Brining:

Brining is the key. I've used this method over and over again with great results. It is also the method recommended by Cook's Illustrated magazine (the magazine of America's Test Kitchen television show).

Simply dissolve 1/2 cup of kosher salt (or 1/4 cup regular table salt) in 4 cups of cold water. Soak the chicken pieces in this solution for 2 to 4 hours. Then take them out, and cook in whatever manner you prefer.

This method changes the molecular structure of the protein strands so that instead of contracting and squeezing all the liquid out (like it normally would) when cooked, the strands stay more separate and retain a lot of the juices. This method also works wonderfully for pork chops (another contender for "dryest cut of meat" fame), and for your Thanksgiving turkey (just make a large quantity of the brining liquid, in the same salt-to-water ratio as mentioned above).

Yes, soaking the chicken in the brine will add a bit of salty taste to the meat. Just reduce or omit the salt that you would otherwise add during cooking. Oh, if you are going to make the chicken in an oriental style, you could also brine the chicken by marinating it in soy sauce or teriyaki sauce instead of the salt water.

Baking:

My favorite way to have chicken is place chicken breasts in a shallow baking dish, squeeze fresh lemon juice & bits of lemon pulp (can also put lemon slices in, too, if you'd like) over them and sprinkle with fresh or dried rosemary. Cover with tinfoil & bake for 45-60 minutes at 350 degrees. MMMMMM!!! So yummy!! Can serve over hot cooked rice or noodles.

Grilling:

Parboil in beer with seasoning (I use a little garlic and black pepper, but occassionally some other stuff, depending on how I'm going to cook it). Then to fry, bread it as usual. To barbecue, just toss it on the grill. An alternative for barbecue is to coat it with yellow mustard and let the mustard burn off, but it's still a good idea to parboil it in beer first. And any seasoning you're looking for... garlic or hot pepper or curry powder, whatever... can be added to the beer. And don't worry, the alcohol cooks out so nobody's going to cop a buzz on your chicken. They might like it though.

Pan Frying:

Regardless of the chicken dish I am making, I always brown my chicken (pork too) in a pan sprayed with cooking spray. 99% of the time my chicken is moist (except when I don't hear the timer or lose track of time).

Or you can use our Chicken Breast recipe. That works for me every time, though the recipe adds more fat than simply spraying the pan with cooking spray.