In this edition of Post Grad Meals, we’re gonna be teaching you one of the most key skills required to get the most out of this diet – cooking a chicken breast. A great deal of our recipes use chicken as the key meat so you can’t get too far in our meal plan without learning this skill. Also, people will be mighty impressed with your cooking once you’re able to master this.

We admit this topic is kind of lame, but it is oh so important. Handling and cooking raw chicken is a skill to be mastered. Unfortunately, people that are unfamiliar with cooking in general struggle with handling raw chicken properly. If you take one thing from this post, take this: Feel free to overcook your chicken, but DO NOT feel free to undercook it. If it’s undercooked, you may get salmonella. While you may view office bathroom breaks as crucial to your mental health, salmonella will make you wish you never saw a bathroom again.

INGREDIENTS:

• One chicken breast
• Two tbsp. olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Italian seasoning (optional – useful for most recipes except Asian-inspired meals)
• Cayenne pepper (optional – great if you’re looking to add a little heat to that bad boy)
• Paper plate (optional – makes clean up easier/doesn’t contaminate the cutting boards)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place raw chicken on paper plate, wash hands (to not get raw chicken all over your meat pounder and salt and pepper shakers)
2. Pound that giant, unnatural-looking chicken breast thin to about a half inch thick (if you’re too lazy to get a meat pounder, use your hand – that’s what we do)
3. Salt and pepper the chicken as well as add any seasonings you’d like to use (don’t get raw chicken all over the shakers), then rub a half tablespoon of olive oil (do this on both sides). Wash your damn hands!
   

   Horrifying.

4. Heat the other tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan, skillet, or wok on medium heat
5. Place chicken in the hot pan, cook on one side for 10 minutes (set a timer)
6. Flip the chicken and reduce heat to medium low. Cook for 10 more minutes (set a timer again)
7. Remove chicken from heat and let rest for 5 minutes (This is mandatory if you want chicken that is not dry!)
   

   Just takin’ a 5 min nap

8. Cut the chicken in strips by cutting against the grain or dice it if that’s what the recipe says (Check and make sure that the chicken is not pink in the middle. If it is, put it back on and cook until it is no longer pink).
   

   What a beaut!

Boom! That wasn’t so bad, was it?

Pretty soon, everyone will be calling you Gordon Ramsay or Rachel Ray. Feel free to show off your new-found cooking skills with all your friends. It’ll keep you and your friends from going hungry or broke.

-Catherine and Ford

P.S.
If all those instructions were just a little much for you, use this as your guide for what NOT to do:

OMG… #medrare is NOT a thing for chicken!!

Feel free to leave us any comments, concerns, or ideas. We are open to ALL of your feedback. Thanks for reading!