most health experts and dietitians would not recommend KFC products as part of a healthy diet. Fried chicken, KFC's signature product, is high in calories, fat, and salt, and has been linked to many health risks, including weight gain andl diabetes.

Can you cook chicken with butter instead of oil? You have to cook chicken at a lower temperature if you bake or pan-fry chicken using butter instead of oil. This is because butter has a lower scorching temperature. Your chicken will cook more slowly, but it's also likely to be juicier and full of more flavor.

Air fryers may be better for you than deep fryers, but they're only as healthy as the food you put inside. They won't magically remove the saturated fat from bacon or the trans fats from a bag of processed chicken wings. To reap the benefits, reach for better-for-you options like vegetables and lean proteins.

Chicken tends to dry out more quickly when exposed to direct heat. Covering the chicken creates a barrier that prevents the top surface from drying out, resulting in tender meat. Enhanced flavor infusion.

Generally speaking, skinless chicken breast is the leaner option and often the cut most widely suggested for weight loss. This is because dark meat like the thighs (as well as the wings and legs) is higher in fat than the breast.

Chicken breasts are susceptible to drying out when overcooked, so they're best cooked quickly using high heat. That means skillet-cooking, stir-frying, roasting/baking, or grilling chicken breasts are the best routes. The stovetop is particularly easy because you can make a sauce in the same pan.

Getting a good sear through medium high heat, then reducing the heat to LOW and COVERING the chicken while it cooks. The butter, oil, and chicken juices create a super flavorful liquid that acts as a way to steam the chicken at a low temperature, ensuring that it is moist & tender on the inside.

Turn the heat on medium-high and wait for the water to come to a simmer and then immediately turn the heat down to right below a simmer. The goal is to gently poach the chicken so it cooks evenly and does not dry out. A simmer or boiling water is too much heat for the chicken breasts.