Perfect Juicy Baked Chicken Breast

This is the only Baked Chicken Breast recipe you'll ever need – the chicken is juicy, and you'll never get bored of my 6 seasoning combos!

Is it better to bake chicken at 350 or 400?

When you make large beef roasts, or even a whole chicken or turkey, the cooking is done “low and slow”. However, this isn’t the case with baked chicken breast.

Because it's so lean, it can be easy to overcook chicken breast. To keep the breasts juicy and flavourful, you want to cook them at a higher temperature. On the other hand, cooking them at too high of a temperature will dry the chicken out.

For this reason, we'll be cooking the chicken at 400 degrees for 18-28 minutes.

I know that's a huge difference in timing and that's because you'll be baking according to size (not all chicken breasts are made equal!)

How long does it take to bake a chicken breast at 400?

For smaller breasts, you'll cook closer to the 18 minute mark, and larger breasts may take up to 28 minutes. Keep in mind that all ovens are different so the best bet is to use a meat thermometer to gauge the doneness of the chicken breasts.

On average though, most breasts are done within the 22-25 minute mark.

Using a meat thermometer to ensure doneness BUT retain juiciness!

Chicken is considered safe for eating when the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit. That's the magic number, people!

You may have heard that you should cook chicken until it is “no longer pink in the center”. While it is true that properly baked chicken breast isn’t pink, using an instant-read meat thermometer is the safest way to know for sure.

Insert the thermometer into the thickest part of the chicken breast. Chicken will continue to cook for a few minutes after it is removed from the oven. This is known as carryover cooking. To compensate for this, remove the chicken from the oven when the thermometer reads 162 degrees – it should read this according to my instructions so don't worry, I've got you!

By the way, allowing baked chicken breast to rest for 10 to 15 minutes after cooking is very important. If you cut into the chicken too soon, all of the juices will run out.

Should you bake chicken covered or uncovered?

You don't need to cover your chicken when baking as it makes no difference in the juiciness – make things easy for yourself and bake it uncovered. Just make sure to let your chicken rest after baking as this makes the biggest difference in juiciness.

Chicken breast spice rubs

You can cook chicken breast either using a simple marinade or spice rub.

Spice rubs are also sometimes called a dry rub because no liquid is needed to bring out the flavour in the chicken besides a bit of olive oil of course.

The spice rubs I've included in the recipe card below are very simple combinations of spices you're already likely to have on hand at home in your spice drawer!

I've included an Italian-inspired seasoning, Indian-inspired seasoning and a classic paprika-based seasoning (inspired by rotisserie chicken) if you're looking to use your chicken breasts in a more versatile way.

Baked Chicken Marinades

Now the marinades, as opposed to the dry rubs, are comprised of wet and dry ingredients and require that the chicken marinates in the liquid for at least 15 minutes to really soak up the flavours.

The dry rubs you can throw right into the oven right after seasoning so they are my go-to for when I need to cook chicken quickly, but marinades really help seal in the moisture of the chicken and are totally worth doing if you have that extra little bit of time.

The best part about chicken marinades is that they can also sit overnight or sometimes even in the freezer! You may want to check out this post that contains 20 easy chicken marinades if you're looking to get creative but if you're just wondering where to start, I've listed 3 classic marinades in addition to the spice rubs below.

Reheating leftover chicken breast

Now, I know one of the chief complaints about leftover chicken is that you sometimes get a funky taste that you just can't get rid of.

I have a few strategies for avoiding this but obviously any type of food is never going to be as good leftover and reheated as it is when enjoyed fresh.

However, you can make leftover chicken taste better by doing the following:

• Undercooking the chicken slightly before reheating – I will usually knock 5 minutes off the cook time in the oven and then reheat the chicken for 2 minutes in the microwave so that the microwave ends up cooking the chicken more and not overcooking it
• Add some water before reheating – this is my go-to with most food items that I'm throwing back into the oven or microwave to reheat. Splash a tiny bit of water overtop of your chicken and then microwave for 2 minutes
• Try reheating your chicken breast using a skillet – I find reheating in a skillet with a splash of water sometimes mitigates the gamey taste you can get with leftover chicken, especially if you add a bit of extra seasoning or sauce while sauteeing
• Add extra sauce – Yes, this seems obvious but sauces (buffalo wing, honey mustard, BBQ, etc) can really help to mask the funky chicken taste
• Use a lemon or rosemary-based marinade– according to an article over at Serious Eats, lemon and rosemary have special compounds that help during the cooking process to minimize that yucky leftover taste

Making multiple marinades at a time

Baking multiple different kinds of chicken breast at a time is super easy with my fave meal prep hack!

Let's say you want to make all three of the marinades or all three of the spice rubs at once. Well, it's really simple to do and is great when you're wanting to meal prep different flavours of chicken for different recipes during the week.

All you have to do is make little dividers using tin foil and bake for the times directed in the recipe card at the end of this post.

If you're just making three or four chicken breasts but using different seasonings make sure to adjust the amount of each spice in four.

You can easily adjust this on the recipe card below to make enough seasoning for a single portion and then just bake as usual but enjoy a variety of different seasonings all week!

More Chicken Breast Recipes

If you're looking for some more easy ways to cook chicken breasts, then you have to try the below recipes! They're also made using pantry staples as sauces and these three recipes are also sheet pan recipes so you can minimize clean up and cook time. They'll become your new meal prep go-to recipes in no time!

• Lemony Chicken and Asparagus
• Rosemary Chicken
• Balsamic Chicken

Tools for Making Baked Chicken Breasts

• Grab some glass meal prep bowls to store your baked chicken breast
• Or you can chop it up and store in small 12-oz mason jars as pictured above. I do this when I have used multiple seasonings
• I get all my free-range chicken from Butcher Box, conveniently delivered to me frozen
• Get a meat thermometer to make sure your chicken is cooked through
• A food scale is also handy for measuring your chicken breasts to get a more accurate idea of cook time
• Finally, a meat mallet comes in handy if you want to flatten out your chicken to reduce cook time

*Nutritional info is for one 8oz baked chicken breast