Due to their adaptability, nutritional content, and ease of preparation, chicken breasts are a favourite among both professional chefs and home cooks. Boneless chicken breast is a go-to for quick and versatile meals. They are quite lean and easy to handle. They are a great option for dishes that call for strong tastes. They absorb marinades well and are perfect for stir-fries, sandwiches, and grilling. Wondering how to cook chicken breasts? With a few techniques and recipes from Chef Manu Feildel, you can make chicken breasts flavourful, juicy, and perfectly cooked. This guide focuses on different cooking techniques from the chef that will enhance your chicken breast game.
Now that you know about chicken breasts, let’s explore five ways to cook them. These methods cater to different tastes and occasions, ensuring you’ll always have a go-to recipe for any meal.
Broiling is a fast and effective way to cook chicken breasts with a slightly charred, caramelised finish.
Tip: Add some fresh herbs or a squeeze of lemon juice at the end to enhance the taste.
Baking is a common method for evenly cooked, juicy chicken.
Tip: Before baking, marinate the chicken for at least an hour in a combination of yoghurt, lemon juice, and herbs for added flavour.
Poaching is ideal for meal preparation, salads, and sandwiches. It preserves the chicken's tenderness and moisture.
Tip: The poaching liquid has a lot of flavour; save it for soups or sauces.
Grilling adds a smoky, charred flavour that’s hard to resist.
Tip: Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before slicing to lock in the juices.
Frying produces a juicy inside and a crispy, golden exterior, which appeals to everyone.
Tip: For a healthier option, use an air fryer to achieve a similar texture with less oil.
What is the best seasoning for chicken breast?
The best seasoning depends on the recipe and your taste preferences. For most recipes, a basic seasoning of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika works great. Try using Italian spice or lemon pepper for a tangy edge. Experiment using curry powders or Cajun spices if you want strong tastes.
How to cook chicken breast without drying out?
To prevent dryness:
What is the best way to cook a chicken breast?
The ‘best’ method varies depending on your preference:
How long to cook a breast of chicken?
The cooking time for chicken breast varies by method and thickness:
Always use a proper thermometer to ensure the internal temperature reaches 165°F (74°C) for safe consumption. Adjust times for larger or smaller pieces.
The process of cooking chicken breasts doesn't have to be intimidating. You can consistently make juicy, tasty, and flawless chicken by using the right technique and a few basic tips. These methods will improve your culinary abilities, whether you're baking for meal preparation, frying for a weekend treat, or broiling for a fast supper.
If you're looking for convenient options to prepare delicious meals with chicken breasts, Ingham's diced chicken breast and minced chicken breast are perfect choices. So, grab your favourite seasonings and start experimenting with these five methods to create delicious chicken dishes for any occasion.
Chicken nuggets and chipees are family favourites, perfect for quick meals, snacks, or party platters. With Ingham’s Chicken Chipees and Chicken Nugget meals, you can make tasty, adaptable, and entertaining meals that the whole family will love.
Chef Manu Feildel has crafted these recipes with an emphasis on taste and simplicity, making them simple enough for anybody to make at home. His recipes are intended to add gourmet flair to your table with little effort, regardless of your level of culinary experience. Let’s dive into some fun meal ideas to elevate your next mealtime!
Looking for crispy perfection? Crumbed Chicken Breast Chipees are an easy-to-make and fun option for lunch or dinner. For a healthy chicken dinner, serve them with a fresh salad or a side of fries.
Take your taste buds on a Mexican-inspired adventure with this recipe. Top crispy Ingham’s Chicken Chipees with refried beans, corn, and cheese. This quick and hearty dish is perfect for sharing.
Ingham’s Chicken Nuggets Tempura makes for a classic snack or chicken meal idea. Bake chicken nuggets in the oven or cook them in an air fryer for a healthier twist. This chicken nuggets recipe pairs perfectly with tomato sauce, sweet and sour sauce, fruit chutney, or BBQ sauce.
For those seeking gluten-free options, Ingham’s Gluten-Free Chicken Nuggets are a must-try. You can enjoy them as is or use them in recipes like lettuce wraps or tacos.
