The Mouthful
Posts
Upgrading bland chicken breast?

Upgrading bland chicken breast?

& baba ganoush, keeping guac green, and cheap vs. expensive chicken takeaways

Keith McBrayer & Ethan Chlebowski
February 18, 2024

Good morning. Creamy, flavorful spreads are key to meze-style eating. We’ve covered muhammara, whipped feta, and hummus platters, but today we turn their smokey cousin: eggplant-based baba ganoush.

By the way, check out our newly published collection of meze style dips on Cook Well.

TRY SOMETHING NEW 🤯

Baba ganoush

If you’ve ever been disappointed by an eggplant parm in the past, this dip might redeem the vegetable: when roasted, it turns creamy and complex in flavor.

Cuisine differences

This recipe is based on the Egyptian style of baba ganoush, which is what is most commonly found in the U.S. If you see baba ganoush in the Western world, you’ll likely get a dip made with roasted eggplants, tahini, olive oil, garlic, and spices.

Technically, many classify this dish as mutabal and claim that baba ghanoush is made without tahini paste.

Like many foods, baba ganoush has blurry ingredient boundaries as it diffused around the world. Even locally in the Middle East, the dish varies widely.

What Westerners think of as baba ganoush is closer to the creamy Egyptian preparation.
In countries like Syria and Lebanon, baba ghanoush is chunkier and made with pomegranate molasses and diced aromatics.

Added spices and herbs vary among recipes too; experiment to find your ideal aromatic profile.

Flavor through technique

Regardless of the variation, baba ghanoush is a compelling culinary dish that brings texture and taste through techniques:

Charring the eggplant through roasting, broiling, or grilling introduces smokey, complex flavors into the dish.
Slowly emulsifying the dip together with garlic, tahini, and olive oil creates and creamy and unctuous texture, rather than a greasy and broken dip.

Because the dip is made with a lot of fat, it requires a good amount of acid to balance and bring out flavors (usually lemon juice). As for added aromatics, you can choose to keep it simple to appreciate the subtle eggplant flavor or use it as a canvas to load up on spices and herbs.

However you do it, it’s a filling snack, starter, or meal with pita or vegetables.

Ready to cook? Check out the recipe framework on Cook Well:

THROWBACK TIME 🍳

Cheap vs expensive chicken

What are you paying for with pricier chicken at the supermarket? As it turns out: mostly animal welfare rather than flavor. Prices are determined by:

Chicken raising environment: organic feed, welfare certifications (such as pasture-raised, etc.)
Air vs. water chilling: cheaper chicken is cooled & packed in water during processing. Higher quality chicken manufacturers use an air chilling process, which concentrates flavors, improves texture, and doesn’t inflate water weight in the meat.

Is there a difference in taste & aroma? As discovered in the blind taste tests, not really (chicken breast is relatively bland to start with). However, in terms of texture, air-chilled chicken had a leg up in fried foods because the batter didn’t get soggy from extra moisture in the meat.

Check out the full video for all the nuances. It’s worth watching to become educated on meat packaging labels at the supermarket.

If you’re looking for chicken recipes to try this week, check out the collection on Cook Well:

Or, try this newsletter-exclusive technique to level up your weeknight chicken breasts…

THE LEFTOVER SHELF 🥡

Sesame-crusted chicken

Lean chicken breasts are notoriously difficult to brown and often cook up pale. To turn bland chicken breasts into a complex and nutty flavor bomb, all you need is some mayo and sesame seeds to create a crust on the protein.

This crust addition enhances color and texture. The seeds toast into complex aromas during searing, and their flavors are enhanced by the fat properties of the mayo.

Components

Chicken breasts, butterflied or thinned out
Salt
Mayonaise binder
Sesame seeds (black, white, or both)

To assemble

Prepare the chicken breasts by butterflying them or cutting them thin, and generously salting them. Then, coat them in a layer of mayonnaise, ensuring that each breast is evenly covered. Next, sprinkle a generous amount of seeds on each side of the breasts.

Alternatively, you can press the breasts onto a plate with a thin layer of sesame seeds to create that even crust.

Once the breasts are coated, place them on an oiled, preheated pan and let them sear undisturbed. After a few minutes, carefully turn the breasts to maintain the integrity of the seed layer. Finish cooking on their second side until the chicken is cooked through and the other side has browned evenly.

Let the breasts rest before slicing & enjoying.

READER Q&A 🧠

Avocado pit myth-busting

Question: “Does an avocado pit really keep guacamole green?” - Marc C

Answer: Unfortunately, the avocado pit technique (tossing the pit into the bowl of guacamole) is a myth.

Where did this misconstrued advice come from?

Avocado flesh turns brown when it oxidizes due to exposure to air. People likely observed that the flesh touching the pit remains green, leading them to mistakenly believe that the pit helps preserve the green color.

In reality, the pit simply acts as a barrier, shielding that portion of the avocado from ambient oxygen.

The good news is you can keep a lot more of a guacamole bowl green if you create an airtight layer across the surface of the dip.

For serving, you can smooth out and cover guac with a splash of lime juice (acid also helps reduce browning). If you don’t have citrus available, you can use a mild vinegar.
For longer-term storage, a thin layer of olive oil or pressing down plastic wrap onto the surface of guacamole (or avocados) works great.