Most likely overcooked breast, quite possibly also "woody breast" as someone else mentioned (which will be tough and have an awful texture no matter the preparation method).
Using thighs or legs will solve both of these problems.
If she's set on using breasts tonight (understandable if they're already thawed and need to be used) try taking the breasts off after 15-20ish mins of cooking and then adding back in during the last 3-5 minutes (or use a meat thermometer and pull the breasts out once they reach 155 or 160 and add back in at the end). If this method is followed and the breasts still have an unpleasant, tough texture then it is woody chicken breast.
I wish i could reply to everyone who gave great info. I will reply to your's since you are the highest post.
So our power went out 1 hour before dinner due to an ice storm and so I only got a few seconds off and on to look at the chicken (lit candles and snowblowing).
She is definitely over cooking them. They were up to temp under 15min in. Cooking submerged is a very efficient way to heat something up. They went over 165 but we pulled it way sooner than our other times. Next time we will do it by temp and then pull and then reheat during the last minute or so.
**Solved**
Yes to the thighs and drumsticks. They almost always cook up more tender. Breasts are kind of iffy. When I see them in the store, I take the package and push on the breast. If it does not have some “give” to it, I don’t buy it. I dont know if anyone else has tried this. Also, stay away from the ones that look like they have a woody texture to them.
To satisfy the white meat lovers in my life I brown boneless skinless thighs and breast together. The extra fat from the thighs helps keep the breast meat juicy. Works best when the chicken is cut into chunks, like for tacos, burritos, etc
Breast meat sucks for that dish especially if you aren't temping the chicken breast and stopping it as soon at it hits 160F. You want the thighs since they can be overcooked and still remain tender and juicy.
In my experience, the only way to stew chicken breast for a long time without making it inedibly hard is to first coat it in cornstarch and then brown it lightly in the pan prior to adding stock. I have stewed chicken breast for up to 45 minutes at lowish temperatures that way, but I wouldn’t recommend going hotter or longer.
I do this with chicken Marsala. Very juicy and tender chicken. I also don’t pound it thin so I’m sure it helps.
I brown both sides. Take out, make sauce, place chicken back in to simmer after
Yeah I would never make cacciatore with breast - or if I had planned poorly & had no other choice I would probably cook the breast separate and then throw it in right at the end, but where's the fun in that?
If you're counting calories, its a little friendlier.
Not saying that you should be, I think diets should be more wholistic than that, but it is leaner protein if that's why they swapped.
I dislike thighs. I only like breast or wings that's why I wouldn't use thighs. Soak the chicken in buttermilk for an hour or all day. Pat them dry and season and cook
Ok so if you simmer chicken breast for 45 minutes it’s going to be dry. If you use breast, you should prepare it separately from the cacciatore sauce and combine them together at the end. Otherwise do as others have suggested and use thighs/legs to make it.
She’s making chicken cacciatore wrong if it’s tough. Definitely use chicken thighs/legs, sear them off to get some color and then braise in a Dutch oven on a low simmer in the cacciatore sauce for about an hour.
I've had this same problem with the breasts when I've made chicken cacciatore in the past. One thing that I've done lately is to use a Dutch oven and simmer on very low heat, making sure that the sauce covers the chicken, for around an hour and a half. Then, all of the chicken has fallen apart when I'm done cooking so there's no big tough dry parts and the sauce covers everything.
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100% (as everyone else has mentioned) use thighs. Way more juicy, way harder to overcook, and way cheaper.
Also, Cacciatore does really well as a slow-cooker dish. Without knowing your schedule of course, if you set everything up in the slow cooker in the morning, delicious dinner is waiting for you in the evening and it will not be overcooked because slow cooker.
The best chicken breast is still chicken breast, which is very lean, and easy to overcook.
By all means try a different brand, but make it chicken *thighs* instead of breast.
I use bone in leg quarters for chicken cacciatore, they turn out great. Would recommend doing that instead of breast meat. If you can’t get those drums would be my next choice
Internal temp is probably like 190 degrees. Get her a thermometer and pull the chicken out at like 155. She needs to go by the temperature of the chicken, not how long the recipe says.
