Update: "Finally Solved Baked Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast Connundrum"

[SeanCan'tCook]

So first, I want to thank everyone who so kindly offered their help and advice in this now-closed thread: https://www.discusscooking.com/foru...kinless-chicken-breast-connundrum-107385.html

Second, I want to apologize for ghosting that last thread. For some reason, I don't get email notifications when there are responses anymore, and my life has been really crazy lately.

My sweet, precious baby Lily is in the last stages of her life. In the last few months, her heart has begun rapidly failing, as are her kidneys. She has an inoperable fist-sized tumor in her abdomen that appears to have metastasized and her arthritis has advanced to the point where there's almost no cartilage left in her hips. I've had her to an oncologist in Stillwater (we're in Tulsa), a cardiologist in Dallas and we're going to see another one at K-State next week. All of my focus has been on her, both in getting her the best health care possible and in spending as much time with her as I can while we're still together.

So ... The chicken.

I made it again, cutting the McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning to 1 teaspoon per side of each breast. It was delicious, but still a little overseasoned. I'm going to make it again today, cutting the Montreal Steak Seasoning again to 3/4 teaspoon per side of each breast.

I have 25% less sodium Montreal Steak Seasoning and 25% less sodium Montreal Chicken Seasoning, but as I said in the last thread, I want to perfect the regular Montreal Steak Seasoning version before I try other mixes.

The Juices!

Oh My God, the juices may be the best part. I quit trimming any of the fat off, and splash a little chicken broth in the baking pan before I put it in the oven. I dip the chicken in the juice as I eat it, and mop up the rest with bread after I've finished the chicken.

It is amazing!

The Cleanup NIGHTMARE

So from my past experiences, I've had a terrible time with cleanup on baking pans, even non-stick ones. I've been cooking this chicken in a Pyrex baking dish, figuring the cleanup would be easier.

No!

This brown gunk builds up, and

Will .

Not .

Come .

Off .

I scrub and scrub, using Comet, Barkeep's Friend, baking soda mixed with dishwashing liquid ... nothing works. I finally took a butter knife and managed to scrape some of it off, but that can't be the way.

I'm assuming it's the nonstick cooking spray I'm using.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

 

[Andy M.]

In baking/roasting, some of the fat vaporizes and bakes onto the baking pan. Similar to seasoning a cast iron skillet. You have to get it off after each baking or it will build up. For a glass pan, try an SOS pad or similar to get the baked on dirt off.

 

[taxlady]

In baking/roasting, some of the fat vaporizes and bakes onto the baking pan. Similar to seasoning a cast iron skillet. You have to get it off after each baking or it will build up. For a glass pan, try an SOS pad or similar to get the baked on dirt off.

An SOS pad or similar, seriously? Doesn't that scratch up the surface of the glass pan? I have been using dry baking soda with a damp cloth or sponge on glass pans to clean every.little.brown.spot off my glass baking pans for decades. I make sure to do it every time I use them. I do have some scratches on those pans, but most (or maybe all) of them are at least 30 years old.

From experience with other pans, those bits of grease will get bigger and harder if left on the pan. It doesn't take long for them to develop a very tough surface, that will take a lot of work to get through. Once you get through that tough surface, the rest is much easier to get off.

 

[Andy M.]

An SOS pad or similar, seriously? Doesn't that scratch up the surface of the glass pan?...

Glass is much harder than steel wool. I haven't experienced a problem. Of course, I don't have to do it a lot either.

 

[SeanCan'tCook]

Boy, I'll tell you, I've been scrubbin' and scrapin' on this thing all day, and It's nowhere near clean yet. This just ain't worth it.

I try to hard be green, but when I can get aluminum foil roasting pans for a buck apiece, it's hard to justify all this grief and drudgery.

 

[taxlady]

Sean, I have never had to put that much effort into cleaning my glass pans, not even when I have burnt something a bit, and mine are spotless. Maybe it is your cooking spray. I grease the pan with olive oil or sometimes with butter. I just spread it around with a silicone pastry brush.

 

[SeanCan'tCook]

Sean, I have never had to put that much effort into cleaning my glass pans, not even when I have burnt something a bit, and mine are spotless. Maybe it is your cooking spray. I grease the pan with olive oil or sometimes with butter. I just spread it around with a silicone pastry brush.

I suspect the cooking spray as well.

Is there a difference between brands? I've been using the Wal Mart house brand in the butter flavor.

 

[taxlady]

I suspect the cooking spray as well.

Is there a difference between brands? I've been using the Wal Mart house brand in the butter flavor.

I have no idea about brands of cooking spray. I have never used it. I find it economical and simple to spread oil or butter with the silicone pastry brush, which is dishwasher safe.

