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Roast Chicken Breasts for Salad

By America's Test Kitchen

Published on July 28, 2011

Yield

Yields 6 cups shredded cooked chicken

Roast Chicken Breasts for Salad

Ingredients

2 large whole bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (at least 1 ½ pounds each)1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Before You Begin

Use leftover cooked chicken in any of the realted chicken salads, or try our roasting method to make chicken specifically for salad. If you’re going to roast chicken for salad, we think it makes sense to roast a good amount. This recipe makes twice as much chicken as you’ll need for each salad. If you don’t want to make that much chicken, simply halve this roast chicken recipe. If you make the full recipe, you can double any of the chicken salad recipes or freeze the leftover shredded chicken for up to 1 month.

Instructions

  1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Cover rimmed baking sheet with foil.
  2. Dry chicken with paper towels, rub skin with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place skin side up on baking sheet. Roast until thermometer inserted in thickest part of breast registers 160 degrees, 35 to 40 minutes. Let chicken cool to room temperature, remove and discard skin, and cut breasts from bone. Divide each breast into 2-inch pieces and shred by hand.
Roast Chicken Breasts for Salad

Roast Chicken Breasts for Salad

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By America's Test Kitchen
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Yield

Yields 6 cups shredded cooked chicken

Ingredients

2 large whole bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (at least 1 ½ pounds each)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Ingredients

2 large whole bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (at least 1 ½ pounds each)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Ingredients

2 large whole bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (at least 1 ½ pounds each)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Why This Recipe Works

Cooking your own chicken is the best way to get moist, tender shredded meat for salad. In our Roast Chicken Breasts for Salad recipe, we found that seasoning the breasts with oil, salt, and pepper produced a simple but still tasty flavor that melded well with any salad.

Before You Begin

Use leftover cooked chicken in any of the realted chicken salads, or try our roasting method to make chicken specifically for salad. If you’re going to roast chicken for salad, we think it makes sense to roast a good amount. This recipe makes twice as much chicken as you’ll need for each salad. If you don’t want to make that much chicken, simply halve this roast chicken recipe. If you make the full recipe, you can double any of the chicken salad recipes or freeze the leftover shredded chicken for up to 1 month.

Instructions

  1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Cover rimmed baking sheet with foil.
  2. Dry chicken with paper towels, rub skin with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place skin side up on baking sheet. Roast until thermometer inserted in thickest part of breast registers 160 degrees, 35 to 40 minutes. Let chicken cool to room temperature, remove and discard skin, and cut breasts from bone. Divide each breast into 2-inch pieces and shred by hand.

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