To make chicken good, you need to do what real poultry chefs do: brine the chicken in saltwater and spices for 1 to 2 days' time. I cook a lot of chicken, and I brine it. There is no "steak" cut on a chicken. The breast is obviously the largest piece, and it can be cut into "a steak" if you want to. The thick end of the breast can also be cut cross-wise and made into three almost equally-thick pieces, and then the thinner, pointed end cut once to make two thin, elongated triangular-shaped pieces.
If you cook chicken and it is dry, and tasteless, you are not brining it and or you are not cooking it properly. The easiest way to cook thin-cut pieces is deep frying in hot oil, with a batter on the outside of the chicken. You can remove the coating if you do not want to eat it, and will have very moist chicken that has had the liquids kept in side during the cooking process, which takes only about 3 minutes when submerged in oil, as contrasted with pan-frying, sauteeing, or southern frying.
If you want good chicken breast strips or chunks, poke holes in both sides of boneless, skinless breast meat with a sharp, pointy-tined fork, such as some of the Japanese-made ones, or use a multi-tined ice-chipper, if you know what that is. Then, brine the chicken in a saline solution of about 1 part sea salt to 32 parts water...i.e. 1 ounce salt, a quart of water. Add to that 10 shakes Worchestershire sauce, 15-20 shakes garlic powder, 2 teaspoons chili powder, and 1.5 tablespoons ground black pepper. This will brine about 15 whole chicken breasts, in two separate non-reactive (i.e. enamelled crocks or plastic/poly tubs, or stainless steel--no aluminum!). After brining, drop pieces into a mixture of beaten egg, garlic powder,and half and half: this is the "egg wash". Drain each piece for 5 seconds or so, then drop it into seasoned flour (flour,garlic powder,pepper, chili powder, maybe some ranch seasoning mix if you like that). "Shake" the flour over each piece, then lift it out with a knife or fork and set it onto a floured plate or some waxed paper. Allow the chicken to come up to room temp for best cooking. Deep-fat fry in small batches, 3 breast strips for 3 mins, or 4 for 4 mins. A "whole", uncut-breast is too thick at one end and too thin at the other end to cook evenly. if you like extra-crispy, after the initial egg wash and flouring, re-dip in egg and re-flour. Fresh, clean,new seasoned flour makes an even coating; when you do a batch of say 25 strips, the remaining flour will have clumps in it from the initial egg wash bits that drip off. It is THOSE BITS that create that "extra-crispy, extra-crunchy" coating so many people like on things like popcorn chicken, so one needs to begin the flour process with an ample quantity of fresh, new, seasoned flour so as to have enough left over for the second round of egg wash and flour-dredging!
You can use other egg washes for different flavors: eggs, buttermilk, and Ranch dressing mix is an awful lot like "the old officer's chicken"...and brining the chicken in salt and buttermilk for 2 days beforehand is a wonderful way to make that flavor come through.
Enjoy...Derrel...amateur chef...
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