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Yesterday as soon as I added 2 chicken breast fillets to a 350°F (175°C) pan (the oil) it dropped all the way to 250°F (120°C). And it took forever for the heat to climb back up.

Is there a way to minimize the heat you lose when you add ingredients?

leftaroundabout
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Bar Akiva
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    Would you be interested in a technique to sear chicken breasts in a way that they are always crusty on the outside and juicy and fully cooked on the inside? Even if that technique does not involve measuring the temperature of oil? – Jolenealaska Dec 16 '16 at 14:02
  • Is your meat at room temperature or fridge temperature ? – Max Dec 16 '16 at 15:32
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    Heat up two pans and after 30 seconds in the first pan transfer it to the second pan. Add pans to taste. – MonkeyZeus Dec 16 '16 at 15:46
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    It sounds like you're trying to deep fry the chicken (at least from the target temperature and the fact that you've got a thermometer on the oil). Is that correct? – derobert Dec 16 '16 at 16:00
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    @Jolenealaska: I don't know if the OP would, but I know that *I* certainly would! – David Thomas Dec 16 '16 at 19:11
  • @DavidThomas Watch this question: http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/76338/how-do-you-get-a-sear-on-chicken-breast-without-overcooking-it, I'll write up a new answer this weekend. – Jolenealaska Dec 16 '16 at 20:11

3 Answers3

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Yes, you need to place the meat in a system which can keep more heat. This means 1) more mass, and 2) less conduction.

This is generally done with cast iron pans, because they are great for that purpose. You have to wait until they are properly heated, but once they are there, adding food does not faze them and they keep the original temperature pretty steadily.

Also, if you use too little oil, the oil itself will cool down quickly. Fill the pan generously, to come a bit above half of the chicken breasts, and then you will see much less heat loss. You can also deep fry them, which keeps the temperature really stable, but then you need something much deeper than a pan for safety reasons.

acidnbass
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rumtscho
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  • If cast iron is the way for searing - how come a lot of recipes suggest cooking steak on stainless steel? – Bar Akiva Dec 16 '16 at 10:50
  • People use all kinds of pans. If stainless steel pans were useless, there wouldn't be a market for them. – rumtscho Dec 16 '16 at 11:56
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    @rumtscho That snark is not necessary. – paparazzo Dec 16 '16 at 12:17
  • Thick (including sandwich construction with copper) stainless also holds quite a bit of heat. – Chris H Dec 16 '16 at 12:43
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    @Paparazzi I didn't mean to be snarky. Just stating a fact - stainless steel pans are widespread, so it is natural to expect that recipe authors use them. My answer does not mean that cast iron pans are the only viable way to sear meat, just that they are a good solution to the particular problem the OP encountered. – rumtscho Dec 16 '16 at 12:49
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    Stainless steel pans are better than cast-iron for making pan sauce with the fond created by searing the chicken breasts. Stainless steel, cast-iron and nonstick pans all have their purposes. Since the original question asked how to maintain the temperature of the oil, it is only natural to gravitate towards cast-iron. That is what cast-iron does. There was not a hint of snark in @rumtscho's comment. – Jolenealaska Dec 16 '16 at 14:08
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    @BarAkiva Stainless Steel pans are better at heating evenly than cast iron. Cast iron makes up for it in being *heavy* and thus keeping the heat once heated. But the pan does not heat as evenly as stainless steel, it will tend to have hot spots and such. – Joe M Dec 16 '16 at 14:38
  • The type of pan doesn't really determine whether or not it'll hold its temperature well. Except probably cast iron. That's why I like op's answer to use cast iron, for nobody owns a thin/light cast iron pan. The truth is you could find a non-stick pan that holds its temperature very well, or a shitty stainless pan that doesn't. – Sarumanatee Dec 16 '16 at 15:48
  • @Sarumanatee Nonstick has the bigger issue though that you can't preheat it dry - you have to preheat it with the oil in it, which means you can't necessarily preheat it as well (particularly if your oil has a lower smoke point). – Joe M Dec 16 '16 at 16:23
  • @JoeM I agree! Every type of pans have different utilities. But if OP doesn't own a cast iron to keep his oil hot, maybe he's got another type of pan at home that could do the job, given that its bottom is heavy enough ! – Sarumanatee Dec 16 '16 at 18:14
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    The main reason cast iron pans are seen as holding more heat is that they are thicker, not because the iron itself inherently holds heat better than stainless steel, which is really just iron with some stuff added. A thicker pan means a larger amount of metal, which means more total heat capacity. – barbecue Dec 16 '16 at 22:51
  • @barbecue the specific heat of iron and stainless steel differ, and most important, their conductivity differs. So they would not have the same loss of heat in the described situation even if you had two pans of exactly equal shape and dimension. – rumtscho Dec 16 '16 at 23:58
  • @barbecue in addition to rumtscho's comment above, many high quality steel pans like All-Clad are actually layered with different types of metal (typically aluminum or copper) which have much better conductivity. This is why they heat more evenly. – JimmyJames Dec 17 '16 at 02:15
  • I agree with the point that more (thermal) mass helps but I'm not sure conductivity is really a factor here. The point of cooking in a pan is to transfer the heat from the pan to the food/oil. If you have less conductivity, yes, the metal will not cool down as quickly but it's not going to help you sear or keep the oil hot. – JimmyJames Dec 17 '16 at 02:18
  • @rumtscho You are correct that iron and stainless steel have different specific heats, but not THAT different, and both pale in comparison to the specific heat of water, which is a significant percentage of most food. Thermal conductivity is only part of the question. The goal of grilling is not to maximize heat transfer, but to maintain a high temperature during the process. – barbecue Dec 17 '16 at 04:08
  • If you want to ensure your water keeps boiling when dropping food into it, you use a high volume of water and small portions of food. Same goes for frying. Same goes for any cooking scenario. Thermal transfer in metals is slower, because there is no convection, so conduction and radiation are the only factors. But a big solid chunk of metal will stay hot longer than a smaller one, and if the total amount of heat is high enough, the food will not remove enough heat to drop the temperature rapidly. You can easily reproduce this in your own kitchen, it's directly observable. – barbecue Dec 17 '16 at 04:14
  • @barbecue if we were boiling, sure. But if we are talking metal, especially searing with little oil instead of shallow-frying, try it and you will see that cast iron loses much less heat on contact with cold food than stainless steel. If you want, try forged iron, which is as thin as SS. So, 1) the claim that all the effect comes from the iron thickness is wrong, and 2) whatever your average cooking process, a change to iron does exactly what the OP asked for, preventing the heat drop at the moment of introducing the food. – rumtscho Dec 17 '16 at 09:07
  • @rumtscho Nowhere did I ever claim that all of the effect comes from thickness, but what I'm describing is readily observed in your own kitchen, it's observable. – barbecue Dec 22 '16 at 00:58
  • @barbecue what you said is "The main reason cast iron pans are seen as holding more heat is that they are thicker, not because the iron itself inherently holds heat better than stainless steel" - and no, that is not the case. Cast iron does inherently lose less heat when cold meat is thrown onto it. – rumtscho Dec 22 '16 at 01:07
  • @rumtscho When someone says "the main reason" they do not mean "the one and only single reason." Yes, there is a difference in thermal conductivity and specific heat between iron and steel. I never said there is not. You seem to be extrapolating from what I really said and concluding things that I did not in fact say. – barbecue Dec 22 '16 at 01:12
  • @barbecue OK, I may have misunderstood the one or other detail. In the end, it seems that I think that material difference is the most important reason here, and you think that it does not contribute much. By now, we both should know we won't be able to convince the other one - how about we end this already tedious discussion? – rumtscho Dec 22 '16 at 12:12
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One additional factor: moisture. The more there is on the exterior of your chicken, the more energy is lost turning that moisture into steam. Try patting your chicken dry with paper towels or just a clean dish towel before frying. That is probably only a part of your problem though, a drop from 350 to 250 probably means you need more thermal mass in the pan as the other answers say. Drying the exterior of your meat is more important if you're searing than deep- or shallow-frying.

