Aric doesn’t have a step. He has a goal.

Hello Reader, It's Yukari!

Two weeks ago, I asked why you’re still doing it the long way.

Chicken breast was on the list.

So we started there.

I asked Aric how you keep it from going dry.

He didn’t think about it.

He’s answered this a thousand times.

In kitchens, to cooks, to me.

It came out of him in one piece:

"My goal is to make the chicken's thickness as even as possible."

Then the methods came.

Brine it.

Cut it.

Use a probe.

Yogurt.

And I stayed there thinking, I didn’t ask for four things.

I asked for one.

But he’d already given me the one.

I just didn’t recognize it, because it didn’t sound like an instruction.

A recipe gives you a step.

Pound the chicken to an even thickness.

It’s in there.

One line out of twelve, printed the same size as every other line.

Preheat the oven.

Mince the garlic.

Pound the chicken.

No recipe has ever told you which of those twelve lines is doing the actual work.

Aric didn’t give me a step.

He gave me the goal the step was serving.

And once you have the goal, you can get there however you want.

Here's why it matters.

A chicken breast is thick on one end and thin on the other.

Cook it whole, and the thin end finishes first, and then you keep cooking.

You have to.

The thick end isn’t done.

That gap, between the moment the thin end was perfect and the moment the thick end catches up, is where dry comes from.

It isn’t the heat.

It isn’t the pan.

It’s the waiting.

So you don’t cook it longer.

You make the gap smaller before it ever touches the heat.

How you close that gap is up to you.

And this is where I learned something.

Aric doesn’t slice straight down.

He cuts at an angle.

Thirty degrees, through the thickest part.

Not “on a diagonal.”

Thirty degrees.

I’ve never seen a number in a recipe.

“Slice on a bias,” maybe.

Never thirty degrees.

It isn’t a secret, and he’d tell anyone who asked.

It’s just not the kind of thing that's written down as a step.

A recipe won’t keep asking whether it’s even yet.

And then the same rule turned up somewhere I wasn’t expecting.

Marinade.

Drop a whole breast in a marinade, and it doesn’t soak it up.

It sits on the surface.

You can leave it overnight and wake up to chicken that’s seasoned on the outside and plain in the middle.

Cut it first, then marinate, and it has somewhere to go.

Seasoned all the way through.

And juicy, for the same reason it was juicy in the pan.

Nothing sat there too long waiting for the thick end.

Same goal.

Different night.

Same answer.

Aric will show you the cut.

Thirty seconds.

He puts down a chicken breast, shows you the thick end, and cuts it the way he cuts it.

No measurements.

Nothing to write down.

Just the angle.

[ ▶ Watch: The Thickness Rule ]

It’s not on the channel yet. This link is yours.

This “the thing that isn’t working and finding the one line that was doing all the work” is what Aric and I do in people’s kitchens in Colorado now.

It’s called Kitchen 911.

More in October.

Rice and pasta. Sauces. Timing.

I haven’t forgotten.

They’re coming, one at a time.

So stay tuned! And if your “long way” still isn’t on that list, press reply and tell me. I read every one.

Thanks for being at our Kitchen Table on this cozy little corner of the internet.

We appreciate you following along and letting us share not just what we cook but why we cook. 🧡

With gratitude and friendship,

Aric & Yukari

🐱 (P.S. Ka-En was present for the filming in the sense that he was asleep four feet away the entire time. Sous chef duties: declined.🤣 )

The Kitchen Table with Aric and Yukari