Cooking: How to Make a Juicy Pan-Seared Chicken Cutlet, Elegantly and Fast

After a long stretch of research and practice, I finally landed on the perfect way to cook a pan-seared chicken cutlet. Works for breast or thigh, no exceptions.

And it’s dead simple. Ten minutes and you’re done. Even if you’re a fat otaku with a girlfriend who’d rather lick black tights, you don’t have to drool over someone else’s food — you can make this yourself.

Ingredients:

• Chicken breast or thigh — breast here, but debone the thigh yourself if you use it
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Oil
• Sauce, whatever you like: mayo, soy sauce, vinegar, your call

Method:

• Thaw the chicken first. Naturally, then pat the moisture off.
• Press it flat with your palm. Not squash it — just even out the thickness. You can punch it once if you want. The point is uniform heat.
• Rub salt on the chicken, both sides.
• Rub black pepper on, both sides.
• You can marinate for 5 minutes, or skip it. Doesn’t matter.
• Heat the pan — a flat-bottomed one is best — add a tiny bit of oil, turn the heat to high.
• Put the chicken in skin-side down and sear on high for 60 seconds.
• Flip it, drop to low heat, cover with a lid, and cook for 5 minutes.
• Don’t touch it, don’t lift the lid. Just those 5 minutes.
• When time’s up, take it out.

You’ll find the chicken is not only neat but cooked all the way through, still juicy inside.

The whole thing takes under 10 minutes. Simple and fast. The key, I think, is “high heat for 1 minute, flip, then cover and steam on low for 5.” Get that right and it just works.

If chicken alone feels boring, pair it with some dessert or veggies. You can also pour yogurt over sweet potato, add granola, whatever.