There are these days (actually, for me it’s most weekdays!) after I’m exhausted, busy, or simply don’t really feel like spending a whole lot of time and vitality cooking, however I nonetheless desire a scrumptious home-cooked meal. It’s simply that I would like it with out the effort of a prolonged ingredient checklist, a sink filled with pots and pans, or a time-consuming cooking course of. This hen dinner is ideal for these days and has change into a go-to in my dinner rotation. 

My six-ingredient weeknight dinner pairs juicy, completely cooked hen breasts with a heat bulgur pilaf that’s studded with blistered tomatoes, aromatic scallions, briny olives, and creamy feta cheese. It comes collectively in beneath 20 minutes and the whole lot cooks in only one skillet. You’ll not discover a neater full home-cooked dinner recipe on the market—I’d put cash on it. 

However taking the straightforward route and reducing corners doesn’t imply it’s worthwhile to sacrifice high quality. For a whole hen dinner that’s quick on substances and time however not on taste, there are two primary tips to observe: Use sensible cooking methods and make every ingredient work time beyond regulation to realize one of the best outcomes. 

For the Greatest (and Best!) Rooster Breasts, Begin With a Chilly Pan

Boneless skinless hen breasts are beloved by many within the US and it’s straightforward to see why: They’re lean, inexpensive, broadly obtainable, and cook dinner in a short time. However when cooking boneless skinless hen breasts, it is all too widespread to seek out your self with dry, chewy, cardboard-y meat. This isn’t the fault of the meat itself, however the way it’s cooked. The most typical methodology for searing hen breasts (and most proteins, actually) requires preheating a skillet with a little bit of oil till sizzling earlier than including the hen, then flipping the hen as soon as midway by cooking. For a fragile, lean protein like hen breasts, this may typically results in the surface of the meat overcooking and toughening by the point middle of the hen comes as much as temperature (for hen breasts, 155℉).

The higher methodology for cooking hen breasts that ensures juicy, good outcomes is to start out with the hen in a chilly skillet. It’s a gentler strategy to searing the meat. An preliminary burst of upper warmth drives off moisture to make sure that the hen browns evenly; then the warmth is lowered and the breasts flipped each couple minutes till the middle of the thickest a part of every breast registers 155℉. Cooked this fashion, the meat slowly heats up from the surface in, which retains it juicy and permits a wealthy brown crust to develop on the floor. Flipping the hen each couple minutes ensures regular cooking on either side of the hen for even browning.

For this cooking methodology to achieve success with lean skinless hen breasts, you’ll want to make use of a nonstick skillet or a properly seasoned carbon metal or forged iron skillet. Utilizing a stainless-steel skillet will end in a stuck-on hen mess.

Constructing Massive Taste within the Pilaf

The fluffy, flavorful bulgur pilaf is what transforms this primary cooked hen breast into a formidable meal. The important thing to constructing most taste with minimal substances with this facet dish is to develop as a lot taste as attainable from each ingredient used. To start out, let fond be your buddy, and put these yummy browned bits on the underside of the skillet to work because the flavor-base for the pilaf. After the hen breasts are seared and whereas they relaxation, sauté cherry tomatoes with scallion whites straight within the remaining fond within the skillet. Blistering the tomatoes till they burst enhances their pure sweetness, and when paired with fragrant scallion whites and only a little bit of water to deglaze the skillet, a wealthy broth comes collectively nearly immediately for cooking the bulgur.

Why Bulgur Makes a Nice Pilaf

For a faster, extra flavorful pilaf, skip the rice and attain for fantastic bulgur as a substitute. Nutty, filling bulgur is one in all my favourite grains. Whereas it typically goes beneath appreciated in lots of US residence kitchens, it has been an vital supply of vitamin throughout the Center East, North Africa, and jap Europe for roughly 4,000 years. It is made by parboiling entire wheat (normally durum) kernels, drying them, and pulverizing them into granules which might be graded by measurement, #1 being the smallest and #4 being the biggest. 

Coarser granules are sometimes boiled till chewy-firm, whereas medium and fantastic bulgur are sometimes soaked in water after which tossed in salads (akin to tabbouleh). This recipe makes use of fantastic bulgur. The fantastic bulgur soaks up all of the chickeny, tomatoey, allium flavors in a mere 5 minutes earlier than it’s prepared. 

The Ending Touches

Simply because a recipe makes use of solely a handful of substances doesn’t imply it ought to really feel unfinished. Tossing the cooked bulgur with olives, feta, and a glug of olive oil earlier than serving creates a Mediterranean-inspired taste profile and gives quite a lot of colours and textures to reinforce the dish. 

For those who’re feeling bold, you possibly can attain for a seventh ingredient and end with a squeeze of lemon. And even go a step additional and sprinkle with recent mint or basil, or serve it with a drizzle of yogurt or a French dressing.

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