All the ways to steam chicken: A cooking guide

What’s the best way to cook chicken? Steaming it of course!  Besides the pros of getting your chicken a detox steam bath in a steamer basket, and preserving all its best nutritional qualities, steaming arguably gets a more tender chicken than most other cooking methods. Wether you steam your chicken whole or in parts, all you need are a few tips on 1) what food steamer to use, 2) how big to cut the parts for optimal results, if applicable, 3) how to decide how long you cook it. All in all, steamed chicken delivers the best energy.

Can chicken be steamed? YES !

Is Steamed Chicken Healthy?

According to scientific journals, chicken is healthy: “Chicken and other poultry meats provide macronutrients and micronutrients considered essential for human health and physiological functioning”. Of course, the degree of nutrition wealth a chicken brings you also depends on how healthy the chicken is in the first place. Studies have found free range chicken are more nutrient dense than others.

Now steaming chicken does not make your chicken more nutrient dense. But it does to some degree make it healthier than other cooking methods. What it does is preserve your nutrients and expel toxins and fats that fall through the holes back into the tank. This is the reason why you need to make sure your chose a good food steamer. For a list of the best performers in 2025, read my recent article here. Conclusion: Steamed chicken is healthy, and even healthier.

It’s healthier

I argued before that gentle steam cooking is the healthiest cooking method. This applies to meat too! But more than that, the taste is also improved upon.

It tastes better

Of course, the texture of the meat after steaming is different from grilled chicken, roasted chicken, stir fry or slow cooking chicken in sauce. The advantage of steaming your chicken is that you get to enjoy the true flavor of the meat, along with the light subliming taste of your seasoning. You will enjoy this all the more with meat cooking on its bone , like chicken legs or whole chicken.

Beware though: if you buy tasteless, oversized colorless and low quality chicken, steaming it while removing much salt and toxines does not make your chicken taste like pink-flesh organic chicken would. It does taste better, but does not become more nutrient dense either.

Cooking times 

They depend on the thickness of the chicken pieces. This is why I recommend, whenever possible, to cut chicken in small pieces ( bite-sized pieces)  and steam a short time (5-7 minutes) to make sure chicken remains tender. If the chicken is to finish cooking in sauce, steam for 3-5 minutes for optimal tenderness. For more details, keep reading!

Why steam chicken : the health case

1) Steaming rids your meat of its excess fat through a gentle steam bath, 

Why worry about too much chicken fat? It’s all about inflammation.

Well if chicken is fed corn or soy, it usually fattens it considerably fast because it is sugar. This is great for farmer sales and store shelves turnover.  However, while growing, conventional chicken moves little and is fed inflammatory foods. Have a look at packaging and you will see they are fed vegetarian foods. First, chicken are not vegetarian animal. Also corn and soy are inflammatory foods to them and to us. Indeed, they are highly pesticide-sprayed GMOs crops, the long term effect of which is hard to pinpoint in our bodies. And since these inflammatory food fatten the chicken, its fat is more inflammatory chicken consumers.

Removing inflammatory fats lowers its inflammatory impact on our body

Generally conventional chicken are much bigger, much fatter than organic, and all the more pasture raised chicken. The reason pasture raised chicken contain 20% less ft and 30% less saturated fat is because they are fed better and freer to roam. In a nutshell, if you don’t have the money to buy high quality chicken, it is in your interest to remove its inflammatory fat through gentle steaming. Which is something grilling does not do.

2) Steaming avoids burning chicken excess fat​

Why is it better for a chicken to gently sweat out fat ?

Because grilling burns fat. And “when cooked food reaches past the point of caramelization, it will become black and charred. Foods that have been cooked in a high-temperature process will likely contain the chemical acrylamide, heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)” (1) Therefore, Consumption of burned fats is damageable for your health in the long run. By grilling, not only you don’t get rid of the fats, you still consume it and in a burnt form, which is even more inflammatory. 

3) My solution to avoid eating inflammatory chicken fats 

a) Don’t do it too often

b) Marinate in healthier oils

c) grill better quality chicken at low temperature so as not to burn it.

d) Gently steam your chicken most of the time, then gently finish and roast chicken 10 minutes in the oven (350/180C), rather than grilling or charring. Alternatively, dress and finish cooking with other ingredients. You will have a leaner, less inflammatory chicken, hopefully much tastier as well.

What kind of meals do you make with steamed chicken?

A different process

You can make the same meals with steamed chicken. All it takes is just a different process, which basically sums up as steaming chicken last, with the exception of whole steamed chicken. 

– With whole chicken, I usually steam my grain, like rice or quinoa, ahead of time, and warm up just 5 minutes before lunch. You can steam your vegetables after steaming the whole chicken without changing the tank water. As the vapor is pure, it won’t affect the taste of your vegetables. You may just need to spray rince your steam basket to remove the residue.

– If you steam sliced chicken, simply add the slices to your other ingredients after steaming, and mix it with the dressing. You may partially steam it so it finishes cooking for its last 3 minutes in the skillet. Most toxines and fats will have been removed through steaming. This applies to chicken thighs. Whole chicken thighs need around 6-9 minutes to cook.

– If you steam a whole breast, you will need to steam it for 15-25 minutes depending on size. Therefore, for a breast you would cook 25 minutes, remove from the steamer at 20 minutes and transfer to your skillet for the last 10 minutes, on low heat.

Do you want to finish cooking your chicken in sauce ? 

