12 Tips to Speed Up Your Chicken or Fish Entrees

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Here we go again – frantically planning dinner on yet another busy weeknight! What are you making?

Do you often avoid cooking chicken and fish from scratch because you feel like it may take too long, or might be too complicated to execute perfectly under a time crunch?

Save the frozen pizza for another hectic evening!

Both chicken and fish can be quick and easy to prepare, as long as you know a few simple tricks to save time while you’re prepping and cooking.

Below, we’ll review our top 12 tips for speeding up these two protein entrees, and we’ll share recipe suggestions, so you can have a deliciously homemade dinner on the table for you and the family in no time.

Chicken

Chicken and other types of poultry must be cooked thoroughly to avoid health risks and illnesses associated with salmonella and other types of harmful microbes that may be present in the raw meat.

As explained by the USDA, all poultry – including all cuts as well as ground poultry – should be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 165°F.

Compared to fish and shellfish, which should be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 145°F, that’s a big leap that you need to be careful to reach!

On the other hand, overcooking certain cuts, particularly white meat, will make the meat tough and dry.

In order to take the guesswork out of cooking any kind of meat, the best tool to use that will give an accurate reading of the internal temperature is a meat thermometer. If you don’t own one, but are often cooking different meat products in the kitchen, purchase one ASAP!

Cleaning is important, too – especially if you drop raw chicken on the floor! Both cleanliness and thorough cooking are important approaches in the kitchen, for your health and safety.

In order to quickly prepare poultry, there are some safe shortcuts you can take that will yield tender meat cooked to the right temperature.

1. Choose the Right Cut

Whole birds, especially when they’re stuffed, take a loooooooooong time to prepare. Save them for a leisurely dinner party or holiday!

You can reduce the cooking time significantly by only using specific cuts of poultry that are speedier to cook.

The most popular cuts that are quick to prepare and cook are boneless breasts.

Avoid using dark meat, like thighs, wings, and drumsticks, if you’re pressed for time. While dark meat is technically fully cooked at 165°F, it will yield a better texture when cooked longer, ideally to a higher temperature in the range of 175 to 185°F.

Be sure to also purchase boneless breasts instead of bone-in pieces! Because bones act as an insulator around the surrounding meat, this affects the distribution of heat while the meat is cooking, making it take longer to reach your desired temperature.

For another cut that is quick to cook, you can also buy tenderloin. This is a thin muscle attached to the underside of the breast.

As noted in the name itself, the tenderloin is a tender cut of chicken that will be smaller and thinner than a whole breast. It’s a common cut that’s often readily available to purchase in a pack at the grocery store, often labeled “chicken tenders.”

Cutlets are another option you may wish to purchase. These are simply breasts that have been cut horizontally in half to yield two thinner pieces.

We’re big fans of the dishwasher-safe Rosle meat hammer, made with 18/10 stainless steel. Find it now at Sur La Table.

Pounding out boneless breasts with the flat side of a meat mallet will help to thin out the pieces, and the pounding action will also slightly tenderize the pieces by breaking down the fibrous muscles.

With this type of applied force, the pounded meat cooks significantly faster, as thinner and tender pieces of meat will cook more quickly than thicker ones.

Try this pounding technique with our perfect weeknight recipes for chicken marsala and chicken cutlets with tomatoes.

3. Divide and Conquer

A similar concept to pounding, cutting a large breast or cutlet into small cubes, pieces, or strips will also significantly slash the cook time.

When one large unit is divided into many smaller pieces, each with a higher percentage of exposed surface area, you’ll soon see how much faster it will cook!

This is another case supporting the purchase of boneless cuts – without any bones to work around, you’ll be able to swiftly slice through the meat.

You can experience this technique in action when you make our quick and easy butter chicken, or our spicy chicken fajitas with bell peppers and onions.

4. Add Some Pressure

Almost any cut of poultry can be prepared quickly in a pressure cooker.

The end result is chicken that is incredibly moist, and filled with the concentrated flavor of whatever seasonings you opt to use.

After using this appliance for the majority of the cooking process, you can then choose to finish off your recipe in the broiler to yield a crispier crust.

For a more thorough explanation of this quick and steamy process, review our complete guide to cooking all cuts of chicken in the electric pressure cooker now.

We also break down each cut in its own pressure cooker tutorial, with how-to articles for preparing breasts, thighs, drumsticks, tenders, and wings.

And we’ll show you how to shred it, as well as teach you a simple way to make chicken and rice in the electric pressure cooker.

5. Stir Fry in a Flash

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No, it’s your next chicken stir fry meal, flying from the pan to the dinner table in a flash!

A stir fry pan, like this blue carbon steel one from Made In, is a necessity to create quick meals when you’re totally ravenous, have a supply of crazy energy you can exert, and need to eat ASAP.

Get the pan hot, heat up that oil, and get pumped up to keep your food moving and cooking evenly.

You can make fast dishes like our gingery chicken and cabbage stir fry or our quick and easy kung pao chicken without sacrificing any flavor.

6. Prepare One-Pan Wonders

Why make separate side dishes when you can combine everything all in one pan?

Think about it – this plan is genius!

