Baked Chicken Breasts

  Chicken is the universal protein that can be turned into just about any dish.  It is my go-to protein, because it is leaner than red meat and you can buy it frozen for cheap!  Here's how I make delicious baked chicken!

First you need to gather all of your ingredients/tools.  These include:

- 1 baking dish

- Aluminum Foil

- Oil (I like olive oil, but vegetable oil is also good)

- Salt and Pepper

- Barbeque GrillMates (McCormic) 

- Chicken Breasts (Frozen is sometimes cheaper than fresh, check your local grocery store's sales to determine if you are able to buy fresh cheaper than frozen on manager's special)

The second thing you need to do is defrost the chicken breasts.  You should never leave meat sitting on out on the counter for an extended period of time.  The safest ways to defrost chicken include: 1) microwave defrosting methods, 2) letting the meat thaw in a glass container in the fridge, 3) placing the chicken in a glass bowl in the sink and allowing cold water to trickle over the frozen brests.  

*Remember the threat of samonilla is huge in raw poultry, you need to use a disinfectant on any surfaces that raw poultry touches.*

Preheat your oven to 425*F.  

The third thing to do is place tin foil in the baking dish to prevent any baked on grease (which takes the hard part of cooking out: the cleaning)  Place the thawed chicken breasts in the dish and drizzle oil on top of the chicken breasts.  Caress Massage the seasonings and oil into the chicken breasts.  Place into the oven, uncovered for around 40 minutes.

When your chicken breasts are done, they should look like the picture above, the meat should have changed from a translucent pink color, to white.  The chicken breasts should also be fragrant.

You will need to make sure that the chicken is cooked all the way through, to do this, you need to simply cut into the thickest part of the chicken breast.  The above picture is showing that when the juices are clear, the chicken is cooked.  But to be sure that the chicken is cooked, completely cut the chicken in the thickest part to ensure that there is no pink.

Now you have delicious baked chicken that can be altered for many recipes!  Some of these include:

- Chicken Tacos (just add some taco seasonings!)

- Barbecue Chicken (just add some sauce, shred the chicken and enjoy on a bun)

- Chicken Salad (cut up and add almonds, grapes, celery, onion, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, and sugar)

- Chicken Alfredo (just cut up the chicken and add to Alfredo sauce and fettuccini)

If you have any other chicken recipes, leave a comment so that I can try them!

Get out there and cook!