BROILED BREASTS

ALTHOUGH THEY DON'T SOUND GLAMOROUS, broiled chicken breasts can be great when properly prepared: moist, well-seasoned, with a good caramelized flavor and crisp skin. They can be every bit as good as grilled chicken breasts.

The difficulties with broiling chicken stem from the intense heat put out by the broiler. If the food is placed too close to the heating element, it can char on the outside long before it is cooked through at the center. Getting thin, crisp skin can also be a problem if the skin is not given time to render its fat slowly. To avoid these common problems, we knew we would have to figure out the optimal distance between the oven rack and the heat source as well as the best way to season the meat in order to make it flavorful and moist.

As noted, we found a wide variation in the size of bone-in chicken breasts at the supermarket, with weights ranging from 7 to 14 ounces per breast half. We found that buying breasts of similar size is important to ensure even cooking. We had the best luck with breasts that weighed 10 to 12 ounces; smaller breasts were deemed kind of skimpy (the bones weigh several ounces), and larger breasts were hard to cook through. If broiling breasts of varying size, the best approach is to remove each piece from the oven as soon as it is done.

These early tests showed that broiling, like grilling, is tough on lean breast meat. Clearly, brining would be in order. As expected, the brined breasts were more moist, better seasoned, and, owing to the addition of sugar to the brine, better caramelized. When not brined, the meat is dry and bland by comparison. The rubs and sauces noted in the variations can camouflage some of these problems, but the basic master recipe won't.

We now turned our attention to the actual broiling method. Many recipes suggested broiling chicken parts just 4 to 8 inches away from the heating element. In all cases, the skin burned before the meat was cooked through near the bone. We found that the chicken broiled best when placed on the bottom rack of the oven, some 13 inches from the heating element. At this distance, the meat has time to cook through and the skin won't burn. To caramelize the chicken even more, we moved the broiler pan to the second shelf from the top (about 5 inches from the broiler) for the final minute or two of cooking.

With this information in hand, we realized that broiling bone-in chicken parts is not possible in an old-fashioned stove with the broiler underneath the oven chamber. To get the chicken parts the necessary distance from the heating element, you need a modern oven with the broiler at the top of the main cooking chamber.

Although well browned, the skin was a touch too thick and a bit soggy. Remembering a technique used to cook ducks, we tried slashing the skin a few times before placing it in the oven to broil. This trick worked quite well. The skin rendered a little extra fat and crisped up a bit more. We also discovered that starting the parts skin-side down was key to getting thin, crisp skin. If cooked skin-side up first, the skin tended to become soggy during the final minutes of cooking.

Our broiled chicken was now delicious. In fact, this broiled chicken is as appealing as any grilled chicken, with the benefit of being a year-round recipe.