How to Grill Chicken on a Stovetop

How to Grill Chicken on a Stovetop

Grilled chicken is awesome and sometimes you are just craving grilled chicken specifically, not roasted, or fried. But if you don’t own a grill, cooking grilled chicken can prove to be difficult. But as long as you have a ridged pan or griddle, it should not be any problem at all.

Choosing the Best Ingredient

For the most part, chicken breast is all the same. Except for the organic or higher end brands that are not commercial farms. Those chicken breast can be much more expensive. But any chicken breast will do fine. The cheaper ones will usually be pumped with saline solution to plump them up and make them heavier. Sometimes this can make the chicken a little tougher or stringy when cooked, so try to spring for a better chicken breast product.

Preparing the Ingredients

There is not much to do to the chicken breast before cooking it. Most likely they will be already cleaned and stripped of the fat and bones. If not, then cut off the tendons, fat and sinew that run along the sides of the chicken breast. If you want to cook the chicken faster, then you can butterfly cut the breast. If you do this, then cut your cooking time in half. When it has been trimmed, just season the chicken breast with salt and pepper all over.

During the Cooking Process

There are several types of cast iron pans that come with ridges on the bottom of the pan to mimic the grates on a grill that will give you cross hatch grill marks on the meat. You can also use a griddle that has ridges, but either way, you need this type of pan to “grill” chicken on the stovetop. Make sure the pan is hot, cast iron takes a little longer to heat up but the pan will retain heat much longer. Try and get a pan with a lid to help cook the chicken faster, but is not necessary. No matter what, the chicken has to be grilled to at least 165 degrees to be fully cooked.

The Final Touches

After grilling the chicken on the cast iron pan or griddle, transfer to a plate or cutting board to be sliced up and served. Or if you want to coat the chicken in barbeque sauce or some other marinade, you can do so towards the end of the cooking process to allow a little caramelization to happen.

Steps:

  1. Season the chicken breast on all sides with salt and pepper.
  2. Place a cast iron pan with a ridged bottom or a ridged griddle on the stovetop over high heat with a little vegetable oil in the pan. Once the pan starts to smoke slightly, gently place the chicken breast in the pan away from yourself.
  3. Sear each side of the chicken breast for 2-3 minutes to get a nice exterior crust on the chicken breast. Continue to cook in the pan, flipping every so often until the internal temperature of the chicken breast is at least 165 degrees.
  4. At this point, place any marinade, barbeque sauce or butter you want on the chicken so it can caramelize slightly before being removed from the pan.

Remove from the pan and transfer to a cutting board. Slice the chicken breast with a chef knife, against the grain. Transfer the sliced chicken breast to a plate. Serve and enjoy!

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