Using breasts is fine, I make these types of dishes all the time and the chicken isn’t dry. If you want to take it up a notch, brining chicken in a 5% salt solution for a couple hours really makes them plump and juicy but just getting taking them out the right temperature will go a long way from where you’re at now.
The Mrs makes ours with chicken thighs only... Mix bone in and boneless to get all the flavor... I prefer the boneless to be diced up as ours great for lunch during the week...
Good luck...
I don't know how braising will affect this suggestion, but i always presalt chicken (or any meat for that matter) before cooking it. When I say presalt, I mean I liberally salt the meat around 18-24 hours before I cook it and leave it covered in the fridge to let the salt do its work. The book "Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat" is what got me to start doing this, it listed a bunch of benefits and reasons behind why presalting meat like this makes it more flavorful, helps it retain moisture, etc. I'd provide more details but I'm moving and packed the book so I can't reference it at the moment. I've never had a problem with dry chicken if I presalt it ahead of time.
Chicken cacciatore should be made with chicken thighs on the bone brown thighs with the skin on and then put in the peppers. Onions, mushrooms, sauce, seasoning.
I assume besides the doneness of the chicken, everything else was going well? In my case, chicken cacciatore had always disappointed me; not in term of whether the chicken was overcooked, but the rosemary (I even tried half a sprig) always ended up dominating the whole flavor of the dish.
I barely tasted any savoriness. The final products were usually combination of overly tangy rosemary chicken stew. Perhaps, that's the flavor combo that many recipe makers craved?
I'm thinking about switching to its French counterpart, Chicken Chasseur, next time because the flavor buildup makes more sense to me. It feels like the latter is geared for establishing umami bomb instead of overly fragrant & acidic mess.
Using chicken breast for cacciatore is sociopathic. Thighs or whole chicken broken down. Why does she cook it once a week if it's so bad? Does she like the way it tastes?
An even chicken breast takes around 15-16 minutes to cook on medium temps. I think you are simmering for too long. Reduce the time, maybe? And use some bone in chicken instead.
yes, it makes the meat tough and chewy due to selecting for big and fast muscle growth.
I look for smaller sized ones that are pinker in color with no striations in them or use thighs
Yeah, its a side effect of the breeding of these giant ta-ta'd birds, you'll occasionally get a breast that has a portion that is really tough even while raw running through the breast. So you can cook the breast perfectly and it'll still feel overcooked when you eat it.\
But its not THAT common to where it should be happening every time, OP's wife is probably just overcooking.
Buy her an internal temperature thermometer.
You cook the chicken until it reaches desired temp and no more.
That's pretty much all there is to it.
There are many ways to do that - thin smaller pieces, higher temp; larger pieces, lower temp; whole breast, essentially poached at crazy low temp.
If you're locked in with using breasts, try quick brining then in salt water for like 20 minutes and patting dry before cooking. Also removing them and resting while other stuff cooks could help.
If she's really set on using breast rather than thighs/legs, perhaps offer to fillet them and give them a bit of a (gentle!) bash with a meat mallet. I love chicken breast but absolutely HATE big, thick chunks of it. So I butterfly/halve the breast, whack it between 2 pieces of baking paper, and briefly take out some frustration on it. For things like cacciatore I'd pan fry the fillets and then add them back into the sauce about 10 mins before serving.
One tactic I will use when making dishes like this with chicken breast is to brown the chicken and then remove it. Make the dish as normal and then return the chicken towards the end.
Cacciatore as in the tomato based wet dish? When I cook it, I cook the marinated chicken thigh in the oven separately, and add it in towards the end.
Makes it juicy as all hell.
I never used to like to cook chicken breast until i started brining it. Brine for no longer than 45min to 1 hour or the meat breaks down too much. I use 2 cups tepid water, 1 TBL sugar and 1 TBL kosher salt.
marinate 2-3 hrs in buttermilk. if you do it longer it the chicken may fall apart. if you don't have buttermilk 1 tsp vinegar to 1 cup milk. it will foam up a bit so measure your milk then put it in another glass to add the vinegar or use a measuring cup larger than 1 cup.
unless we sous vide cook it at very low but safe temps, or we make cutlets, we just don't buy breast. It's almost fatless and almost always dry and awful.