Dan C
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  • I agree moisture is a factor and energy is required to turn the water to steam but I think it's important to understand that liquid water will never be hotter than it's boiling point which is roughly 210. The oil will tend to move towards equilibrium with the water temperature as it evaporates (taking the heat with it). I larger thermal mass is probably the best solution but when using my steel wrapped aluminum pans, I'll use the biggest burner and once it hits the right temperature, crank the heat all the way to 11 as I things in. – JimmyJames Dec 16 '16 at 20:57
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That seems like a big drop. Some temperature drop is expected.

The temperature and mass of the chicken is a factor. Don't use frozen chicken. You could pull the chicken from the fridge a few minutes before and let it warm up a bit. But just a few minutes for food safety.

Add more mass / heat capacitance to the pan as covered by rumtscho.

The target cooking temperature is like 300°F to 325°F (150-165°C). Start with a higher temperature (up to the smoke point). Find what starting temp works for your conditions.

A lid will reduce heat loss even if it is tilted for some circulation.

An odd idea. Lean them up against each other and stand them on side for a short time.

paparazzo
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    I don't think pulling the chicken out a few minutes ahead of time would make much of a difference, it wouldn't raise the temperature enough when talking a 300 degree differential, would it? – Joe M Dec 16 '16 at 14:39
  • @JoeM So it would not make much of a difference. It would make *a* difference. – paparazzo Dec 16 '16 at 16:17
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    IIRC Serious Eats did a test and found that 'resting' your meat out of the fridge made no difference whatsoever (even when done for longer time), though it may have been more focused on roasts/larger pieces of meat. – Joe M Dec 16 '16 at 16:21
  • One other thing that might be worth noting in the answer: pay attention to the oil smoke point if preheating to a higher temp; if you're using an oil that has a 400 smoke point, you don't want to heat it to/past that, after all, so the (good) advice to heat to a higher temperature has an upper limit and/or may require changing the oil. – Joe M Dec 16 '16 at 16:25
  • ''resting' your meat out of the fridge made no difference whatsoever (even when done for longer time)' - but unfreezing meat (in fridge) will certainly make difference (energy necessary to melt ice is enormous). – reducing activity Dec 22 '16 at 11:45