Skillet-Roasted Chicken Breasts with Rustic Lime-Hoisin Sauce
By Lan LamPublished on January 7, 2026
Time
55 minutes
Yield
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
Before You Begin
For the best results, buy chicken breasts of similar size. Use kitchen shears to snip off the ribs and trim the excess fatty skin from the thick ends of the breasts. To serve two, halve the ingredients and use a 10-inch skillet.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Use your fingers to carefully separate skin from 4 trimmed chicken breasts, ribs removed. Peel back skin, leaving skin attached at top and bottom of breast.
- Sprinkle 1½ teaspoons kosher salt evenly over chicken (⅜ teaspoon per breast). Lay skin back in place. Using metal skewer or tip of paring knife, poke 6 to 8 holes in fat deposits in skin of each breast. Spray skin with vegetable oil spray.
- Place chicken skin side down in 12-inch skillet and set over medium-high heat. Cook until skin is well browned, 7 to 9 minutes. Carefully flip chicken, transfer skillet to oven, and roast until chicken registers 160 degrees, about 30 minutes.
- Transfer chicken to plate skin side up. Place skillet over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until juices in skillet form dark fond, about 1 minute. Add 4 tablespoons unsalted butter and 4 smashed and peeled garlic cloves and cook, stirring constantly, until butter is fully melted, about 1 minute. Add 3 (2-inch) strips lime zest and whites of 4 scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths, and cook, stirring constantly until fragrant, about 20 seconds.
- Stir in 3 tablespoons water, 1 tablespoon lime juice, and 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce. Off heat, add remaining 3 (2-inch) strips lime zest and greens of 4 scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Carve meat from bones and slice breasts on bias against grain into ¾-inch-thick slices. Return slices to skillet along with any accumulated juices and serve.
Time
55 minutesYield
Serves 4 to 6Ingredients
Ingredients
Ingredients
Why This Recipe Works
This low-fuss method for skillet-roasted chicken breasts produces perfectly tender, juicy white meat and flavorful pan juices that are easily transformed into a bright, buttery sauce. We used bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts; the skin and bones made the breasts less prone to overcooking. Salting under the skin seasoned the meat directly, while piercing the skin helped it render efficiently. Spraying the chicken—not the pan—with cooking spray minimized the fat in the skillet and, thus, grease splatters, and starting in a cold pan gave the skin time to render and brown before the meat overcooked. Finishing the chicken in the oven brought it up to temperature gently, so the thinner portions didn’t dry out. It was fast and easy to reduce the juices left in the pan, creating a rich fond for the sauce that didn’t require boxed broth. To cut back on knifework, we left the garlic, zest, and herbs in large pieces and simply added more of them. Melting a generous amount of butter all at once was much faster and easier than emulsifying it piece by piece and resulted in a rustically elegant sauce. We sliced the meat and served it in the skillet, which kept the chicken and sauce warm.
Want more? Read the whole storyBefore You Begin
For the best results, buy chicken breasts of similar size. Use kitchen shears to snip off the ribs and trim the excess fatty skin from the thick ends of the breasts. To serve two, halve the ingredients and use a 10-inch skillet.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Use your fingers to carefully separate skin from 4 trimmed chicken breasts, ribs removed. Peel back skin, leaving skin attached at top and bottom of breast.
- Sprinkle 1½ teaspoons kosher salt evenly over chicken (⅜ teaspoon per breast). Lay skin back in place. Using metal skewer or tip of paring knife, poke 6 to 8 holes in fat deposits in skin of each breast. Spray skin with vegetable oil spray.
- Place chicken skin side down in 12-inch skillet and set over medium-high heat. Cook until skin is well browned, 7 to 9 minutes. Carefully flip chicken, transfer skillet to oven, and roast until chicken registers 160 degrees, about 30 minutes.
- Transfer chicken to plate skin side up. Place skillet over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until juices in skillet form dark fond, about 1 minute. Add 4 tablespoons unsalted butter and 4 smashed and peeled garlic cloves and cook, stirring constantly, until butter is fully melted, about 1 minute. Add 3 (2-inch) strips lime zest and whites of 4 scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths, and cook, stirring constantly until fragrant, about 20 seconds.
- Stir in 3 tablespoons water, 1 tablespoon lime juice, and 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce. Off heat, add remaining 3 (2-inch) strips lime zest and greens of 4 scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Carve meat from bones and slice breasts on bias against grain into ¾-inch-thick slices. Return slices to skillet along with any accumulated juices and serve.
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