This 6-Ingredient Chicken Dinner Delivers Maximum Flavor With Minimal Effort

There are those days (honestly, for me it’s most weekdays!) when I’m exhausted, busy, or just don’t feel like spending a lot of time and energy cooking, but I still want a delicious home-cooked meal. It’s just that I want it without the hassle of a lengthy ingredient list, a sink full of pots and pans, or a time-consuming cooking process. This chicken dinner is perfect for those days and has become a go-to in my dinner rotation. 

My six-ingredient weeknight dinner pairs juicy, perfectly cooked chicken breasts with a warm bulgur pilaf that’s studded with blistered tomatoes, fragrant scallions, briny olives, and creamy feta cheese. It comes together in under 20 minutes and everything cooks in just one skillet. You will not find an easier complete home-cooked dinner recipe out there—I’d put money on it. 

But taking the easy route and cutting corners doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice quality. For a complete chicken dinner that is short on ingredients and time but not on flavor, there are two main guidelines to follow: Use smart cooking techniques and make each ingredient work overtime to achieve the best results. 

For the Best (and Easiest!) Chicken Breasts, Start With a Cold Pan

Boneless skinless chicken breasts are beloved by many in the US and it’s easy to see why: They’re lean, affordable, widely available, and cook very quickly. But when cooking boneless skinless chicken breasts, it's all too common to find yourself with dry, chewy, cardboard-y meat. This is not the fault of the meat itself, but how it’s cooked. The most common method for searing chicken breasts (and most proteins, really) calls for preheating a skillet with a bit of oil until hot before adding the chicken, then flipping the chicken once halfway through cooking. For a delicate, lean protein like chicken breasts, this can often leads to the outside of the meat overcooking and toughening by the time center of the chicken comes up to temperature (for chicken breasts, 155℉).

The better method for cooking chicken breasts that guarantees juicy, perfect results is to start with the chicken in a cold skillet. It’s a gentler approach to searing the meat. An initial burst of higher heat drives off moisture to ensure that the chicken browns evenly; then the heat is lowered and the breasts flipped every couple minutes until the center of the thickest part of each breast registers 155℉. Cooked this way, the meat slowly heats up from the outside in, which keeps it juicy and allows a rich brown crust to develop on the surface. Flipping the chicken every couple minutes ensures steady cooking on both sides of the chicken for even browning.

For this cooking method to be successful with lean skinless chicken breasts, you’ll need to use a nonstick skillet or a well seasoned carbon steel or cast iron skillet. Using a stainless-steel skillet will result in a stuck-on chicken mess.

Building Big Flavor in the Pilaf

The fluffy, flavorful bulgur pilaf is what transforms this basic cooked chicken breast into an impressive meal. The key to building maximum flavor with minimal ingredients with this side dish is to develop as much flavor as possible from every ingredient used. To start, let fond be your friend, and put those yummy browned bits on the bottom of the skillet to work as the flavor-base for the pilaf. After the chicken breasts are seared and while they rest, sauté cherry tomatoes with scallion whites directly in the remaining fond in the skillet. Blistering the tomatoes until they burst enhances their natural sweetness, and when paired with aromatic scallion whites and just a bit of water to deglaze the skillet, a rich broth comes together almost instantly for cooking the bulgur.

Why Bulgur Makes a Great Pilaf

For a quicker, more flavorful pilaf, skip the rice and reach for fine bulgur instead. Nutty, filling bulgur is one of my favorite grains. While it often goes under appreciated in many US home kitchens, it has been an important source of nutrition across the Middle East, North Africa, and eastern Europe for roughly 4,000 years. It's made by parboiling whole wheat (usually durum) kernels, drying them, and pulverizing them into granules that are graded by size, #1 being the smallest and #4 being the largest. 

Coarser granules are often boiled until chewy-firm, while medium and fine bulgur are typically soaked in water and then tossed in salads (such as tabbouleh). This recipe uses fine bulgur. The fine bulgur soaks up all the chickeny, tomatoey, allium flavors in a mere five minutes before it’s ready. 

The Finishing Touches

Just because a recipe uses only a handful of ingredients doesn’t mean it should feel unfinished. Tossing the cooked bulgur with olives, feta, and a glug of olive oil before serving creates a Mediterranean-inspired flavor profile and provides a variety of colors and textures to enhance the dish. 

If you’re feeling ambitious, you can reach for a seventh ingredient and finish with a squeeze of lemon. Or even go a step further and sprinkle with fresh mint or basil, or serve it with a drizzle of yogurt or a vinaigrette.

If you don't have time to dry brine: Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Sprinkle chicken with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

If you have time to dry brine: Set a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet and arrange chicken breasts on it. Sprinkle all over with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, then refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 30 minutes or up to 12 hours.

Brush chicken breasts all over with 2 tablespoons oil. In a 12-inch nonstick, carbon-steel, or cast iron skillet place prepared breasts, arranging so narrow ends are opposite wider ends. Place skillet over medium-high heat and cook for 3 minutes. Flip breasts and cook on second side until lightly browned on bottom, 3 minutes.

Flip breasts; reduce heat to medium; and continue to cook, flipping every 2 minutes, until exterior is well browned and thickest part of chicken registers 155℉ (68℃), 8 to 12 minutes longer. Transfer chicken to platter; let rest while preparing bulgur.

To now-empty skillet, add remaining 1 tablespoon oil, tomatoes, and scallion whites and cook until tomato skins blister and begin to release their juices and scallion whites are softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in 1 1/2 cups water and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in bulgur and remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, then cover, remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

Fluff bulgur with fork and stir in feta, olives, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Slice chicken and serve with bulgur pilaf. Sprinkle with scallions greens and serve with lemon wedges, if using.

Special Equipment

12-inch nonstick, carbon-steel, or cast iron skillet

Notes

Make sure to use finely ground bulgur in this recipe, as medium or coarse bulgur will not cook fully as the recipe is written. Bulgur can be found at most Middle Eastern grocers and many supermarkets. 

Make-Ahead and Storage

Leftover chicken and bulgur pilaf can be refrigerated separately or together in airtight containers for up to 4 days. Transfer to a baking dish, cover with aluminum foil, and reheat in a 350℉ (175℃) oven until warmed through.