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Succulent chicken for a simple, tasty midweek meal

This garlic butter baked chicken breast is the perfect midweek meal.

  • SERVES: 3
  • PREP TIME: 5 mins
  • COOKING TIME: 25 mins
  • DIFFICULTY: easy
  • IDEAL FOR: midweek meal, weekend meal
  • BUDGET: £

Garlic butter baked chicken breast

This is one of those super simple recipes that you can’t believe you haven’t been whipping up for years.

Lovely and easy, quick and no need for complicated ingredients.

Plus, you will serve up hungry mouth in around 30 mins or less.

Happy days.

Garlic butter baked chicken breast

The chicken conumdrum. What do I buy?

The big question when shopping is, organic, free-range, indoor, corn-fed chicken… what do I buy?

It’s no secret that chickens bred for industrial-scale production have been the worst off.

They have been reared the fastest and packed into huge sheds where they can’t move.

But things are changing and we are able to see how the bird has been reared with labels such as free-range or organic.

The thing is…. are they actually getting a better level of welfare?

What we do know, is that the flavour and nutritional value is improved.

Organic, free-range, indoor, corn-fed chicken

Indoor

These chickens spend all their life indoors.

They are farmed on an industrial scale with the highest density of chickens (19 – 20 per m2)

They are killed at a young age to produce more tender meat but lack flavour.

Sadly, 94% of the chickens raised in the UK are still intensively farmed.

Free-range

These chickens live longer.

And get access to the outdoors which means they have more protein.

But… although it sounds great, they only have limited time outside.

And sometimes many of them don’t even get outside due to the small ‘popholes’ they use to access it.

This means their stress levels can still be high as they spend a lot of time indoors and still have more chickens per m2 (13 – 15 per m2)

In the UK, only 5% of chickens are raised free-range.

Organic

This is the best way to raise chickens for their welfare and for overall flavour.

These chickens are usually bred on smallholdings.

They access the outdoors and have more space than any other farmed chicken (5 -12 birds per sq m).

And are slow-growing breeds and fed a range of food.

Organic chickens have to be grown to at least 70 days which is more in line with how nature intended.

This means the chickens are actually healthier to eat, containing less saturated fat but higher omega-3 fatty acids, which aregood for your heart.

Plus, they are only given anti-biotics if really necessary.

In a nutshell, ‘organic’ is the highest rating for welfare standards.

The bad news… in the UK only 1% of chickens raised are organic.

Conclusion

So, what’s the answer to the question ‘organic, free-range, indoor, corn-fed chicken… what do I buy? ‘

In a nutshell, here are a few questions you should remember to ask when buying poultry:

  1. What bird is it? (Hubbard is the best)
  2. How old was it when it was killed? (70 days are the slow-grow birds)
  3. How many birds are there per house? (100’s of birds per house, not 1000’s)

Ultimately, you want to buy organic.

Failing that, free-range.

It’s never easy but if we look after the farmers raising their animals in happy, stress-free environments.

Then we will encourage more farmers to go organic.

And as they say, it’s the consumers’ wallet that can lead to change.

If you want to learn more about sustainable farming and climate change, check out my post, here

Print Pin

Garlic butter baked chicken breasts

Course Main Course
Keyword chicken, chicken breasts
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 4 people
Cost £

Ingredients

  • 3 skinless chicken breasts (organic)
  • 1/4 tsp paprika
  • salt and pepper for seasoning
  • 4 tbsp melted butter or ghee
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 tbsp fresh parsley chopped or dried parsley
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

  • Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
    Season the chicken breasts with salt, pepper and 1/2 tsp paprika. Set aside.
  • In a bowl, ad 1/4 tsp paprika, melted butter or ghee, Oregano, parsley and the minced garlic. Mix and set aside.
  • In a non-stick (oven proof) frying pan (or cast-iron), heat a little olive oil over medium heat. Add the chicken breasts and sear until golden – approx 2 mins each side.
    Slowly pour over the garlic butter mixture and place the chicken into the oven. Cook until done (74C internal temp.) – approx. 20 mins
  • Remove from the oven. Rest for 5 mins, then spoon, some of the butter sauce left in the pan onto the chicken breast before serving with vegetables.

Video