Dinner fail, so very fail.

[thistlechaser]

While I now have two ways I can make my chicken breast dinner, I know I need more, so I tried a new way out tonight. I had a recipe using greek yogurt, lemon juice, and lemon zest to marinade it in. (Boy did the yogurt and lemon smell good! I could have eaten it with a spoon instead of using it for the chicken.)

I never know if I'm supposed to cover chicken when I bake it, but when in doubt I generally do since I figure that would keep it moister. But tonight it did something odd. The chicken shrunk to maybe a quarter of the original size and was nearly covered in what looked like water.

They were a really icky color (white) and the texture was odd. The first bite had okay flavor (lemon, nothing else), but that got old really quick. I didn't even come close to finishing it. (TV dinner to the rescue!)

Google tells me I probably poached my chicken. I really can't recommend doing that. I didn't use much lemon juice (a tablespoon or so), though maybe that was enough acid to partially cook it on its own? Whatever the cause, it didn't work at all.

Comments

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

Seconded. The chicken sounds overcooked. Depending on the amount of yoghurt, the extra water could've been from the yoghurt curdling (acid + heat + yoghurt = curdle).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Just whatever yogurt stuck to the chicken, I didn't add any extra. And yeah, I suspect it got overcooked, I tend to do that (I really worry about undercooking things and getting sick plus my thermometer stopped working).