You won’t have any extra equipment and utensils to clean, you won’t have to cook as much, and you get to enjoy a complete, hearty meal in a fraction of the time!

Still need a little convincing?

If you can only think of your mom’s nightmarish, bland, and sloppy casseroles, allow me to sway your vote with some bold and fresh one-pan recipe ideas!

You’ll love our 30-minute Tuscan chicken – the hearty one-pan combo of chicken, petite red potatoes, and green beans is beautifully seasoned with fresh rosemary, minced garlic, and lemon juice and zest.

For another flavor-packed idea, we transform tortillas into a one-pan casserole with our chicken tortilla skillet, a fun Tex-Mex mashup of crunchy tortilla chips, gooey cheese, and shredded chicken with tons of tasty seasoning.

A simple skillet or casserole dish won’t prevent you from building bold flavors for a fast dinner!

Fish

Light and delicate, fish is actually one of the quickest proteins to cook at home!

But the gentle touch, culinary knowledge, and confidence required to handle and cook it might actually explain why many home chefs tend to overlook it as a main course.

The following advice and recipe ideas offer simple suggestions to help you conquer your fears and prepare more fish in your kitchen at home!

7. Use Fresh, Not Frozen

We know how tempting it is to pick up a bag or two of frozen shrimp or fish fillets – but fresh really is best for the fastest results!

By purchasing fresh instead of frozen, you won’t have to worry about any extra time spent defrosting your frozen selections.

Make friends with your local fishmonger to get the best deals and the freshest offerings.

You can also have your fishmonger break down larger pieces into individual portions, and they can help you remove scales, tails, and heads – perfect when you’re a little spooked by these portions of your fish!

And, obviously, having your fishmonger do most of the knife work while at the store will help you significantly cut back on prep time at home, so you won’t have any bones to deal with either if that’s not your thing.

8. Don’t Treat All Types the Same Way

Different varieties of fish benefit from specific cooking techniques, with a variety of end results depending on what recipe and what type of fish you are using.

As long as you purchase sushi-grade fish, you can easily make fast sushi bowls at home, or prepare a quickly seared tuna steak encrusted in sesame seeds that’s still pink in the center.

While salmon is tasty in a raw preparation, it’s also heavenly when it’s fully cooked until the flesh is flaky, and it doesn’t take that long. Our honey ginger salmon takes less than an hour, and makes for a healthy dinner idea.

For another fast dinner option, consider using other thin fillet cuts that will cook quickly when seared in a pan.

For example, our 15-minute sole meuniere offers seemingly effortless French elegance in a short amount of prep time – thin sole fillets are dredged in seasoned flour, shallow fried in butter, then topped with a brown butter sauce.

9. Let a Marinade Do the Work

Finally, marinating your fish in an acidic solution will also reduce your cooking time.

Any concentrated marinade containing an acidic ingredient such as citrus juice, pineapple juice, papaya juice, or vinegar will start to react with the fish as it is marinating, coagulating the fish protein and causing it to gently solidify in texture. This is the key to preparing ceviche, for example.

You are then able to decrease your cooking time by several minutes when using these marinades. The longer you let your protein soak, the less time it takes to cook and the more flavor you infuse into the flesh.

But pay attention to how long you are marinating your fish for! With a more delicate fish, you may only need 15 to 30 minutes.

However, with a firmer fish like halibut, which we use in our recipe for Brazilian fish kebabs, you can let it marinate for 30 minutes to two hours.

10. Add Some Pressure, Again!

The electric pressure cooker isn’t just for making chicken!

You will quickly have beautifully done fish every time when using this appliance to reduce your cooking time.

Just like when you are preparing chicken, follow the manufacturer’s directions, or use one of our tested recipes for the best and safest results.

You will be amazed at how fast dinner can be prepared and on your plate.

Easily cook salmon fillets in the electric pressure cooker, with two basic preparations to consider!

You can either steam your salmon with a little salt and pepper, or poach your salmon to infuse it with aromatics like wine, citrus, and herbs.

11. Grill If You’re a Master

For the grill masters who know how to expertly heat up their charcoal barbecue or gas grill in mere moments, this one is for you.

When the grill is hot and ready to go, fish fillets can be heated and beautifully charred to absolute perfection in just a few minutes.

Case in point: our grilled salmon recipe. The skin-on fillets only take eight to 10 minutes to fully cook.

We keep this method as uncomplicated as possible by simply seasoning the fillets with olive oil and a little salt and pepper. In a flash, we whisk together a creamy fresh dill sauce to serve on the side.

For the crispiest results, don’t forget to pat the skin of the salmon dry – any residual water will cause the skin to steam!

12. Broil for the Win

If cooking on the grill is not your thing, or if it’s covered in a foot of snow, let’s bring this party back inside!

Use your broiler to quickly cook your fillets, all while creating an impressively crispy skin you can crack into every time your fork pierces it.

This should only take a total of eight to 10 minutes if you’re cooking skin-on salmon, but the timing may vary slightly with other kinds of fish.

The same advice applies here as it does for grilling – ensure the skin on the fillets is dry, dry, dry! We don’t want a soggy result!

For further instructions on this method, try our recipe for broiled salmon with shiitake mushrooms and parmesan grits.