Chicken breasts seared in cast iron grill pan and finished in oven

I can't remember where I found this recipe. Maybe on Facebook, because I just cut and pasted it into my Evernote account.

It didn't turn out quite as juicy as the first time I made it ... and I blame my wife. She said, "it needs another five minutes". It didn't. It was still juicy, but it was dry on the outside. This was done in a Wagner 1891 - "11 3/8 Inch Fat Free Fryer", which up until a week ago, had a handle. Oh well, it still works.

Here's the recipe:

1. Brine your chicken in a solution of 1 tbsp. salt and 2 tbsp. sugar in 2 cups of room temperature water. Stir the mixture until dissolved. Soak your chicken for 30 to 60 minutes. Any longer, and your chicken may be too salty.
2. Pat dry.
3. Apply the oil and spices of your choice to your chicken. We like garlic and pepper. Rub your spices in. (I used olive oil, salt, pepper and McCormick's Chicken Seasoning
4. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Heat your grill pan to medium-high heat for 8 minutes.
5. Brush oil onto the pan. I used I used PAM. Should have used more olive oil, which is what I did the first time.
6. Sear your chicken for 2 minutes. Flip, sear for 2 more minutes. I do it for one minute, then do a quarter turn for the second minute, so it gets the diamond sear marks.



7. Remove pan from heat. Add 2 ice cubes to your pan (if you like your chicken perfect). Yep. That's what I do.
8. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. 20 is plenty. Don't listen to your spouse.
9. For the perfect chicken, let it rest for 5 minutes.

One that I do, and should probably post in more detail is skin on chicken thighs seared in the CI pan, then reserved, then onions added after until moderately browned, 1/4 cup chicken stock added to the onions, put the chicken thighs back in, then into the oven at 450 for 15 min. Nice caramelized onions to go with beautifully crisp skin on the thighs. Yummy.

Looks like a nice dinner, and great hash sear marks.

Quick question how do you like your grill pan. I picked up a newer lodge grill pan at a yards sale and cleaned it up. I've only used it 8-10 times and find it not very quick to clean and a bit of pain. But I will say I like the way it cooks tho.

E Weidner
Can you please post more often? With specific instructions. I try to duplicate the recipes posted here and the devil is in the details.

Jack

Steven,
I like the grill pan. Got really mad at myself when it hit the floor and the handle broke off a couple of weeks ago. I had several pans sitting inside of it, tried to lift the top two to slide one out, ended up sliding three pans out of the cabinet ... they hit the floor ... luckily the only damage was to the grill pan handle.

I love the way it cooks. Cleaning it up is a pain. I would hate to have to strip and season one of these.