For the Juiciest Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast

Oven-roast At 425 Degrees Fahrenheit

The Method: Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover sheet pan with parchment paper. Lay out seasoned chicken breasts on parchment. Roast in preheated oven for 13 to 18 minutes, until chicken is just cooked through.

Stovetop Low-and-slow

The Method: Heat a large sauté pan over a medium-high flame. When hot, add about a tablespoon of oil. Swirl the pan so it’s lightly covered. Reduce the flame to medium. Add the chicken breasts. Cook undisturbed for about one minute. Flip the breasts and reduce heat to low. Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid. Set a timer for 10 minutes, and walk away. (Might I recommend feeding your pet?) After 10 minutes, cut the heat, but leave on the lid and set your timer for another 10 minutes. Walk away again. (Take your pet for a stroll??) After 10 minutes, check if it’s done—it should be just cooked through. (This method is adapted from The Kitchn.)

En Papillote

The Method: Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut out two 12-ish-inch (look, I’m not a scientist) circles of parchment and fold in half. Place a seasoned chicken breast in each, and working from one end, begin tightly folding and crimping the edges of top and bottom halves of parchment paper together to form a seal, so you end up with two sealed packets, each containing one breast. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until puffed, about 14 to 18 minutes, checking to make sure chicken’s just cooked through before serving.

Why It’s Great: Cooking anything in its own personal parchment pouch presents the chance to say “en papillote” over and over again in an exaggerated French accent, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg! In addition to producing an extremely succulent, gently cooked chicken breast, the method allows for all sorts of flavor enhancements—toss some rosemary and lemon in the packet, for example. Add sliced garlic below the breasts. Throw teeny boiled potatoes in with the meat before sealing the packet, and they’ll cook in its juices as it roasts.

Stovetop-to-oven

The Method: Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over a high flame. When hot, add two tablespoons of high heat-friendly oil, heat until shimmering. Add the chicken breasts and sear for about five minutes, without moving, until there’s a nice crust developing. Flip, and place skillet in oven. Roast another six to 10 minutes, until just cooked through.

Braise

The Method: Place a heavy sauté pan like a Dutch oven over a high flame for a couple minutes, until hot. Add two tablespoons of oil, and heat until shimmering. Turn the flame to medium-high and sear seasoned chicken breasts on each side for a couple of minutes, without jostling, to get nice browning. Remove breasts and set aside. Add two-ish cups chicken broth (depending on pan size) to deglaze—scrape up brown bits—then add chicken breasts back. They should be partially submerged. Let liquid come to a rolling simmer, turn flame to medium-low, cover, and braise about 10 minutes, until chicken is just cooked through.

Why It’s Great: There are a few key benefits to braising boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The first is that it produces chicken that’s nowhere near dry, since it’s soaked through with liquid. (That said, the meat wasn’t particularly tender.) The second is that depending on what you use to braise—tomato paste, chile flakes, and crushed tomatoes in liquid, for example, or mushrooms, butter, white wine, and broth—you could end up with a complete, servable meal, including a pan sauce enhanced by the flavor leftover from browning the meat. And finally, should you accidentally overcook your chicken by a minute or two, you can use two forks to shred in its sauce, like a chicken tinga or meaty chili, and no one will be the wiser.

Poach

The Method: Combine two chicken breasts, four cups water or chicken broth, two teaspoons to one tablespoon kosher salt, and cracked pepper in a medium pot over a medium flame. (This is where you’d add things like garlic cloves and herbs, or swap out some of the water/broth for soy sauce, or verjus—were you doing anything saner than cooking 28 chicken breasts for your column.) Let the liquid come to a simmer, about 10 to 15 minutes. Once it’s at a simmer, reduce flame to low and cook another 10 minutes or so, until the breast is just cooked through.

Butterflied, Pounded, And Pan-seared

The Method: With a sharp knife, horizontally halve the chicken breast almost all the way—but stop right before you reach the seam. Open each breast like a book. Cover with parchment or plastic wrap and use a rolling pin (or whatever, honestly) to pound the breast until it’s about one-centimeter (or just under a half-inch) thick. Oil and season. Heat a cast-iron skillet over high heat. When it’s very hot, add one tablespoon high heat-friendly oil. Now add one chicken breast. Cook for one to two minutes per side, until browned all over and the chicken is cooked through. Repeat with the remaining oil and chicken breast. (This method is adapted from Emma Laperruque’s 3-Minute Chicken Breasts.)

Microwave

The Method: Arrange seasoned chicken breasts on microwave-safe plate, with thickest parts closer to outside edges of plate. Cover the top of the dish with wax paper or plastic wrap, and cook on high five minutes. Check doneness, and as needed, cook longer on high until just cooked through.

Slow Cooker

The Method: Place the seasoned breasts in a single layer in the slow cooker. Add about 4 cups of chicken broth, or enough to cover them. Cook on low for 1 hour, then flip the chicken and cook for an additional 30 minutes to 1 hour, until just cooked through.

Why It’s Skippable: Ninety minutes later, you get some tough chicken.

Sous Vide

The Method: Pat chicken dry—no oil!—and season all over. Seal in a sous vide–safe bag, one that’s airtight, and sous-vide one hour at 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Finish for a couple minutes per side in a very hot skillet with some high heat-friendly oil.

Oven-roast At 350 Degrees Fahrenheit

The Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover sheet pan with parchment paper. Lay out seasoned chicken on parchment. Bake chicken in preheated oven for 20 to 24 minutes minutes, until it’s just cooked through.

Stovetop Sear

The Method: Heat a large cast-iron skillet over a high flame. When quite hot, add two tablespoons of high heat-friendly oil. Let it heat until shimmering. Add the chicken breasts and cook for five to six-ish minutes, until there’s a really nice crust. Flip, and cook another five to six-ish minutes, until it’s just cooked through.

Broil

The Method: Preheat broiler on high. Move oven rack up to highest position, closest to broiler. Lay out seasoned chicken on a broiler-safe rimmed pan. Broil for 5 to 8 minutes or so, depending on broiler intensity, until just cooked through.