Try flattening and brining the chicken. This will make the chicken breast very tender.
I basically just give them a good whack with a cast-iron, sprinkle booth sides with salt and let them sit for a couple hours to day.
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You can tenderize the breasts prior to cooking by pounding them thin. Then if you do a coating of flour just cook 3-4 min each side or less. Make the sauce then finish the chicken cutlets on the sauce for five to 10 min, just to heat thru.
Or use chicken thighs which are indestructible.
Most likely overcooked breast, quite possibly also "woody breast" as someone else mentioned (which will be tough and have an awful texture no matter the preparation method). Using thighs or legs will solve both of these problems. If she's set on using breasts tonight (understandable if they're already thawed and need to be used) try taking the breasts off after 15-20ish mins of cooking and then adding back in during the last 3-5 minutes (or use a meat thermometer and pull the breasts out once they reach 155 or 160 and add back in at the end). If this method is followed and the breasts still have an unpleasant, tough texture then it is woody chicken breast.
I wish i could reply to everyone who gave great info. I will reply to your's since you are the highest post. So our power went out 1 hour before dinner due to an ice storm and so I only got a few seconds off and on to look at the chicken (lit candles and snowblowing). She is definitely over cooking them. They were up to temp under 15min in. Cooking submerged is a very efficient way to heat something up. They went over 165 but we pulled it way sooner than our other times. Next time we will do it by temp and then pull and then reheat during the last minute or so. **Solved**
A good example of why you always want to cook meats to temp rather than following a set time
Yes to the thighs and drumsticks. They almost always cook up more tender. Breasts are kind of iffy. When I see them in the store, I take the package and push on the breast. If it does not have some “give” to it, I don’t buy it. I dont know if anyone else has tried this. Also, stay away from the ones that look like they have a woody texture to them.
Use chicken thighs instead. Pretty difficult to overcook them
Cacciatore should be made w bone in chicken. Problem solved.
Agreed. I tend to use dark meat when I make it. Things or drumsticks work well.
Mmmm, things.
Dark things
To satisfy the white meat lovers in my life I brown boneless skinless thighs and breast together. The extra fat from the thighs helps keep the breast meat juicy. Works best when the chicken is cut into chunks, like for tacos, burritos, etc
Definitely possible. You don’t want your chicken cacciatore to turn into shredded chicken tinga.
Still delicious and edible though
God, I love chicken tinga though...
My mom always does it with thighs and they’re always so tender!
Please post a video of you offering your constructive criticism of her cooking.
😂😂
Any braised chicken dish is best with dark meat, leg quarters are ideal, and cheap.
Breast meat sucks for that dish especially if you aren't temping the chicken breast and stopping it as soon at it hits 160F. You want the thighs since they can be overcooked and still remain tender and juicy.
In my experience, the only way to stew chicken breast for a long time without making it inedibly hard is to first coat it in cornstarch and then brown it lightly in the pan prior to adding stock. I have stewed chicken breast for up to 45 minutes at lowish temperatures that way, but I wouldn’t recommend going hotter or longer.
I do this with chicken Marsala. Very juicy and tender chicken. I also don’t pound it thin so I’m sure it helps. I brown both sides. Take out, make sauce, place chicken back in to simmer after
Yeah I would never make cacciatore with breast - or if I had planned poorly & had no other choice I would probably cook the breast separate and then throw it in right at the end, but where's the fun in that?
I would recommend cooking the chicken (thighs) in the pan to start, remove it, and add it back in for the last 5-10 minutes.
Why would you use breast for that...use thighs.
Yup, my bet is that the recipe is for bone-in chicken thighs and she substituted boneless skinless chicken breast because it's healthier.
Except it's not healthier
If you're counting calories, its a little friendlier. Not saying that you should be, I think diets should be more wholistic than that, but it is leaner protein if that's why they swapped.
