ATK blackened chicken

The appeal of blackened chicken lies in a complex, flavorful, crisp crust that envelops a juicy chicken breast. However, most of the time this dish ends up with a burnt-tasting exterior and chalk-dry meat. The key to cooking blackened boneless, skinless chicken breasts with a flavorful, moist interior is the heat level. Cooking over low or even moderate heat pushes the meat’s moisture to the surface, and once the juices hit the exterior of the meat, the breasts will not brown at all. Cooking over high heat, however, burns the spices in the rub before the meat has a chance to cook through. To keep the spices from burning, we first pounded the thicker ends of the breasts to make them even so that they would cook through faster, ensuring that the spice rub spent less time exposed to intense heat. We got a great initial sear over medium-high heat and then finished the chicken at a lower, gentler temperature. The other key to a flavorful blackened-but-not-burned chicken is the rub. We chose a robust combination of ingredients: Brown sugar, coriander, ground ginger, garlic powder, allspice, and cayenne all lent their potent flavors to create a deeply complex mixture. A fruity salsa balanced the sharp, bold flavors in the rub. We turned to tangy pineapple and cooling cucumber to perfectly complement our spicy chicken.

Great

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet