Tonight's Dinner...was horrible.

[George K]

It was horrible...I mean, really, really bad.

I've made this before with good results, and I thought I'd repeat (looking for something simple to make).

https://www.food.com/recipe/baked-herbed-chicken-breasts-152212

INGREDIENTS:

8 boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup butter or 1/2 cup margarine 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon parsley, dried
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon sweet basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

DIRECTIONS

Combine all spices. (all ingredients except first two-chicken and butter.).
Arrange chicken in shallow baking dish.
Melt butter and pour over chicken.
Turn chicken pieces over so both sides are coated with butter. (I use a tongs for this.). Sprinkle chicken with about 1/4 of the spices.
Every 10-15 minutes, sprinkle another 1/4 of the spices on the chicken pieces. Bake at 375 for 55 minutes.

I’ve made it before and it was pretty good, so, what did I do to screw it up?

Since I had an oven heated to 400 degrees for some potatoes, I did that.

The breasts I used were yuge.

It was all cooked through, but the chicken was a bit dry, tough and definielty chewy.

It was horrible.

Was it the higher temperature?

[Catseye3]

55" seems awfully long for chicken breasts, especially boneless and especially preheated to 400. 40-45" might have been better.

[Aqua Letifer]

I'm guessing the higher temp, yeah.

[Jolly]

Higher heat. Or you could have just had some tough chicken.

[Mik]

I’d never do boneless higher than 350, but also a lot of those huge chicken tits are tasteless and tough.

[George K]

@Mik said in Tonight's Dinner...was horrible.:

I’d never do boneless higher than 350, but also a lot of those huge chicken tits are tasteless and tough.

Yeah. I was amazed at how big it was. Mrs. George and I shared one.

Thanks for the advice. I will be more circumspect in the future.

[Mik]

Whole Foods has excellent chicken. Well worth the difference in price.

[Mik]

Also in baking like that I’d sub boneless thighs thighs.

[Rainman]

Were they free-range, or benighted?
Maybe they were thirsty when executed?
Solar flares??

Geez, there could be all kinds of reasons.

[Larry]

Pound the chicken some with a metal meat hammer, then cook at a lower temp.

[Catseye3]

@Mik Are thighs thighs different from regular thighs?

[Klaus]

Maybe the chickens didn't have a happy life.

[Larry]

I bought the Hillary Clinton special at KFC the other day.... two fat thighs, two small breasts, in a greasy box.....

[Mik]

I like thighs. There. I said it.

[Jolly]

@Larry said in Tonight's Dinner...was horrible.:

Pound the chicken some with a metal meat hammer, then cook at a lower temp.

Pounded properly, most meat is satisfying.