Chicken is an incredibly versatile ingredient that forms the foundation of countless dishes, from Marry Me Chicken and Caesar salad to a classic Sunday roast. It also works brilliantly on its own, served alongside tasty vegetables such as sautéed cabbage, honey-roasted carrots and creamy mashed potatoes.
Meal prepping chicken is something I swear by, ensuring there is always some readily available for a quick snack or to toss into sandwiches and salads. While most people tend to favour chicken thighs for their flavour and texture, chicken breasts are my cut of choice.
Many people struggle with this particular cut due to the way they prepare it. Make no mistake, when cooked incorrectly this meat can turn out incredibly dry and bland. Whenever I prepare chicken breasts, I always marinate them using two essential ingredients while keeping a careful eye on the cooking time.
The air fryer has always been my go-to method, though I had never actually experimented with alternatives. With that in mind, I decided to pit the air fryer against pan-frying and oven cooking. The results were genuinely surprising — one method impressed me, while another absolutely blew me away.
Preparation
Before preparing each breast, I allowed them to reach room temperature before coating them in olive oil and two punchy seasonings — Nando's Peri Peri Rub and Aromat. As all three chicken breasts were slightly on the larger side, each method required a slightly extended cooking time.
Air fryer-cooked chicken
Cooking time: 20 minutes
I am a big fan of preparing chicken in the air fryer, as it is speedy, straightforward and produces succulent outcomes. With this approach, there is no requirement to preheat the air fryer; I simply placed the chicken into the basket and programmed it to 200°C for 20 minutes. For more petite chicken breasts, I would typically reduce the cooking time to 16 to 18 minutes.
To ensure it is thoroughly cooked, I prefer using a meat thermometer to verify the internal temperature has reached 74°C.
A significant drawback to this technique is the restricted space within the air fryer, making it challenging to prepare more than a couple of chicken breasts simultaneously.
After cooking, I took the chicken out of the basket and allowed it to rest for five minutes. This approach helps the meat retain greater moisture and flavour compared to slicing it straight away.
The chicken displayed an appealing colour across its entire surface; it was uniformly cooked, and when cut open, the interior was moist.
Rating: 8.5/10
Oven-cooked chicken
Cooking time: 30 minutes
I have traditionally linked oven-cooked chicken breasts with being parched, but I was pleasantly surprised after trialling this technique.
The primary disadvantage of this approach is the duration required to preheat the oven and cook the chicken, though the final results were remarkable.
I heated the oven to 200°C Fan and left the chicken cooking for 20 minutes before inspecting its progress, but it required an additional 10 minutes.
The consistent heat of the oven enabled the chicken to cook slowly and uniformly, maintaining its moisture and tenderness. After cooking, I allowed it to rest for five minutes before slicing. It did not develop much colour during baking, leaving the chicken looking rather pale. Despite the lack of colour, the sliced chicken breast turned out to be wonderfully moist.
Without a golden brown crust, the baked chicken breasts had minimal visual attraction and were somewhat lacking in flavour. For this reason, it would not stand up well as a standalone main course, but baking remains a perfectly acceptable approach for batch-prepping chicken breasts to use across various dishes.
Rating: 7.5/10
Pan-fried chicken
Cooking time: 10 minutes
I approached this method with some trepidation, as chicken is notorious for sticking to the pan when cooked at high temperatures.
To pan-fry the chicken, I began by coating the pan with oil before searing the meat on a high heat, then covering it with a lid for two minutes.
I then turned the chicken over and allowed it to cook for a further two minutes, before pouring some water into the pan and replacing the lid for five minutes on a medium-low heat.
Just as with the previous two methods, I left the chicken to rest on a plate for five minutes before cutting it open. Cooking the chicken over direct heat produced a wonderfully golden-brown crust on both sides. However, as the heat stays consistent and concentrated at the surface, the outside becomes marginally overcooked before the inside reaches the correct temperature. This resulted in an incredibly succulent interior but a slightly chewy exterior, which was not a particular concern.
This technique yielded the juiciest chicken of all, and the only factor preventing a perfect score was the scorched pan left behind after cooking, which required additional time scrubbing and washing up.
Rating: 9.5/10