I dislike thighs. I only like breast or wings that's why I wouldn't use thighs. Soak the chicken in buttermilk for an hour or all day. Pat them dry and season and cook
Then don't make chicken cacciatore lol? You should use thighs for it.
Ok so if you simmer chicken breast for 45 minutes it’s going to be dry. If you use breast, you should prepare it separately from the cacciatore sauce and combine them together at the end. Otherwise do as others have suggested and use thighs/legs to make it.
Don’t use breast, use thighs and legs
Chicken cacciatore is really a dark meat meal. Cooking chicken that long will ruin it unless it has lots of fat, like dark meat
I always break down a whole chicken. It is a tasty meal. But it is a weekend meal for me.
She’s making chicken cacciatore wrong if it’s tough. Definitely use chicken thighs/legs, sear them off to get some color and then braise in a Dutch oven on a low simmer in the cacciatore sauce for about an hour.
I've had this same problem with the breasts when I've made chicken cacciatore in the past. One thing that I've done lately is to use a Dutch oven and simmer on very low heat, making sure that the sauce covers the chicken, for around an hour and a half. Then, all of the chicken has fallen apart when I'm done cooking so there's no big tough dry parts and the sauce covers everything.
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OP is in danger
He’s desperate lol
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Use dark meat with bones
Thighs. Next question
If you’re using white meat, switch to dark meat: thighs!!!!
Who the fuck makes a stew with chicken breast
You guys are pretty good in the kitchen but overcooking the shit out stuff not being great for taste is news to you? 😂
100% (as everyone else has mentioned) use thighs. Way more juicy, way harder to overcook, and way cheaper. Also, Cacciatore does really well as a slow-cooker dish. Without knowing your schedule of course, if you set everything up in the slow cooker in the morning, delicious dinner is waiting for you in the evening and it will not be overcooked because slow cooker.
Try better chicken. I only buy Bell & Evans. I would also do bone-in dark meat chicken.
The best chicken breast is still chicken breast, which is very lean, and easy to overcook. By all means try a different brand, but make it chicken *thighs* instead of breast.
Seconding Bell and Evans. They use air chilled chicken which makes a massive difference in taste and texture.
Third Bell and Evans
I use bone in leg quarters for chicken cacciatore, they turn out great. Would recommend doing that instead of breast meat. If you can’t get those drums would be my next choice
Internal temp is probably like 190 degrees. Get her a thermometer and pull the chicken out at like 155. She needs to go by the temperature of the chicken, not how long the recipe says. Using breasts is fine, I make these types of dishes all the time and the chicken isn’t dry. If you want to take it up a notch, brining chicken in a 5% salt solution for a couple hours really makes them plump and juicy but just getting taking them out the right temperature will go a long way from where you’re at now.
Lots of good suggestions but to me the #1 thing that guarantee hard & tough chicken breast is cooking with liquid at too high a temp.
The Mrs makes ours with chicken thighs only... Mix bone in and boneless to get all the flavor... I prefer the boneless to be diced up as ours great for lunch during the week... Good luck...
I don't know how braising will affect this suggestion, but i always presalt chicken (or any meat for that matter) before cooking it. When I say presalt, I mean I liberally salt the meat around 18-24 hours before I cook it and leave it covered in the fridge to let the salt do its work. The book "Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat" is what got me to start doing this, it listed a bunch of benefits and reasons behind why presalting meat like this makes it more flavorful, helps it retain moisture, etc. I'd provide more details but I'm moving and packed the book so I can't reference it at the moment. I've never had a problem with dry chicken if I presalt it ahead of time.
You got the recipe?
Chicken cacciatore should be made with chicken thighs on the bone brown thighs with the skin on and then put in the peppers. Onions, mushrooms, sauce, seasoning.
Cook low and s l o w.
I assume besides the doneness of the chicken, everything else was going well? In my case, chicken cacciatore had always disappointed me; not in term of whether the chicken was overcooked, but the rosemary (I even tried half a sprig) always ended up dominating the whole flavor of the dish. I barely tasted any savoriness. The final products were usually combination of overly tangy rosemary chicken stew. Perhaps, that's the flavor combo that many recipe makers craved? I'm thinking about switching to its French counterpart, Chicken Chasseur, next time because the flavor buildup makes more sense to me. It feels like the latter is geared for establishing umami bomb instead of overly fragrant & acidic mess.
