Easy Chicken Breast: Tasty and Tender

One of my favorite ‘fast food’ meals is marinated chicken breast. Now, when I say ‘fast food’ here I mean dinner that takes me almost no time to prepare, and a cook time that’s relatively quick. Although with this chicken breast recipe there is a need to marinate the meat, that’s time you can spend doing something else…out of the kitchen, even!

Biting into this chicken breast gives you a sweet and salty taste; a perfect balance that leaves your tongue happy. It even has a little zestiness, or light spiciness, from the dry mustard in the marinade.

An added benefit to this recipe is I highly recommend using a meat mallet to pound and even out the chicken breast. The benefit? Free stress relief! Seriously, pounding the meat tenderizes the chicken while also making it cook more evenly (since you’ll pound it so the chicken breast is about the same width, right?).

Easy Marinated Chicken Breast

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Marinade Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 1.25 hours

Ingredients

• 1.5 to 3 lbs. Boneless Skinless Chicken breast (depending on your family need)
• 2 Tablespoons ground mustard
• 2 Tablespoons water
• 2 Tablespoons Major Grey’s chutney
• 1/2 teaspoon Fish Sauce
• 1/2 cup Kikkoman Teriyaki Marinade, low-sodium

Blend mustard and water. Cover; let sit for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, pound the chicken so that it is even in width (this will ensure more even cooking and tender meat). Note: it is easy to put the chicken breast in a gallon zip bag and use the meat mallet so that it is hitting the chicken through the plastic, not raw chicken.

Blend the mustard mixture, chutney and Teriyaki until well combined. Pour sauce into ziploc bag with chicken; let marinate for 45 minutes in the refrigerator. Spray a non-stick spray on a 9×13 casserole dish; put chicken and sauce into it and cover with foil. Bake 20 minutes, then remove foil and bake 3-5 minutes more or until chicken is done. Let meat rest on a cutting board for 5-10 minutes before slicing on a diagonal against the (meat) grain. Not only will this look very pretty on the platter, it will encourage smaller serving sizes. I like to serve with rice, beans, and a salad. Enjoy!

Photo by Kelly Estes