For a chicken breast recipe with flavorful, moist, and tender meat, we gently parcooked boneless, skinless breasts in the oven, then seared them on the stovetop. Salting the chicken breasts helped keep them moist, as did cooking them covered in the oven. To get a crisp, even crust for our chicken breast recipe, and to keep the meat moist and tender, we turned to a Chinese technique called velveting, dipping the partially cooked chicken in a protective coating of oil and cornstarch.

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SERVES 4

For the best results, buy similarly sized chicken breasts. If your breasts have the tenderloin attached, leave it in place and follow the upper range of baking time in step 1. For optimal texture, sear the chicken immediately after removing it from the oven.