Baked split (bone-in) chicken breasts are healthy and delicious, with a juicy and tender inside with a crispy outside. This an easy recipe for a quick economical dinner the whole family will love.
Jump To:
Everybody can use more chicken recipes that work. This roasted bone-in chicken breast recipe is one to keep.
😊Why you should make this recipe.
- Split chicken breasts (bone-in) have superior flavor and are extra moist and juicy.
- Learn to easily trim whole chicken breasts into a better serving size with more surface area for seasoning and much simpler to cook to a safe temperature.
- Optionally, use baking powder to make the skin extra crispy.
- They make a tasty and economical dinner the whole family will love.
- Let's get it right the first time and every time with easy step-by-step photo instructions. It is much easier than you think.
🐓Ingredients
- Split chicken breasts (Bone-in)
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Cayenne pepper—optional
- Baking powder Aluminum-free—Optional
- Celery salt—optional
👨🍳How to Bake Split Chicken Breasts (Bone-in)
- Preheat oven.
- Pat dry chicken breasts, trim the chicken of any trimmable fat, remove the rib area, and discard. Then cut it into 2 to 3 pieces.
- Prepare a baking pan with aluminum foil and a baking rack, and coat with PAM cooking spray.
- Combine spices and baking powder. Then sprinkle and rub on all surfaces. You may not need all the spices, just to your taste.
- Place on the rack (if you have one) with larger pieces in the corners—and thinner edges to the center of the tray. Let rest for 30 minutes if you have time, and use the baking powder.
- Bake until internal temp of 165°. It takes about 35 minutes, depending on your oven and the thickness of the chicken.
⏰🌡️Time and Temperature
The best oven temperature is 400° convection or 425° for about 35 minutes. The time will vary by the size and thickness of the chicken pieces. This is much lower than the cooking time for whole bone-in chicken breast which will be more like 50 minutes at 375°.
You can lower the oven temperature by 25°, and the cooking time will increase by about 5 minutes.
The safe endpoint of cooking is a final internal temperature of 165° in the thickest part and not any less. You must use an instant-read thermometer to prevent undercooking (unsafe) or over-cooking (drying).
Like most meat, never cook by time; always cook to final internal temperature.
🐓About Split Chicken Breasts (Bone-in)
Split chicken breasts are also known as bone-in chicken breasts. Technically, bone-in should include both sides of the chicken in one piece, but the breast bone is split during processing, creating two pieces. So they are called split or bone-in.
For years they were called skin-on bone-in chicken breasts, but since they are not generally sold without the skin, the "skin-on" part is frequently dropped. Most cooks feel they have more taste and moisture than the more popular boneless skinless chicken breasts.
They have become progressively bigger over the last few decades. They are now too big for a reasonable serving size for most people. They are also hard for most home cooks to get to a safe internal temperature without overcooking the outside. So most home cooks will skip them as an option or settle for poor results. We can fix that.
✔️Pro-Tips
- The “secret” to the success of this recipe is how to prepare the split chicken breasts before cooking. You get a better serving size, more even cooking, and more surface area for the great spices.
- You can use pan juices to help make gravy. See How to Make Gravy from Scratch for details.
- The spicing I have provided is a nice garlic-based seasoning. Still, like most recipes, you can easily adjust the spicing to your taste using fresh herbs, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and basil may be added.
❓FAQs
No, but it is better with a rack and less sticking. If you don't have one, use a good coat of oil on the tray to prevent sticking. It is more important when you want crispy skin on all sides, like chicken drumsticks, or there may be lots of drainage that affects the texture, like chicken thighs.
The baking powder increases the crispness by pulling moisture out of the skin. This a trick from Cooks Illustrated, although I have modified the technique.
I find even short times with the baking powder will enhance the skin's crispiness. In this recipe, I suggest a 30-minute rest before cooking but even just applying the rub with baking powder and cooking immediately seems to enhance the crispiness.
You may skip the baking powder and still have good results—just not as crispy.
I do suggest using aluminum-free baking powder. I never buy baking powder with aluminum, which many can taste.
We no longer recommend rinsing chicken due to contamination of the surrounding area from splattering.
Rinsing chicken is no effect on the crispiness versus just patting it dry with paper towels. See Chicken... To Rinse or Not To Rinse? for a detailed discussion.
The safe internal temperature for chicken is 165°, according to the USDA.
❄️Leftovers and storage
Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for 3-4 days, but the skin texture will deteriorate. You can also freeze leftovers for 3 months.
