Pounding Chicken

[Dawgluver]

I made Chicken Parmesan yesterday, and it turned out great. However, the breasts cooked up thicker than I would prefer.

I put 4 breast halves into a 2 gallon ziplock, and pounded the heck out of them with a rubber mallet. They were really thin, or so I thought. After dredging, frying, and cooking in the sauce, they poofed up. What could I have done to keep them thin? I don't have a metal meat hammer.

 

[Andy M.]

I made Chicken Parmesan yesterday, and it turned out great. However, the breasts cooked up thicker than I would prefer.

I put 4 breast halves into a 2 gallon ziplock, and pounded the heck out of them with a rubber mallet. They were really thin, or so I thought. After dredging, frying, and cooking in the sauce, they poofed up. What could I have done to keep them thin? I don't have a metal meat hammer.

I imagine the coating puffed up, not the chicken. Consider using a simple panko crust.

If it's the chicken that's too thick for you, that can be an issue. Chicken is harder to pound super thin as it breaks/tears more easily.

 

[Dawgluver]

Thanks, Andy. The dredge was flour, S&P. Very thin. I'm wondering if it was because the chicken was pre-marinated? Would that make it tighten up and poof?

 

[4meandthem]

I slice mine in half first

 

[Dawgluver]

That might do it. The pieces were the size of dinner plates after pounding! Do you slice them crosswise, 4Me?

 

[Andy M.]

Thanks, Andy. The dredge was flour, S&P. Very thin. I'm wondering if it was because the chicken was pre-marinated? Would that make it tighten up and poof?

Meat normally contracts/shrinks some when heated. Not sure what impact the marinade would have. Without being able to compare the before and after, it's difficult to judge.

 

[4meandthem]

I actually slice them diagonaly and get several slices out of one breast. I use them for piccata. I like eggplant parm over chicken.I am just weird that way.

I place the slices between plastic and use a glass or wine bottle.

 

[Andy M.]

I actually slice them diagonaly and get several slices out of one breast...

I do this too. Slice a breast piece into three pieces and pound thin. This gives you more manageable-sized pieces. I have a hammer shaped tenderizer/pounder combo that works well for me.

 

[lyndalou]

Does anyone ever slice them vertically?

 

[Andy M.]

Does anyone ever slice them vertically?

You can do that but vertical slices result in smaller cutlets. Diagonal slices result in larger cutlets.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

And horizontal slices result in cut fingers!!!

I think the reason the dinner plate sized thin pounded chicken "poofed up" was that the pounding just stretched all the fibers out and when the cooking heat was applied the muscle (a chicken breast is in essence just a big muscle) fibers tensed up and contracted due to the heat denaturing the proteins. I've seen steaks plump up a bit in cooking and I think the big reason the chicken plumped so much is that it was just an extreme case, so thin and spread out, no real structure to resist contracting. That must have been about 1/8 inch thick!

When I consider solutions I think scallopini, which I often see at the butcher's shop, thinly sliced rather than "you pound them at home." I've often flattened chicken breasts for some dish or other (e.g. au poivre) but I've never pounded one out to a dinner plate size! I've been content with the shrinkage that usually occurs.

I presume you wouldn't have wanted a dinner plate sized serving so you must have been intending to accept some shrinkage and the problem was that you got too much. I think rather than pounding thin and hoping it will stay thin that you should turn to slicing thin. I think the pounding accentuates the plumping up that follows when cooking.

So what I would suggest is thinly slicing your breasts, either on the diagonal which is a reasonably safe and easy procedure, or splitting them horizontally, or have your butcher do the job for you.

It would be interesting to hear details on your intended end result DL. It's always so much fun to hear about what other people are trying to accomplish in their cooking adventures.

 

[Dawgluver]

Thanks, guys! I think next time I'll slice them across through the middle, then pound, or cut into thirds and pound. I was quite proud of myself, as they were close to paper thin. They did taste so good!

 

[gadzooks]

I think maybe the rubber mallet was the problem. I am old school, I guess. I put 'em between wax paper and pound with a wine bottle. I think the curved surface does a better job of breaking down the connective tissue, the collagen and elastin fibers. A flat faced rubber mallet might not break the fibers, and allow them to spring back into their unpounded condition.

 

[Dawgluver]

Funny. You may have something there, Gadzooks. I tried it again. I sliced them across the middle, smacked them PAPER THIN with the rubber mallet in the big ziplock, dredged, then pankoed, fried, then they poofed up again. But they were utterly delicious.

So it's the rubber mallet. Aha!

 

[CWS4322]

I made Chicken Parmesan yesterday, and it turned out great. However, the breasts cooked up thicker than I would prefer.

I put 4 breast halves into a 2 gallon ziplock, and pounded the heck out of them with a rubber mallet. They were really thin, or so I thought. After dredging, frying, and cooking in the sauce, they poofed up. What could I have done to keep them thin? I don't have a metal meat hammer.

I had to "run" from the subject line--the girls would be very offended to know I read a post about how to pound chicken... I use cling wrap when I pound chicken, beef, pork and a meat mallet...