View Gluten-Free Chicken Nuggets
Light, refreshing, and satisfying, Tempura Chicken Nugget Lettuce Cups are great for a healthy yet flavorful meal. It’s the perfect easy-to-make dinner for kids, and it’s healthy.
Tempura Breast Nugget Tacos will make taco night enjoyable. To serve, layer tortillas with chipotle mayonnaise, followed by lettuce, nuggets, and salsa. Complete this healthy chicken nuggets recipe with lime wedges on the side. Your whole family will love this zesty, colourful meal.
This chicken nuggets recipe at home is a perfect mix of comfort and flavour, combining crispy nuggets with creamy, cheese-coated spaghetti. It's a quick, satisfying meal that's sure to be a hit with the whole family!
At Ingham’s New Zealand, we take pleasure in providing premium chicken products made with 100% New Zealand chicken. From soft chicken breast nuggets to crunchy chicken chips, our selection of chicken meal ideas is great for making quick and interesting dinners. Cook them in the oven, fry them, or use an air fryer for perfectly crispy results every time. With Ingham’s Chicken Chipees and Chicken Nuggets in NZ, meal prep becomes fun, easy, and delicious. Try these recipes and creative meal ideas to bring excitement to your table.
When summer arrives, it's time to fire up the BBQ, gather friends and family, and enjoy delicious meals. One surefire way to impress your guests is with butterfly chicken recipes from celebrity Chef Manu Feildel. A chicken prepared with the butterflying or spatchcocking method by the chef guarantees even cooking, crispy skin, and succulent meat, making it ideal for summer gatherings. In this blog, we’ll look into recipes that can please any palette, whether you want a more refined roast or smokey BBQ flavour.
Yes, and it's easier than you might think! By removing the backbone and flattening the entire bird, butterflying a chicken helps it cook more quickly and evenly. Here's how to do it on your own:
See the full video on our website here: How to Butterfly a Chicken
Butterflied chicken is incredibly versatile, pairing beautifully with fresh summer produce and a range of flavour profiles. Here are some of the best recipes to wow your guests.
With Ingham’s Butterfly Chicken Tandoori, you can add strong, fragrant spices to your summer meal. This ready-to-cook option delivers a rich and smoky flavour with minimal effort. For a full feast, serve it with warm naan bread and cold sides like cucumber salad and raita.
For those who like fresh, herbaceous flavours, Butterfly Chicken Herb & Garlic is a timeless crowd-pleaser. For a healthy dinner, grill the garlic and herb chicken recipe to perfection and serve it with a light quinoa salad or roasted summer veggies.
Summertime is often associated with barbecues and Sweet & Smokey BBQ Butterfly Chicken strikes the perfect chord. The smoky, sweet marinade caramelizes beautifully on the grill, creating a sticky glaze that’s irresistible. To complete the butterfly chicken recipe BBQ experience, you can serve with corn on the cob or baked potatoes, along with a zesty coleslaw.
Try Ingham’s BBQ Herb And Garlic Butterfly Chicken with Summer Vegetables – it’ll definitely help you level up your culinary skills. It features corn cobs, capsicum, thyme leaves, zucchini, and more. All these flavours go very well with the tasty, moist BBQ chicken butterfly. It's a simple, healthy recipe that highlights the finest summer fruit.
Looking for a unique twist on summer chicken recipes in NZ? Try the Butterfly Chicken With Roast Pumpkin And Pear. The sweetness of roasted pumpkin and pears complements the savoury, herb-seasoned chicken. It creates a balance of flavours your guests will definitely love.
For a touch of elegance, opt for French-Style Roasted Butterflied Chicken. This butterflied roast chicken recipe keeps things simple with potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and shallots seasoned with olive oil, butter, and a touch of salt and pepper. Serve the butterflied roast chicken with green beans, toasted almonds, and a squeeze of lemon for a flavourful dish.
Butterfly chicken is the ultimate choice for summer entertainment. Whether you go for smoky BBQ flavours, classic herbs and garlic, or something more exotic like tandoori, these dishes promise to impress. With ready-to-cook options from Ingham’s, you can host with ease, serving up restaurant-quality meals straight from your grill or oven.
