Have you ever made a recipe and wondered, “why was that so good?” Was it one particular ingredient? Or maybe it was a combination of certain ingredients? Perhaps it all came down to the method you used to cook it. It’s hard to know sometimes, but we’re here to help.
Let’s take Perfect Chicken as an example. With 372 reviews and an average 4.6 star rating, it’s clearly a pretty special dish. But how can a recipe that uses boneless, skinless chicken thighs as the star, make people so happy? What is the secret to Perfect Chicken? After reviewing the recipe, making it ourselves and reading your reviews, we’ve got answers.
The Secrets To Perfect Chicken
1. Layer Flavors
There are several reasons why this dish works. One of the biggest secrets is the sauce. While this recipe doesn’t follow the traditional French method of making a pan sauce, it still delivers big flavor. The secret is layering the ingredients. In Perfect Chicken, the aromatics, garlic and onions are cooked down in chicken broth, allowing them to soften while also deepening the flavor of the broth. The next layer is the addition of mushrooms and herbs to the sauce. As they sit and cook, they infuse their flavor into the sauce. The final addition of cream, butter, lemon, and capers, is the finishing layer that brings it all together. The cream and butter add richness, the lemon provides acid to keep the dish bright and balanced and the capers add the perfect pop of salt and texture.
2. Use the Right Cut of Chicken
The sauce may be one of the biggest secrets to the dish, but the chicken is the other. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs work here for several reasons. Because of their size and fat content, they cook quickly and stay moist. Thighs also have more flavor than breasts, so they contribute to flavor, too.
3. Use Cornstarch
The last secret is cornstarch. Traditionally flour is used to coat the protein in a recipe like this, but using cornstarch makes the chicken crispy while also keeping the dish gluten-free. Cornstarch also thickens the sauce, helping it cling to every single bite.
Tips for Making Perfect Chicken Even Better
This recipe has stellar reviews, but as always, you’ve got ideas on how to make it better. So we scanned the reviews to find the best tips.
1. Add More Mushrooms
One of the most common recommendations is to add more mushrooms! Half of a cup wasn’t enough and many of you recommend adding an 8-ounce container or more. Consider also trying a variety of mushrooms. Button mushrooms are nice and easy to find, but you could also try cremini, shiitake or portobello mushrooms.
2. Serve It With a Starch
If you’re wondering what to serve with Perfect Chicken, reviews suggest egg noodles or mashed potatoes. You could also serve with wild rice or quinoa. Or keep things simple by purchasing a pouch of cooked grains. That way you can heat them up quickly to serve alongside the chicken.
3. Measure Your Lemon Juice
The recipe calls for the juice of half a lemon. This was a bit tricky for some reviewers who wondered how much that was. We assume that the lemon is of average size, which means that half of a lemon would give about 1 ½ tablespoons of juice. Our recommendation is to start with one tablespoon then taste and add more, if needed.
4. Pound the Chicken
Finally, some reviewers report luck with using boneless, skinless chicken breasts. If you give this a try, consider pounding the chicken breast into even thickness before cooking. This will help them cook evenly and quickly, which will potentially prevent them from drying-out.
