How to Bake Chicken: A Quick and Easy Way
Knowing how to bake chicken is an important part of being independent. There are numerous health benefits to eating poultry, especially if you’re an athlete or just want some extra protein in your diet.
Click to subscribe to our food YouTube channel!!Alongside knowing how to cook ground beef in the oven, chicken is another staple food that a lot of people love. There are also a ton of different ways to make it.
Today, we’ll be looking at one of the quickest and fastest ways to get some hot poultry on your plate: baking it. It’s simple, doesn’t require much prep, and you can get it done in about half an hour.
Chicken brings a lot of great b-vitamins into your meal. In about 3.5 ounces, you can expect somewhere around 25% of your daily vitamin B-6. That’s in addition to all the protein you’re getting.
What you’ll need for this
- Baking sheet
- Aluminum foil
- Parchment paper (optional)
- Paper towels
- 2 plates
- Poultry seasoning
- Olive or Coconut Oil
- Chicken breast, leg, or thighs
- Meat thermometer
Now for the recipe: how to bake chicken
Anyone who knows how to bake chicken knows that it needs to get to about room temperature before going into the oven. Take yours out of the fridge and let it sit for about 30 minutes on the counter if it’s already thawed. Don’t let it sit there for any longer than that, though.
If it’s frozen, you’ll need to thaw it out by running it under cool water for a while.
You should run it under cold water either way and then pat it dry with a paper towel.
Now for this next part, you’ll need to decide if you want it to be cooked on aluminum or parchment paper. I like parchment because there’s less metal getting cooked into my food. I’m not positive off the top of my head if that’s an old wives tale that it happens or not.
However, I was motivated to get into the parchment paper routine a while ago after seeing Rem Pitlick do it.
Seasoning Time
Again, it’s up to you, but you can drip some olive oil on there (I’d keep it at a tablespoon) or just start throwing the seasoning on.
The olive oil does add to the taste. Coconut oil isn’t bad either!
For this how to bake chicken recipe, I’m using some poultry seasoning from the dollar tree (I think). Toss a liberal amount on your chicken and roll it around a little bit to really distribute the seasoning evenly. The olive oil will help with sopping that up!
How to Bake Chicken: Pre-heating Your Oven
Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and put the chicken in for 20-25 minutes. Mine was a little bit over-done at 25 minutes, so, maybe check yours around 21/22 minutes with the meat thermometer to see how it’s doing. Your chicken must be 165 degrees Fahrenheit to eat. Don’t worry, it’ll still be juicy at that temp. I think.
To be honest, for a “how to bake chicken” tutorial meal, this still tasted pretty good even though it was about 30 degrees hotter than I wanted it when it came out of the oven. Even those little pieces were juicy and tender instead of dry or rubbery.
How to Bake Chicken: Final Thoughts
Following this recipe for how to bake chicken should get you some nice breasts, thighs, or wings/drummies. I can’t comment on gizzards, but I doubt you’ll be making those very often anyway. Look, when you get right down to it, chicken’s tasty, but not every part is all that great. Just most of them. At some point, we’ll explore how to make fried chicken and other variations that don’t take too long as well. Just remember: cook it to the right temp, season it well, and you’ll know how to bake chicken in no time.