Try one of these summer chicken dinner recipes at your next gathering and watch as your guests rave about the food!
Manu Feildel has teamed up with Ingham’s – one of New Zealand’s largest poultry producers – to create quick, simple, and tasty recipes to help you get Dinner Done.
After watching Manu Feildel judge NZ cooking contestants on our screens, the French chef from across the ditch has now teamed up with Ingham’s NZ to launch Dinner Done, including a range of delicious yet quick and easy recipes cooking with chicken, as well as a series of cooking tips and tricks.
Manu’s Ingham’s NZ Dinner Done collection includes seven recipes, ranging from those to help you cook like a chef at home, to recipes designed to get the kids involved – created by Manu with the help of his 8-year-old daughter Charlee. Manu’s Dinner Done recipes are available now at Inghams.co.nz/whatsnew, with downloadable recipe cards and YouTube tutorials presented by Manu (and Charlee). Recipes include:
Launching Ingham’s NZ Dinner Done, Manu said: “We all have busy days, and after a long day - like everyone - I just want Dinner Done. Chicken is an incredibly versatile protein, is quick to cook, and can be used in a huge range of recipes and cuisines. As a father of two wonderful kids, getting a tasty dinner on the table that everyone will eat is a top priority – particularly midweek! – and that’s why I’m excited to launch Ingham’s NZ Dinner Done.”
Alongside the recipe collection, Manu provides a series of tips and tricks such as a video on ‘How to butterfly a chicken’, blogs on ‘How to cook the perfect roast chicken’, ‘Must-have dinner staples’ and more.
Launching Ingham’s NZ Dinner Done, Manu has shared his top three tips for planning and preparing midweek dinners to save time and make meals more fun:
Frozen is just as good as fresh, stock your freezer with quick, versatile options to avoid the supermarket run!
Stock your pantry and fridge with staples made up of a limited number of versatile ingredients based on the foods your household enjoys eating, and which can be combined into a variety of meals.
Planning and preparing meals solo can feel like hard work. Get the household involved by inviting everyone to choose a cuisine or simple meal for the week. Turn on and up your favourite music, follow a YouTube cooking tutorial to make it a home cooking class, or try some food art!
Chicken is the most popular land-meat eaten in New Zealand, with the average New Zealander enjoying around 37.5 kilograms of chicken each year (Poultry Industry Association New Zealand). Research shows chicken accounts for 33 per cent of meals in an average week, followed by beef (22%), fish (13%), pork (10%), lamb (8%), and processed meat (7%) (Survey of New Zealand consumer attitudes to consumption of meat administered through Qualtrics, published in Science Direct).
Chicken is the most a sustainable land-meat choice too, and with all Ingham’s New Zealand chicken products farmed locally, and all Ingham’s New Zealand poultry farms being SPCA certified – meeting rigorous animal welfare standards, enjoying a chicken dinner can be good for us and our planet.
Ingham’s NZ, Caroline Hayes, General Manager Strategy, Sales & Marketing said: “We’re thrilled to work with Manu to share these delicious recipes, as well as tips and tricks, to help people get Dinner Done. At Ingham’s we’re committed to being Always Good, and providing quick, easy and tasty meals is just one way we’re working to bring this to life.”
To learn more about Ingham’s NZ Dinner Done, visit Inghams.co.nz/whatsnew or follow @InghamsChickenNZ on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
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Ingham’s is the largest integrated poultry producer across Australia and New Zealand, employing 8,000 people. It supplies locally-farmed chicken, turkey and plant-based protein products to major retailers, quick-service restaurant (QSR) operators, food service distributors, wholesalers and to export channels. Ingham’s was incorporated in March 2016 and is listed on the ASX as Inghams Group Limited.
Ingham’s is proud to participate in the SPCA’s farmed animal certification, with animal welfare and sustainability two of the company’s top priorities. For more information, visit inghams.co.nz
Tray bakes are so quick and easy for a delicious dinner, and chicken makes for a great tray bake. Simply preheat the oven, place the bake ingredients in a single pan, pop it in the oven and set the timer. You can easily prep a tray bake ahead of time too, so it’s a great option for entertaining.
