How to Cube Chicken Breast
on May 01, 2023, Updated Jun 17, 2025
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Essential (and simple!) tips for cutting cooked or raw chicken into perfect cubes or dice so you can use them in recipes.
This easy cubing method actually works for both raw and cooked chicken breast alike. Uncooked chicken is softer and, therefore, more challenging to cut super evenly. (See below for a tip about putting the chicken in the freezer for a bit!). But with a sharp knife and a steady hand, lovely, evenly square chicken cubes can be yours.
Having diced hundreds of pounds of chicken over the years, the biggest piece of advice I can give you is to use a sharp chef’s knife and to take your time. No one is timing you. (Unless you are on a reality cooking show of some sort, in which case you are likely not reading this piece).
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Some people like to portion out their cubed or diced cooked chicken in containers and store them in the fridge for easy meal prep during the week. The USDA recommends eating cooked chicken within 3 to 4 days. Cubed cooked chicken breast is a useful last-minute addition to all sorts of dishes. Add chicken cubes to pastas, salads, grain and rice bowls, and so on. Read on for more cubed chicken recipes.
Uncooked cubed or diced chicken can be added to soups, stews, casseroles, and used for making slow cooker meals and kabobs.
What's In This Post?
How to Cube Chicken Breasts: A simple step-by-step how-to for cutting cooked or raw chicken into perfect cubes or dice.
Kitchen Smarts
Before you cut chicken, freeze it slightly. Placing chicken breasts in the freezer for about 20 minutes allows the meat to firm up a bit. This makes it easier to cut the chicken cleanly and neatly.
How to Cube Chicken Breast
- Slice crosswise: Cut the chicken breasts crosswise into slices. The thickness of the slices depends on how small or large you want your cubes: For 1-inch cubes, cut your chicken into 1-inch slices using a sharp knife. Simple.
- Cube the chicken: Then, cut the chicken slices into cubes, making all of the sides approximately the same size. Again, no one is going to measure your results with a ruler.
How to Dice Chicken Breast
If a recipe calls for diced chicken, it usually means that you want small bite-sized cubes, somewhere around 1/2 inches on all sides. So, for 1/2-inch diced chicken, you want to start by cutting the chicken into 1/2-inch strips before cutting them into 1/2-inch dice.
How to Cube Chicken Breast
Equipment
Ingredients
- Chicken breasts (or thighs; cooked or raw)
Instructions
- Cut the chicken crosswise into 1-inch slices, or whatever size cubes you are aiming for.
- Cut each slice into cubes, trying to make all sides approximately the same size.
Notes
- To make cubing raw chicken easier, before you cut the chicken, freeze it slightly. Placing chicken breasts in the freezer for about 20 minutes allows the meat to firm up a bit. This makes it easier to cut the chicken cleanly and neatly.
- If a recipe calls for diced chicken, cut the cubes to about 1/2 inch.
- Cubed or diced chicken (cooked or raw) can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- You can freeze cubed chicken (cooked or uncooked) for up to 6 months. Make sure to put it into a freezer proof container or zipper top bag with as little excess space as possible. Label the container and freeze.
FAQs
Although it might sound like some type of futuristic fowl (do they breed cube-shaped chickens these days?), cubed chicken actually refers to the preparation of the chicken. Cubed chicken is chicken that has been cut into small cubes, usually around 3/4 to 1 inch in size. Cubed chicken might be raw or cooked. If you cut the chicken into smaller pieces, that’s known as dicing.
It’s easiest to cube chicken if you’re working with boneless, skinless chicken breasts. There are no bones, and white meat doesn’t contain tough muscles, so chicken breasts are very easy to slice and cube. Plus, with a thick breast, you get more regular, evenly sized, meaty cubes.
If your chicken is very thick, you may want to cut the slices horizontally before slicing and cubing the breasts. For thinner breasts (or thighs), you will just need to cut the pieces crosswise into slices before cutting the cubes.
For chicken kabobs, I usually cube my chicken about 1 1/2 inches in size, and not smaller than 1 inch. This allows the outside to get nicely browned over a fire or under a broiler before the center gets dry and overcooked. For certain kinds of chicken skewers that are cooked very quickly over very high heat, like yakitori, you can dice the chicken into smaller cubes.
