You won’t believe how much moister and more flavorful Easy Roasted Bone-In Chicken Breasts are than their counterpart, the more popular skinless, boneless chicken breasts. And, besides taste, there are numerous other benefits to cooking this often-neglected cut of chicken.
Although they take a little longer to cook, bone-in skin-on chicken breasts are very economical. In Tallahassee, they usually average around $1.84 a pound, versus boneless skinless chicken breasts, which can run over $3.00 per pound.
Yes, I know you can slap a boneless, skinless chicken breast in a pan and have it cooked in 12-15 minutes. But in this post, I hope to convince you of the merits of batch cooking, and oven roasting bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. I also will share some ideas of how you can use this versatile white meat to make your meal preparation and planning quicker and easier.
What is batch cooking?
Batch cooking, sometimes called meal prep, is cooking a lot of food at one time, so you cook less often. With batch cooking, you can have quick and easy meals throughout the week and spend less time in the kitchen.
I usually buy at least four bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts when they are on sale and then roast them all at the same time. I will serve one of them for dinner, then debone and remove the skin from the others for chicken stock (recipe coming soon), then chop the meat up to make soups, casseroles, and chicken salad. The possibilities are endless!
Chicken breasts run large these days. The breasts I cooked for this post were all over a pound each. With breasts this size, I can get at least two cups of cut-up cooked chicken per breast, which is what you usually get when you buy a smaller deli-roasted chicken.
I package it up in freezer storage bags, then either pop them in the freezer to pull out later or go ahead and prepare two or three of our favorite chicken casseroles to go in the freezer.
Here is just a partial list of popular chicken breast dinner recipes on my blog that call for cooked, cut-up chicken:
- Healthy Wild Rice Chicken Salad
- Classic King Ranch Chicken Casserole
- Hearty Chicken Chili with a Twist
- Easy Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole
- Easy Chicken Mushroom Marsala Pasta
- Easy Tequila Lime Chicken Enchiladas
- Easy Southern Style Chicken Divan, and
- Chicken Sausage and Wild Rice Casserole
Need more ideas? Check out all of my chicken recipes!
How to cook Easy Roasted Bone-In Chicken Breasts:
The best way to cook chicken breasts in the oven is to first, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Then, use a paper towel and pat the chicken breast dry.
Place the chicken breast on a rimmed baking sheet and use a pastry brush to coat each breast on all sides with olive oil.
Season all over with salt, pepper, and garlic salt.
How long to bake bone-in chicken breasts at 350 degrees F?
Roast in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until an instant-read meat thermometer reads 165 degrees, F. when inserted in the thickest part of the breast, not touching the bone.
Remove from the oven, tent with foil and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Sharon’s Expert Tips:
If you would like to remove the breast meat from the bones prior to serving, here is a link to a video tutorial by Perdue Chicken. This tutorial shows how to carve a whole chicken, but at the end, it specifically shows how to carve the breast.
Easy Roasted Bone-In Chicken Breasts Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 split chicken breasts bone-in, skin-on, about 5-1/2 lbs total
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Use a paper towel and pat the chicken breast dry
- Place the chicken breast on a rimmed baking sheet and use a pastry brush to coat each breast on all sides with olive oil.
- Season all over with salt, pepper, and garlic salt.
- Roast in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until an instant-read meat thermometer reads 165 degrees, F. when inserted in the thickest part of the breast, not touching the bone.
- Remove from the oven, tent with foil and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.
I have a silly question.. if you are using bone in split Breasts and plan on eating them, how do you slice them with the bone still in, or do you just serve them whole? I have a package of bone in SPlit chicken breasts with skin and plan to serve them for supper, but would like to slice them so each person can take just what they want.. not necessarily a whole half.. I’m 80 years old and I can’t say I’ve ever served (or cooked for that matter) split breasts with bone in.. This recipe looks great (easy) to me but not sure just how to serve it.. Thanks for your input..
Hi Bonnie,
This certainly isn’t a silly question and it’s hard to describe without a picture. I am hoping to soon have a video “how-to” series on my blog with this type of information but for now, I did find a tutorial online that shows how to carve a whole chicken from Perdue Chicken. As I said it shows how to carve the whole chicken, but then it shows specifically how to remove the breast meat and then slice it for serving. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVIJi4NRQTg. Please let me know if you have any issues watching the video and if so, I will try to explain it, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Good luck and I hope this is helpful!
Sharon
Thanks Sharon.. WElP.. I decided to try and debone the split breasts and made a nice mess..So I now have 2 split breasts (4 halves) cut up into thirds and trying to figure out if I should use it in a Chicken & rice casserole or just put it in the oven and be done with it.. :/
Hey Bonnie,
Did you debone them before or after you cooked them?
Sharon
Sorry just saw this.. I boned them before I cooked them.. made quite a mess.. ended up putting a couple pieces in with the Chicken& Rice and the others I put garlic salt & Olive oil on them and put them in to roast.. We’ll see.. Maybe I’m too old to try new things.. LOl.. Thanks for your help.. Had too much Thawed and needed to get it cooked..
Hey Bonnie,
I’m so sorry for the confusion. I’m sure your chicken turned out great. And while you can certainly cut up the pieces and debone before cooking, if you leave the breasts whole, roast them and then carve the bone out prior to serving, the meat will be juicier and more flavorful.
All my best,
Sharon
PS: You are never too old to try new things! You can do this!