No fancy dressings, just cooking a chicken breast.

My microwave is 900 watt at high and 600 watt at medium. Chicken breast about 200 grm. as bought from the butcher or defrosted from frozen.

You don't. It'll be awful and drier than the Atacama Desert. If you can, slice it through the middle lengthways, open it out and either shallow fry or grill it. Or poach or steam it (without slicing), if you're up to that.

I wouldn't even know where to start with microwaving it. I can't see that there's anyway to do it where it would remain edible.

It's never going to be marvellous, but if you absolutely have to, then cut it into chunks and cook it on medium within some sort of sauce would be my recommendation.

I would submerge in liquid and turn the power down, in the hope it would somehow poach.

here's how I defrost a frozen chicken fillet.

Place 1 or 2 chicken fillets in a microwaveable bowl.
Cover with cold water and seal with the lid or clingfilm.

Cook on 10% for 10 minutes.

If they are thick fillets and are still frozen in the middle (you'll be able to tell by feel) then empty the water, recover with cold water, reseal the lid and cook for a further 2 to 4 minutes on 10% power.


I've been using this method successfully for a couple of years.

If you want to cook the fillets then do the same but cook on full power.
It will poach them. You can even add flavourings such as stock/stock powder, spices etc.


You may need a bit of trial and error on the power levels and timings for your microwave.

Actually, cooking chicken breasts in the microwave using zip 'n' steam bags gives an acceptable steamed chicken following the timings printed on the bag.

A couple of tips:

- ignore the fact that these bags say they are single use. They can be washed and reused multiple times
- once you've bought one pack of the 'expensive' £4.65 ones, you'll have the timing guide for cooking various things in the bags. You can then buy the cheap bags from Dunelm or somewhere for approx £1.50 a pack. These definitely are single use, though, so aren't necessarily better value over time.

Thank you all for those comments.

Steaming seems to be the best choice. I have a microwave steamer, but do not know the heat and times needed to use it.

From all accounts, steaming on medium heat (600 watts) for 10 minutes looks popular, although some say high heat (900 watts) for 5 minutes. Any comments ?

Depends on your microwave. You'll need to do some trail and error to see what settings give the best results.


I'd still recommend the poaching route in a microwaveable bowl with lid as you have one container that can do many things and be reused.

In a tightly-covered (but not air tight) container with a little water/stock on mid-low power. Check and turn it every few minutes to make sure it's cooking evenly.