​Use the last 5 minutes of steaming to finish your chicken breast 7 to 10 minutes in sauce on low heat so it is fully cooked. If the vegetables in sauce are cooking in the skillet, the chicken should be transferred into the skillet while hot, or it won’t finish cooking.  This applies to chicken legs ( which need 7 minutes to steam, so cook it 5 minutes would be ready to finish cooking in sauce for 5 additional minutes). Whole legs ( which include thighs) would take about 10-15 minutes to fully cook in the steamer, so place them in sauce after steaming 10-12 minutes on high heat.  The steamed meat is usually more tender than meat cooked the whole time in sauce. and while chicken breast would need 40 minutes cooking in sauce in the oven, it probably needs 25 total, steaming included.

As an example of chicken finishing to cook with vegetables in sauce, try one of my favorite meals, my Gentle Steam Cooking Guide to Healthy Coconut Mango Chicken, or Pineapple Chicken over Basmati Rice

​How to steam different parts of chicken

Steam Thin slices of boneless chicken breasts

Steam in a bowl 

Most recipes I come across with steamed chicken involve steaming a dressed chicken in a bowl. Firstly, I prefer pre steaming on the sieve directly to get rid of toxines and extra fats first. I do not want these toxines to be in my sauce. Second, as the steam comes from below and surrounds the food in the steamer basket, chicken cooking in a bowl will need more time to get ready if there is an obstacle like a bowl between the chicken and the steam. For these reasons, I steam directly on the sieve and dress afterwards.

Steam directly on the sieve or steamer basket

When I have less time for cook, I simply cut my chicken in 1/2 inch slices and cook them 5-6 minutes. At 3 minutes, I lift the lid and mix with a wooden spoon so the pieces don’t stick to one another and keep each other from cooking. 

I usually steam my chicken after I steam my vegetables and sides. That way, my vegetables are not covered in chicken waste that remains on the sieve. My chicken steams directly on the sieve while my vegetables are mixed and dressed together in the skillet on low heat (to preserve taste and nutrition).  When it is very lightly pink, I transfer the chicken pieces into the skillet with the vegetables, add more dressing as appropriate, salt and mix, then serve 5 minutes later, as everything is warm. All ingredients are seasoned the same way. Let the whole family enjoy!

Whole Steamed Chicken

You can steam a whole chicken and, if you so wish, finish roasting it lightly in the oven for a golden look. 

– On steaming. 

Turn on the stove on high heat with 1/3 of the tank (2.5 inch of water)  full of water. Use an electric kettle to fill up with hot water faster. After salting your chicken over and under, pierce the chicken with a fork once or twice on every part to help the fat steam out into the tank. Once the cooker steams abundantly, place the whole chicken into the steamer basket, breast down, and cover. It is more efficient this way as the heat rises from below! 

– Cooking time: 

A whole chicken of approximately 3 to 4 lbs or 1.6 kilos will steams in 45 minutes to an hour. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken over. Open the  legs and wings a bit to help more thorough cooking. Measure internal temperature with a meat thermometer. Transfer to the oven once internal temperature or to your dish has reached about 165-170 F or 73°C to 76°C. You can eat it without roasting, if you don’t like eating the grilled skin! If you prefer finishing roasting longer, take the chicken out once at 150 F-155 F (65C to 68F)

– On finishing roasting in the oven. 

Once you take out the chicken, you will notice that it is much smaller than before ! That’s because it lost a lot of its fat.  But you will feel and enjoy its denser, more intense taste all the more. You can finish roasting in the oven, but remember it will cook the chicken longer and therefore dry it out a little. 

Dressing: In the world of chicken, I usually use simple dressings. Here are a few of my standards: olive oil, coconut aminos and turmeric is one of our favorites. Olive oil, rosemary and pepper. And of course, olive oil, old style mustard, rosemary and salt.

Chicken breast

Whole chicken breast: You can steam a whole chicken breast. However be ready to wait ! For example, a 13 oz breast needs the whole 25 minutes steaming to be fully cooked. An organic breast of almost half the size needs 15 minutes to be fully cooked. Slice the breast to be sure.  A “normal” sized, i.e. naturally fed chicken breast should weigh 8 oz to 10 ounces (220-280 grams), which is weights we are more accustomed to in Europe. In this case, a breast needs 15 to 20 minutes to be fully cooked. 

Beside taking much longer to cook, the other downside of cooking a breast whole is that since the steams cooks toward the center, by the time the center is cooked, the outside is very dry. Even knowing that breast meat is usually dryer, I prefer slicing the chicken, salting, steaming then dressing and mixing with the vegetables. 

What food steamer do I use?

Choosing the right food steamer is critical to steaming not only your chicken, but also sea food, vegetables, legumes, and grains. It will define how much it respects your foods nutritional value, how efficient it is at cooking your food, and how tasty the result is. 

Helping you make that choice and providing you with criteria toward this goal is something I would love to expand on. However we will keep this topic for a later post. For now let me simply recommend the French Vitaliseur de Marion. This is the one I have been using 30 years and I have yet to find its equal. With discount code “steamedcuisine” you get 10% and European sales tax off!  Then you can rely on this website to provide you with ideas on what to cook with it, and how!

The Vitaliseur is not only beautiful. It is also incredibly efficient thanks to its large tank, which allows abundant steam to build, large holes to enable the vapor to freely flow around, and rounded lid to encourage free steam flow. But most striking is the taste of all the foods you cook in it, even with the most simple seasonings.

Finally, it is large enough to cook large quantities of foods at once ! For a big family like mine, this is critical ! Of course, you can cook a lot of foods with a bamboo steamer. But certainly not a whole chicken!

Best of all, you hardly need any culinary skills to use this steamer. 

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