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

I suspect the cooking spray as well.

Is there a difference between brands? I've been using the Wal Mart house brand in the butter flavor.

Definitely Sean!
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Va...p.ds&msclkid=672d03793ae015dbc71b639abbb0569c
I use to use the same cooking spray and had the same problem.
A good ole S.O.S. pad does the trick though, on a glass pan that is.

I recently changed to this brand:
https://shop.sprouts.com/product/27555/sprouts-organic-extra-virgin-olive-cooking-oil

Note the ingredients on both.
Both are "store brands" and not national brands.
Of course there's a big price difference, but so worth it.
A little goes a long way, IMHO anyways.

Aloha btw and welcome.

 

[SeanCan'tCook]

I've been googling this and saw several youtube videos where they took really crusty glass bakeware, put ammonia in them, sealed them in plastic bags, let them sit overnight and the crud came right off.

I'm trying it.

Of course, after I decided to leave it outside so Lily wouldn't have to smell any errant fumes I somehow managed to fall down the back steps taking it out there and have at least sprained my ankle. lol

I'm on my way to the doc-in-a-box now.

Man, I can't win for losin' lately!

 

[taxlady]

Oh no Sean! (((hugs))), god bedring (Danish for good bettering).

I have heard that the ammonia trick works well. There are some people here on DC who use that method to soften the crud on oven racks.

 

[SeanCan'tCook]

Oh no Sean! (((hugs))), god bedring (Danish for good bettering).

I have heard that the ammonia trick works well. There are some people here on DC who use that method to soften the crud on oven racks.

OK, update:

The Chicken: I cut it down from 1 to 3/4 teaspoons of Montreal steak seasoning per side. Delicious, but still a little too salty/peppery. After this batch is consumed, I'll go down to 1/2 teaspoon MSS (Montreal Steak Seasoning).

The Grinder: So, I really don't enjoy rubbing the spice mix on the chicken. Weird, right? I hit on the idea of getting one of those electric pepper mills. I just multiply the number of chicken breasts by the amount of MSS I want to use per side. In this case, 5 chicken breasts x 3/4 teaspoons MSS per side = 3 3/4 teaspoons MSS per side. I rounded up and put 4 teaspoons of MSS in the grinder and evenly covered all 5 chicken breasts with it until the grinder was empty, then flipped the chicken breasts and repeated. It worked great.

Oddly enough, I bought two more grinders that were virtually identical to the one I used for the MSS and they sucked. I put black peppercorns in one and kosher sea salt in the other. No matter what I did, almost nothing came out! I returned them. It's back to Morton's salt and regular old ground black pepper for me.

The Baking Dish (pt 1): Ms Tax Lady, you appear to have hit the nail on the head with your thought about the cooking spray causing that diamond-hard gunk on the glass baking dish.

I didn't use any cooking spray this time, instead putting some EVOO in the dish and spreading it around with a paper towel. There was still brown gunk in the dish after the chicken was done, but it scrubbed out with a little elbow grease. I can live with 5 minutes of hard scrubbing to clean this dish rather than going to throwaways.

The Baking Dish (pt 2): The other baking dish is still out on the back porch wrapped in a black plastic bag, soaking in ammonia fumes. I'm gonna give it a full 24 hours in there before I check the results. If this works, I have close to a dozen gunked-up non-stick baking pans, baking sheets and pizza pans I can't wait to try this on!

The Foot: So, the good news is I don't have a sprained ankle. The bad news is I have a broken foot. Fractured 5th metatarsals bone, the one that runs from your ankle to your pinkie toe. 4 weeks in a cast.

Oh well ...

At least I'm cooking edible chicken, have figured out how to keep from gunking up the baking dish, and may have figured out how to clean a gunked up baking dish without hours of cursing and shaking my fist at the Heavens.

Seems strange that anti-stick cooking spray would create such a stuck-on mess though, doesn't it?

 

[SeanCan'tCook]

UPDATE: Gunk Vs Ammonia, We Have A Winner!

So I put some ammonia in the gunked-up glass baking dish, wrapped it in a black trash bag and stuck it out on the back porch for 40 hours.

When I unwrapped it, things were immediately promising, as there was gunk floating in the ammonia and I could rub some of the gunk I'd scrubbed and scrubbed on off with my finger!

I worked on the dish with one of those sponge on one side, scrubbing pad on the other thingies for about 5 minutes, and got it all off!

What's more, I was able to recycle the ammonia. I poured it from the dish I'd originally put it in into another gunked-up dish and wrapped that in the same black trash bag. When I take that one out, I'll cycle in other gunked-up dishes or pans till they're a spotless.

I'm really curious to see how easy cleanup is when I take a pan straight from baking to the ammonia (after a cooldown, of course).