Cass' Braising Method

I'm going to share a method of cooking chicken that I've become quite fond of - braising.

I like making baked chicken but when we want a little something extra, I always make one of my braising dishes like orange chicken or chicken marsala. It's a good way to keep the calorie count down while making a flavorful sauce.

Full disclosure: I'm not a professional chef and this is just an easy, delicious way to cook for me.

Here is some info from the Wikipedia page on braising: 

"Braising (from the French “braiser”) is a combination cooking method using both moist and dry heat; typically the food is first seared at a high temperature and then finished in a covered pot with a variable amount of liquid, resulting in a particular flavor."

I start out by cutting chicken breasts into pieces (usually into bite-sized pieces but I like keeping them chicken cutlet sized to make it feel like I'm eating more) and if you'd like, dredging them in cornstarch or flour. (Once again, diet tip I stopped doing this. It creates a crispier crust on the chicken I'm sure but I've learned to live without it.)

Then, spray a skillet with Pam (or a small bit of coconut oil) and heat over a medium-high heat. Add your chicken breasts and cook on each side for about 3 minutes, or until the outside starts to brown. Don't worry about cooking them all the way through, this searing method helps keep the outsides crispy by allowing the chicken to cook in the sauce.

The chicken being seared - my pictures always look so crummy.

Once you've seared the chicken, remove it from the pan. Deglaze with a little bit of water or whatever liquid you have on hand (soy sauce, chicken broth, whatever you are using for your sauce) to get all the leftover goodness into your sauce. Then add your sauce! It can be as simple as adding marsala wine with chicken broth for chicken marsala.

Bring the sauce to a boil, and then lower to a simmer. Add your chicken back into the skillet and continue cooking (stirring occasionally) for about 10-15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and your sauce thickens. Then, enjoy!

This method has helped me cut a lot of calories. My go-to chicken dish used to be frying breaded chicken cutlets. While that is delicious, this is just as good and diet-friendlier.