PAN-SEARED CHICKEN PARTS There’s a terrible problem sweeping this country, an insidious one that has managed to work its way into nearly every household, with no distinctions among race, gender, or class I’m talking about dry chicken breasts, and it’s time for us to Just Say No Luckily, there’s an easy program to help you do it, and all it requires is a small investment: a good instantread thermometer As with many problems in life, the root causes of dry chicken are noble, and they stem from the government’s— more specifically, the Food and Drug Administration’s— recommendation to cook chicken breasts to 165°F Just like beef and pork, chicken meat tightens as you cook it, and by the time it’s reached 165°F, it’s irretrievably, irrevocably dry With chicken legs, this is not so much of a problem Because of their large amounts of fat and connective tissue, you can cook a chicken leg all the way to 180°F or even 190°F and still get some semblance of succulence Chicken breasts, though, with their large, roundish shape and total lack of fat, can’t handle temperatures much above 145°F (for a discussion on chicken safety, see here) So, what’s the best way to cook a chicken? If we learned anything from pan-searing steaks and pork chops, it would seem to be to flip the chicken repeatedly as it cooks Well, I tried it and quickly learned that, a chicken is not a cow, and there are key differences between the structure of a chicken breast and that of a steak that make flip-cooking unfeasible —namely, the skin Luckily for us, the skin provides some amazing benefits that allow us to cook chicken much more easily than we can cook beef and pork Now, now, I know some odd folks don’t like eating chicken skin (surely its most delicious feature!), but I’m here to tell you that regardless of whether you end up eating it or pushing it to the side of your plate, it should stay on the chicken while you cook it Here’s the thing: without skin, what happens when you try to pan-sear a chicken breast? The meat at the exterior dries out, turning stringy and leathery, and not at all pleasant Try using the multiple-flip method with a boneless, skinless chicken breast, and you’ll end up leaving half the chicken on the bottom of the pan as you flip it There are few things in life I hate more than skinless, boneless chicken ... tried it and quickly learned that, a chicken is not a cow, and there are key differences between the structure of a chicken breast and that of a steak that make flip -cooking unfeasible —namely, the skin Luckily for us, the skin provides... chicken skin (surely its most delicious feature !), but I’m here to tell you that regardless of whether you end up eating it or pushing it to the side of your plate, it should stay on the chicken... Here’s the thing: without skin, what happens when you try to pan-sear a chicken breast? The meat at the exterior dries out, turning stringy and leathery, and not at all pleasant Try using the multiple-flip method with a boneless,