Use the leftovers by just reheating, preferably in the oven covered. The microwave will affect the meat's texture. Also, leftovers are an excellent cut-up for salads, chicken salad, or Waldorf Chicken Salad.
📖Bone-in (Split) Chicken Breast Recipes
Garlic Butter Stuffed Chicken Breast
Easiest Baked BBQ Split Chicken Breast
Grilled BBQ Split Chicken Breasts
Crispy Garlic Grilled Split Chicken Breast
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° convection or 425° conventional oven.
- Pat dry the chicken, trim the chicken of any trimmable fat and remove the rib area.
- Prepare a baking sheet with aluminum foil and a baking rack—coat with PAM cooking spray.
- Prepare a baking sheet with aluminum foil and a baking rack—coat with PAM cooking spray.
- Combine spices and baking powder (if using) in a small bowl. Sprinkle and rub on all surfaces, but you may not need all of the spice mixture, just season to your taste.
- Place on a rack skin side up with larger pieces in the corners—and thinner edges to the center. If you used baking powder and have time, let it set for 30 minutes to help dry the skin.
- Bake until internal temp of 165°. It takes about 35 minutes, depending on your oven and the thickness of the chicken.
- Let the chicken rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
📝Recipe
Baked Split Chicken Breasts (Bone-in)
Ingredients
- 3 split chicken breast - scale to what you need, AKA bone-in chicken breast
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper - optional
- ½ teaspoon celery salt - optional if you have it
- 1 teaspoon baking powder - optional Aluminum-free
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° convection or 425° conventional oven.
- Pat dry the chicken, trim the chicken of any trimmable fat and remove the rib area.
- Cut the chicken into pieces—the normal-size ones in half and the huge ones into thirds.
- Prepare a baking sheet with aluminum foil and a baking rack—coat with PAM cooking spray.
- Combine spices and baking powder (if using) in a small bowl. Sprinkle and rub on all surfaces, but you may not need all of the spice mixture, just season to your taste.
- Place on a rack skin side up with larger pieces in the corners—and thinner edges to the center. If you used baking powder and have time, let it set for 30 minutes to help dry the skin.
- Bake until internal temp of 165°. It takes about 35 minutes, depending on your oven and the thickness of the chicken.
- Let the chicken rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Your Own Private Notes
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- Scale to the amount you want. I was cooking for leftovers and the packages usually have 3 breasts at our store.
- Properly cutting up and trimmed chicken breasts are important for this recipe to work. Better serving sizes, more even cooking, easier to get properly cooked and more surface area for seasoning. Good in every way.
- The celery salt adds some taste but skip it if you don't have it.
- The cayenne pepper is also optional/to taste. The ¼ teaspoon is a 2 or 3/10 heat level. Don't use it if feeding kids.
- I like cooking chicken on racks, but it is not that important here.
- Keep the thicker parts of the chicken towards the outside of the baking tray.
- Be sure to check for a final internal temperature of 165°. Do not guess or cook by time alone. Use an instant-read thermometer.
- Great leftover in the refrigerator for 3-4 days and can be frozen for 3-4 months.
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
© 101 Cooking for Two, LLC. All content and photographs are copyright protected by us or our vendors. While we appreciate your sharing our recipes, please realize copying, pasting, or duplicating full recipes to any social media, website, or electronic/printed media is strictly prohibited and a violation of our copyrights.
Editor's Note: Originally Published May 25, 2011. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation. Please enjoy one of our easiest, most flavorful chicken recipes.
Jane Nicholls
Your recipes help me cook more healthy and flavourful meals. I appreciate your detailed instructions and your excellent information.
Pats to the girls.
Eva
This was great exactly as is and as promised! I do have a tip. Invest in a good pair of kitchen shears! You can then easily and safely snip through those bones.
Brooke
So many thanks for creating this post! I bought split chicken breasts at the grocery last night due to the unbeatable price! I knew I could tackle a little bit of trimming and basic deboning (One of the best kitchen skills I have learned is deboning chicken thighs.) but I needed to find a “how to” and your article explained it perfectly. I’m about to prep all of these super huge breasts for the freezer, and one or two (not decided yet if I want leftovers) for supper later tonight for my husband and me. Thank you so much for this valuable info, and the delicious sounding recipe!