Plus, plating is a dream – grab some heat mats and put the whole tray in the centre of the table!
Celebrity chef Manu Feildel has created two mouthwatering tray bake recipes to tantalise your tastebuds – one cooking with whole chicken plus your favourite seasoning mix accompanied by a fresh and tasty slaw, and another created with Ingham’s Original Chicken Tenders – to add an extra crunch!
Make this tray bake your own by using your favourite chicken seasoning mix.
Chicken Tray Bake
Slaw
Download the recipe card for Manu’s Chicken Tray Bake with Slaw.
Combine Ingham’s Chicken Tenders with kumara, red capsicum, cherry tomatoes, courgette, red onion and feta, to make a vege-full and protein-packed crowd-pleaser. Click here for recipe.
Download the recipe card for Manu’s Original Chicken Tenders Tray Bake here
To learn more about Ingham’s NZ Dinner Done, follow @InghamsChickenNZ on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Celebrity chef dad, Manu Feildel, and his daughter Charlee have been busy in the kitchen, and they’ve created a delicious recipe cooking with Ingham’s frozen Tempura Chicken Nuggets. Manu and Charlee’s Tempura Chicken Nugget Lettuce Cups recipe is a twist on San Choy Bao that is fun to cook with the littlest chefs and will please even the fussiest eaters.
And with Manu and Charlee filming their chicken recipe creation, we’ve been given a peak into the action in the Feidel family’s kitchen…
Charlee: “I’ve been a kid for more than eight years now, and it’s time for us to mix things up. I adore Mumma’s San Choy Bao, but what if we switch it up and use chicken nuggets instead?“
Manu: “That’s a brilliant idea! How about we serve it in lettuce cups, with vermicelli noodles, some fresh salad veggies, chicken nuggets, and a delicious dressing on top?“
Into the air-fryer go the Tempura Chicken Nuggets. Manu gets the noodles noodling and Charlee shows off her impressive dress-shaking skills. Soon it’s time to combine it all together.
When asked who the better cook is, Charlee doesn’t miss a beat. “He’s pretty good, but I think I’ve got the edge.”
And Manu’s opinion? He agrees!
Simple take individual baby cos lettuce leaves and fill with a delicious vermicelli rice noodle vegie mixture, made of shredded carrot, sliced cucumber, sliced red capsicum, and spring onions dressed with rice wine vinegar, hoisin sauce, and lime juice. Top each with 1-2 cooked Ingham’s Chicken Breast Nuggets Tempura and drizzle with mayonnaise. These could also be easily substituted with Ingham’s GF Chicken Breast Nuggets!
To learn more about Ingham’s NZ Dinner Done, visit Inghams or follow @InghamsChickenNZ on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
A perfect sharing-dish for a quick and easy weekday chicken dinner, movie night or nibbles for guests, celebrity chef Manu Feildel and his daughter Charlee have created this delicious recipe for Mexi-Bean Loaded Chicken Chipees.
It all started when Charlee wanted to go out for dinner and indulge in loaded fries. Manu, comfy at home in his slippers, just wanted a chilled night in. The compromise (isn’t there always one?!) – Manu invited Charlee to join him in the on-screen kitchen to help get Dinner Done Ingham’s-style cooking Mexi-Bean Loaded Chicken Chipees!
Charlee: “Papa, I always see you judging people on TV. So, because I really want those loaded fries, tonight I’ll be judging you. No pressure.”
Manu’s response? He just gets to work getting Dinner Done.
So easy to make, you simply cook Ingham’s Chicken Chippees, top with kidney beans, corn, chunky Mexican salsa, then scatter with grated cheese. Bake for 4-5 minutes then scatter with halved cherry tomatoes and top with coriander. Serve guacamole and sour cream on the side.
And the final score Charlee gives her celebrity chef dad? “Presentation, good. Smell, good. Taste, good. Well, I would give you a 10, but it’s missing something…”
Well, no one can be perfect!
To learn more about Ingham’s NZ Dinner Done, follow @InghamsChickenNZ on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.