I love chicken, but I’ve always taken umbrage to chicken breast, especially baked chicken breast, because when cooked without care, chicken breast is drier than the subsaharan desert.
While cooking for my clients I came upon THE secret to delicious and moist baked chicken breast. Hint, it’s the pistachio cream sauce…allow me to explain.
My secret to moist chicken breast was happened upon by accident. A desire to make a delicious pistachio cream sauce, and chicken breast pulled for that evenings dinner.
Said, pistachio cream is made by soaking raw pistachios, garlic and rosemary in hot water for 15 minutes and then blending it on high until smooth. It’s really that easy; and, to be fair, this cream sauce can be used on lots of things, not just in this chicken breast recipe.
Something about cooking the chicken in cream leads to moistness each and every time.
Moist Baked Chicken Breast How-To
When it comes to the chicken, I ALWAYS suggest searing the chicken on the stovetop first, because this allows for more flavour to develop. I make no promises if you just throw the chicken in a pan with the pistachio cream and bake it in the oven.
Will it still taste delicious? Yes.
Will it still be effortlessly moist? Yes.
Could it be better? Absolutely. So sear the damn chicken 😉
Baked Chicken Breast with Pistachio Cream Sauce
- 4 chicken breast
- 1 cup pistachio
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 1.5 cups hot water
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp granulated onion powder
- 1/2 tsp crushed chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp salt, divided in half
- Oregano leaves for garnish
- 1 tsp olive oil
Preheat oven to 395F.
In a blender add the pistachio, rosemary, garlic, 1/2 the amount of salt and blend on high until smooth. Set aside.
Heat oil in a cast iron pan on medium high heat. Season the chicken breasts with the remaining salt, granulated garlic, dried oregano, chilli flakes and remaining salt. Sear the chicken on each side for 2 minutes, or until a nice, caramelized crust begins to form.
Once seared on both sides remove the chicken from the pan, and set aside; pour in the pistachio cream sauce and stir to remove all the yummy chicken bits in the pan. Add the chicken back to the pan and bake in the oven for 20 minutes
TO SERVE: garnish with fresh oregano leaves, and make your life easier and serve it directly from the cast iron pan!
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Disclosure: There are some affiliate links in this post, but when it comes to cooking, I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified and/or personally used.
xoxoBianca