Deborah Lein
Dear Dr Dan, Bought split bone-in skin-on chicken breasts by mistake. Here was your recipe to the rescue! However... I rarely cook with bone-in chicken. now I know why boneless is more expensive. More work and more waste. I sure could have benefited with more detailed explanation of cutting the ribs off. I worked my way through ribs AND wish bone AND breast bone and several more bony things. When I looked through the recipe for the tenth time, I realized the chicken photos had bones in them that I had so diligently and laboriously removed. Which just goes to show that I don't know what I don't know. Maybe it should have read, cut the ribs and don't worry about the other bones. Husband is lurking in kitchen saying this smells delicious. I hope so. I'm not cut out to be a poultry butcher on a regular basis.
Karen
Very,very good. Has been well received by fussy water in my house. Your dog's are lovely and I really enjoy the pictures.
Andi Fox
Just love the backing powder tip (hack? lol). Just wish I'd seen this recipe before I put the 3 huge chicken breasts into the oven. Love rosemary & thyme seasonings with chicken, but I like the idea of a little zing the cayenne will give.
Thanks & I'm signing up for your newsletter.
Andi Fox
J.J.
So delicious, crispy, fast, easy. This one is immediately in my top 3 chicken recipes--there used to be only 2! Will work into the regular rotation.
I have used skin on, bone in chicken pieces for a very long time. That's where the flavor and moisture come from.
susan
I have not made this yet, but wondering what the baking powder does. I've never seen it in this type of recipe before. Thanks.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi Susan,
Welcome to the blog.
The baking powder pulls water out the skin so it is crispier when cooked. It is a fairly common trick. You can skip it if you want and the skin will be a bit less crispy.
Dan
SurfNturf
So good!
I prepared this recipe as outlined and it is a winner.
Nice and crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside and a little heat for the tastebuds.
It's so simple and tasty that is going to be added to the regular rotation!
DrDan
Hi SurfNturf,
Welcome to the blog.
I do love this recipe, it is just so easy to get good results.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Deb
Chernobyl chicken breasts on sale cheap - trying tonight 😊
dick
easy recipe, baked instead of fried, pleasantly surprised as it is delicious, will make this and share with friends
Bonnie DiNardo
This recipe is both tasty and extremely practical for a two person household. Our supermarket frequently offers a 4-pack of bone-in skin-on split chicken breasts at a sale price. Trimming the ribs off and cutting the breasts in half enables me to bake all of them at the same time. Each piece is a nice portion. We can enjoy the crispy skin the day they are baked, refrigerate 2 pieces, and freeze 4 pieces. The skin and remaining bone partially encase the meat to help protect it from drying out. The pre-cooked chicken meat is like money in the bank. So worth the little bit of effort to cut it up!
DrDan
Hi Bonnie,
Welcome to the blog.
It is the easy solution to the problem of those huge chicken breasts they sale. You can't reasonable cook them well and one is too much for some of use to eat anyway. So this is my solution.
The first time I cut them up, I was thinking more surface area for seasoning. True but the portion sizes and ease of cooking are the main benefits.
I do like the skin on this recipe also.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Richard
Great recipe. Thank you very much. Cook for a gang (gaggle?) of people. As a single dad this is a major hit! Only problem, they often invite their friends, without notice...(good problem to have.) Thanks again. You Rock!
DrDan
Hi Richard,
Welcome to the blog.
This is one of favorite recipes and as you see, it scales great. Glad it works well for you.
Thanks for the note
Dan
Monique
Making this for the third time this month. This recipe blew me away, soooo easy but oh so tasty :) my whole family loves it.
Thank you and greetings from Sweden :)
Christina
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the recipe - it turned out great! It was very good - juicy and flavorful:) Earlier tonight my husband said "eh" to chicken, after dinner said "very good, really good, etc."
Used spices as listed, but a few changes since I was using an air fryer - didn't cut in half, sprayed both sides of chicken with canola spray, cooked in air fryer at 390F for 25 minutes. Let rest w/foil tent for 5 mins.
The only thing I'll try different is to put some of the spices (no baking soda) under the skin and let it sit longer to get more flavor in the meat.
Thanks again,
Christina
Cristina
Delicious and easy to make! Even my one year old loved it and he can be a fickle eater.
DrDan
Hi Cristina,
Sorry for the delayed response.
Gald it worked well for you.
Dan
LAURIE
Love the tip about cutting breasts into smaller pieces, BUT -- discard what's cut off? Save any bones and scraps and freeze to make stock later on.
DrDan
Hi Laurie,
First, sorry to everybody for the lack of replies. I will try to do better.
Yep that works, but I lack freezer space anymore
Thanks for the note.
Dan