Should I press the chicken breast against the pan when I grill it?

The only method I have personally found to be reliable for grilling/pan-frying chicken breasts to a relatively uniform doneness is to pound them very, very thin with a mallet or rolling pin. Thin, as in scaloppine-thin, so that it cooks almost instantly in the pan.

Every other stovetop-only method is almost certainly going to produce a bland, tough cut, regardless of whether you press it down or not. As noted in my comment, my usual (lazier) method that does not involve pounding is to get a nice sear in the pan, then jam in a temperature probe and bake it in the oven until it's done (the USDA recommends 165° F, I usually don't go quite that high).

If pressing the meat actually accomplishes anything at all, it would most likely be to just squeeze out whatever tiny amount of precious juices the breast does have, and possibly give you slightly more even cooking on the exterior only; it will not help to cook the interior much faster unless, as stated above, the cut has been pounded extremely thin and flat, at which point it doesn't really matter.

P.S. Salt and olive oil is a terrible "marinade" for any cut of meat, especially a chicken breast. The salt is just going to get suspended in the oil and never reach the meat at all, and the oil itself won't have much of an effect on such a lean cut. You really need to change your marinade as well, preferably to something water-based (or at least not 100% oil).

Well, is the side you put down to start with beautiful looking? Put the ugly side against the plate and nobody will know! The problem with pressing it is that any juices that are in there will get squeezed out, and chicken breast doesn't have much to begin with. You might need to cook it a little longer than if you were to press it against the pan, but if it's sliced pretty thin (1cm or so?) you shouldn't have any trouble cooking it through.

A pan like that on just about any burner will have some hot spots and some cooler spots. You'll just have to get used to where it's hot and where it isn't, and maybe move stuff around accordingly.

If you want to experiment with different flavors, try a little acid (vinegar or lemon/lime juice) and/or some herbs.

A technique to try if you don't have an oven:

Lightly oil the pan and the surface of the chicken just before frying (nothing is gained in doing it earlier)

You do not need to pound and otherwise manipulate the chicken

Fry the chicken briefly in the pan to colour the outside, then lower the temperature and place a lid over the pan to cook through (to simulate a small oven). Any lid will do (sauce pan, baking dish etc.) as long as it mostly covers the food being cooked, without touching it, and is heat proof. A folded up piece of aluminium foil will do at a pinch, but better to invest in something reusable

Cook for the time required (as if in a normal oven), and when nearly done, increase heat and remove the lid to fry off condensation, and crisp the outside as desired

Around 20 minutes cooking is the normal time with the lid on. If the chicken is burning before this time, you have the pan on too hot. Adjust time for thickness of chicken

This technique can even be used for a whole chicken (spatchcocked)

I don't press the chicken breasts down on the pan when I cook them. This is how I cook chicken breasts - they come out cooked evenly throughout, slightly browned on the outside and lovely and moist on the inside:

We have a saute pan like this: http://sautepanrecipes.com/saute-pan/

It's smooth inside, but importantly it has a lid. I put it on a med-high heat with some olive oil to heat up for 5 mins.

I put the (skinless) chicken breasts on the chopping board and cut them in half with my knife blade parallel to the chopping board (like cutting a cake into 2 layers).

I cook the chicken breasts in the saute pan for about 5 minutes each side (I go by feel rather than by timer), but importantly I cook with the lid on. The trapped heat and steam makes sure the breasts cooks all the way through evenly and is lovely and tender and moist. Kids and the wife both love them like this.

I haven't tried, but I reckon that I could cook the breasts whole (without cutting them in half) if I turned the heat down a little bit and cooked them for a bit longer. In fact I might try that tonight!

this post is 8 years old but it's one of the first that came up when I looked this up. so here's my input. high heat is only good for certain things, and meat isn't one of them. when you fry on high heat the outside burns, and the inside doesn't get nearly as cooked as the outside. so basically if you fry it on medium and just flip them whenever it's better. I personally leave my chicken about half an inch in thickness, coat it in Vegeta and fry them bad boys, flipping them every now and then so the chicken doesn't start curling and develop a weird shape where I can't get the other side cooked. hope this helps someone