Do It Yourself: Thinly Sliced Chicken Breast
September 16, 2007
By: Jeff
Category: Methods, Cooking Gear, Chicken 
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There are some great chicken recipes that require the use of thinly sliced chicken breast. However the price can be a bit, well, pricey. If you are comfortable using a knife and are willing to practice a bit, you’ll find that you can start with skinless/boneless chicken breasts and end up with thinly sliced chicken breast at a fraction of the per pound price.
Skinless/boneless chicken breast looks like this (see picture below). Getting thinly sliced breasts requires the use of a sharp knife and a steady hand.
In this particular case, I decided to use a chef’s knife but a boning knife would work as well.
The key here is to cut the chicken breast horizontally by pressing your hand on the top of the chicken breast and slowly cutting while making sure you don’t cut too deeply - making the slice too thick - or not deep enough, thereby cutting your hand. However, if you go slowly and carefully, you’ll be able to adjust the angle of the knife so that you get the desired result and still have all your fingers intact.
The result is something like this.
Notice that the slices are so thin that you can see right through it. (Yes, those are my fingers on the underside of the chicken breast.) If you have started with a fairly thick chicken breast, you’ll be able to get two thin slices out of it (sometimes you can squeeze out a third). I’ll often buy a large package of chicken breasts, slice them all thin, wrap them in clear wrap and freeze them.
September 17th, 2007 at 1:36 am
In a former life, I was a Cutco knife salesperson (they’re honestly the best I’ve tried, and in my many in-home demonstrations I got to try out lots of different high-end knives people had), so I’m very knowledgeable about knives, yet I never seem to think about using them in ways like this
I need to start doing cooking that involves more advanced steps than chopping vegetables.
I also recently learned about pounding the thick chicken breasts to be thinner so they cook more evenly. Though, you will get more servings by slicing. I will definitely try it next time I buy thick pieces.
Thanks!
September 17th, 2007 at 7:06 am
My best advice…go slowly and carry a big knife.
(Sorry…couldn’t resist that one.)
My wife prefers pounding…I prefer slicing. But when you need to break down the fibers of the meat or poultry the only thing you can do is pound away.
October 4th, 2007 at 7:14 am
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January 15th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
What I do is freeze two breasts together. Take the breasts out of the freezer, defrost about 2 hours. Pull the breasts out and start slicing. I usually get 4 slices out of each breast. If you have a meat slicer, you can do the same thing.