Does bag marinating after filleting a chicken breast over tenderize?

[u/Objective_720]

I want to pan sear some chicken breast to go with a spanish rice recipe im practicing, but I plan on filleting it open, hammering to flatten and tenderize, but if I put it in a bag to marinate for 30 minutes-1 hour, would it over marinate after being thined out/broken down, or am I over exaggerating?

[u/Rockboxatx]

What are you marinating it in?

[u/Objective_720 → u/Rockboxatx]

if I dont do a dry rub, it would be orange/lime juice with cilantro, chilli/garlic/onion powder and olive oil.

think at this point ill just fillet, tenderize and rub on the powders mentioned above before searing it, marinating fillets after tenderizing doesnt seem to go together.

[u/TooManyDraculas]

Marinades generally don't actually tenderize meat or break it down.

The main thing that's going on is salt makes it into the meat, denaturing proteins, which allows the meat to better retain moisture during cooking.

Being less dry makes it seem more tender. But nothing is actually breaking down or getting softer vs baseline. You're just keeping it from drying out.

Things like acid in marinades also don't really tenderize, they just kinda digest the meat at the surface. Which can leave the meat chalky and dry, particularly if it's thin. It will not make tough meat any less tough, but it will if left too long produce an unpleasant texture.

But they take way longer than an hour to do so. Like over 8 hours to over 12, and they're not doing anything any faster if the meat is thinner. More of the meat will get roached, because there's more surface area for the volume of meat. So the texture will be worse with thinner cuts. But the acid doesn't acid any faster, just because the meat is smaller.

Anything else a marinade does is a surface treatment, and longer in the marinade the more time to creep into crevices and grain at the surface. Thicker cuts need longer for the salt to do it's thing. So that's why we like long marinade times.

Half an hour to an hour is your minimum for the salt to do it's job on thinner cuts. And there'd only be an "over marinade" problem if it's very acidic marinade, like lots citrus or a yogurt base. But that would take much longer to cause an issue. You're many hours below the "hey watch out" limit. Generally after 6 hours there's diminishing returns, and you start entering the zone where acid might cause some issues. But even at 6 hours you're nowhere near "you've made it bad" territory with most things.

[u/Objective_720 → u/TooManyDraculas]

thanks for the info, first time getting into cooking chicken and wanted to start via pan searing. to do that right I wanted to fillet and tenderize via hammering but couldn't decide how to season afterwards for fear of mushy chicken.

wanted to make a "Mexican" inspired seasoning but couldn't settle between dry rubbing or marinade because I really wanted it to have some citrus flavor, thinking I could experiment though, after meat tenderizing ill probably make and marinate one fillet in the fridge for 30 min - 1 hr, and the other ill just dry rub after tenderizing and see how they turn out.

thanks again though, helped understand the marination process more.

[u/TooManyDraculas → u/Objective_720]

This is painting with broad strokes. But with Mexican cooking you'd generally see a wet marinade for this sort of thing. And you're less likely to burn that than a dry rub.

But with any wet marinade or wet brine, you will see the meat dump a bunch of excess liquid as it cooks, which will inhibit browning. And you want pretty high heat to cook that off without cooking the meat for too long. Chicken breast is finicky and easy to over cook.

It will be a bit easier to cook that dry rub without overcooking it, while getting a good sear as a result. I tend to do dry rubs in a pan, and save the wet stuff for the grill. But it's kinda preference and practice as to which one is "better".

And I usually use chicken thighs for this. They're a lot more durable on cooking temp, taste better and are cheaper. Boneless skinless thighs can generally just be unrolled and pounded out. So if it ends up dry, despite all the effort, use thighs next time.

[u/Objective_720 → u/TooManyDraculas]

got it, thanks for the extra help, helped rounded out the differences between marinade/dry brine and when to use, for some reason looking this up doesnt really have much results, kinda had to cross reference it a lot.

[u/TheJewPear]

30-60 mins should be fine even for acidic marinades. Non-acidic you can go overnight even, acidic probably best that it’s not more than 3 hours.

FWIW, if you’re serving chicken breast with rice, I would not cut/pound it thin, since there’s a good chance it’ll be dry. I would make it a whole, skin on if you can, get a good color on the outside and then slice before serving.

[u/TurbulentSource8837]

Yes. You’ll turn your chicken to mush.

You can dry brine it with seasonings 30 minutes before cooking. Or like me, I like to season the chicken, then pound it out.

[u/Objective_720 → u/TurbulentSource8837]

so i can still fillet it, but leave the tenderizing until after I marinate it, right before cooking?

[u/TurbulentSource8837 → u/Objective_720]

No tenderizing needed, simply season. The pounding pulverizes any tough fibers in the chicken.