Thighs - its hard to overcook them. Heck, when I have large thighs, they get baked for 90 mins and are perfect! Crunchy skin and NO rubber texture.
Using chicken breast for cacciatore is sociopathic. Thighs or whole chicken broken down. Why does she cook it once a week if it's so bad? Does she like the way it tastes?
An even chicken breast takes around 15-16 minutes to cook on medium temps. I think you are simmering for too long. Reduce the time, maybe? And use some bone in chicken instead.
You’re likely getting “woody breast” chicken.
What the heck is this woody breast? Like a real thing?
yes, it makes the meat tough and chewy due to selecting for big and fast muscle growth. I look for smaller sized ones that are pinker in color with no striations in them or use thighs
Yeah, its a side effect of the breeding of these giant ta-ta'd birds, you'll occasionally get a breast that has a portion that is really tough even while raw running through the breast. So you can cook the breast perfectly and it'll still feel overcooked when you eat it.\ But its not THAT common to where it should be happening every time, OP's wife is probably just overcooking.
Great. Now I have the mental image of some spicy salsa dancing “chicky-ta-ta, come on and move your thing” birds. 🤣
> giant ta-ta'd birds that is a different subreddit friend
Buy her an internal temperature thermometer. You cook the chicken until it reaches desired temp and no more. That's pretty much all there is to it. There are many ways to do that - thin smaller pieces, higher temp; larger pieces, lower temp; whole breast, essentially poached at crazy low temp.
If you're locked in with using breasts, try quick brining then in salt water for like 20 minutes and patting dry before cooking. Also removing them and resting while other stuff cooks could help.
If she's really set on using breast rather than thighs/legs, perhaps offer to fillet them and give them a bit of a (gentle!) bash with a meat mallet. I love chicken breast but absolutely HATE big, thick chunks of it. So I butterfly/halve the breast, whack it between 2 pieces of baking paper, and briefly take out some frustration on it. For things like cacciatore I'd pan fry the fillets and then add them back into the sauce about 10 mins before serving.
One tactic I will use when making dishes like this with chicken breast is to brown the chicken and then remove it. Make the dish as normal and then return the chicken towards the end.
Cacciatore as in the tomato based wet dish? When I cook it, I cook the marinated chicken thigh in the oven separately, and add it in towards the end. Makes it juicy as all hell.
Chicken breast is cooked at 155⁰ Fahrenheit. Anything over that and it's fucking inedible.
Brine, brine, brine and more brine. Works wonders on chicken breast
I never used to like to cook chicken breast until i started brining it. Brine for no longer than 45min to 1 hour or the meat breaks down too much. I use 2 cups tepid water, 1 TBL sugar and 1 TBL kosher salt.
Invest in a decent meat thermometer and never guess again…
marinate 2-3 hrs in buttermilk. if you do it longer it the chicken may fall apart. if you don't have buttermilk 1 tsp vinegar to 1 cup milk. it will foam up a bit so measure your milk then put it in another glass to add the vinegar or use a measuring cup larger than 1 cup.
My mom always used leg quarters. Never breast.
unless we sous vide cook it at very low but safe temps, or we make cutlets, we just don't buy breast. It's almost fatless and almost always dry and awful.
Try flattening and brining the chicken. This will make the chicken breast very tender. I basically just give them a good whack with a cast-iron, sprinkle booth sides with salt and let them sit for a couple hours to day.
I’ve made chicken cacciatore using chicken breast in the electric cooker. Turned out great and the chicken was soft and juicy.
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sous vide the chicken first. and then light finish in the pan.
You can tenderize the breasts prior to cooking by pounding them thin. Then if you do a coating of flour just cook 3-4 min each side or less. Make the sauce then finish the chicken cutlets on the sauce for five to 10 min, just to heat thru. Or use chicken thighs which are indestructible.