Chicken flats are mini fillets, 350–400g a pack, thin enough to cook like a escalope. They are the opposite of a thigh on the bone: fast, lean, easy to dry. Chicken Flats (350-400g) is the plain pack. Piri piri, lemon pepper lime and sweet chilli lime versions sit beside it in chicken flats.
Pan and air fryer
Plain flats: hot pan, a little oil, 3 to 4 minutes a side, 75°C, rest 3 minutes. Air fryer: 200°C for 8 to 10 minutes, turning once. Piri Piri Chicken Flats (350-400g) and Lemon Pepper Lime Chicken Flats (350-400g) take the same times; drop the pan heat a notch so the seasoning does not catch. A 350–400g pack is two to three people with a salad or a wrap filling. Do not add a 20-minute oven programme copied from drums; you will serve dry cards of chicken.
Oven, BBQ and traybakes
Oven: 200°C for 12 to 14 minutes, useful if you are doing potatoes at the same time. BBQ: 3 minutes a side over medium. If they are going on a traybake with drums, add the flats for the last 12 minutes only. Shop chilli lime meat and air fryer friendly when you are building a week of fast chicken rather than a roast. Sweet chilli lime flats in the same collection want the glaze watched at the end, same as any sugary marinade.
Meal prep and leftovers
Flats slice for salads and wraps better than a whole breast because they are already thin. Cook the pack, rest, slice, fridge. Reheat gently or eat cold. They dry in a microwave; a pan with a spoon of water is kinder. Do not cook from a frozen clump; separate and defrost so the thin pieces do not overcook at the edges. A 350–400g pack looks small and is a proper two-person supper if you add a carb and a vegetable. Two packs if you are feeding four.
A 350–400g pack of flats is two people. Buy two packs for four; do not try to stretch one pack across a table and then wonder why supper felt mean. Because they cook so fast, have the salad or the rice ready before the flats hit the pan, or you will be holding cooked chicken while the water boils.
Eight to ten minutes, 75°C, rest. That is a chicken flat, plain or flavoured, and it is the fastest proper chicken we pack besides a skewer.