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My dietician ordered that I eat chicken. I found that to eat the portion I'm supposed to eat (10oz), it's easier to shred the chicken and take 10oz of shredded chicken, rather than try to find 10oz breasts. I am trying to meal prep this chicken over the week.

The way I currently cook my shredded chicken is I take raw chicken breasts, throw them in a steamer basket, put the steamer basket in the instant pot (pressure cooker), throw in about a cup of chicken broth and 1/2 cup of pineapple juice, and then pressure cook for 15 minutes with a 5 minute natural pressure release. I then pull out the breasts and shred the chicken breasts. I then store the shredded chicken in the fridge.

The problem is that the shredded chicken is terribly dry. Whenever I reheat the chicken it tastes like I am eating chalk (in terms of texture). This makes it impossible to stick to my diet.

Can someone give me advice on how to cook shredded chicken and maintain moisture for several days (at least 3)? I am not a good cook and I don't know if the problem lies in the cooking, the storage, or the reheating.

Thanks

The first issue I see is that you are over cooking your chicken breast. 20 minutes in a pressure cooker is really over doing it. Even a little over cooking dries chicken breast. Chicken breast needs to be cooked more precisely. A pressure cooker is not the correct tool for the job. So you first need to correct your initial cooking. You should get a good thermometer, ensure it is calibrated, and cook your chicken breast to an internal temperature of 160F (71C). You can remove the chicken breast from the cooking surface when it is a couple of degrees below that. Let it rest 10 to 15 minutes, and the heat will carry over and you will reach the final target temperature. This will allow you to begin with moist chicken.

Chicken breast is not suitable for making shredded meat. For that, you need collagen-rich dark meat, for example chicken thighs.

If you cook your chicken breast less, as moscafj suggested, you can certainly get tasty chicken breast. For easy portioning, you can precut it into strips and keep a supply of pan-fried strips, for example. But you will never get it to the point where it shreds properly.

buy the whole breast with bone, bake them 350° for 50 min keep the skin while baking remove it later if you want, i will say make it cubes not shreds and add some chicken stock to the storage container, that should keep them moist.

First, I would recommend changing how you cook the breasts -- I usually poach breasts, starting it in boiling liquid then putting on a lid, turning the heat down to low and letting it sit for an hour.

Second, I'd put the breasts back into the liquid after you shred it. Usually, when you introduce so much surface area to hot meat, it lets off steam, which is the moisture escaping. By immediately putting it back into the cooking liquid, you prevent this from happening. You then let the shreded chicken cool down in the liquid.

(although in your case, you might need to separate it at this point ... it can be more difficult to portion out if sufficiuent gelatin leached into the water to make it a giant blob until you reheat it)