Searing chicken involves cooking the meat in a pan over high heat until a golden-brown crust forms on the surface. It's important to season your chicken well and let it come to room temperature before searing it, but here's something you should definitely not do when aiming for perfect results.

If you're anxious that your chicken will get stuck to the pan while searing, resist the urge to move the meat around, or worse, pry it off the metal. Chicken sticking to the pan is far from a cry for rescue; it's a natural part of the cooking process, and the meat will release from the pan on its own when it's ready, and not a moment before.

It's also important to start searing chicken with the skin side down, and moving the meat around the pan negatively impacts the browning of the skin; it doesn't make the chicken cook faster or more evenly, either. You should wait five to seven minutes before tossing chicken around the pan, even if it's cut into smaller pieces.