Poaching is a great way to cook chicken, especially if you are sick of tough, dry, chicken. Brining is another good way to prevent dryness, but I’m really happy to have discovered this method! 
Here are a couple of the dishes I made with poached chicken.
I made cold sesame noodles, using Bittman’s recipe.
And here is chicken salad with fresh herbs.
Poaching is quite simple. All you have to do is boil the chicken over low heat, with fresh herbs or vegetables. You don’t even have to cut the chicken. Just poach as is, then shred with your hands afterwards. I’m sure you’ve got more poached chicken recipes than I do… let’s hear it in the comments!
1. Place chicken breasts in a pot that is big enough to have the pieces fit in one layer.
2. Add poaching liquid(plain water, or water with fresh herbs), making sure that it completely submerges the chicken.
3. After bringing the liquid to a boil, reduce heat to a bare simmer. Partly cover the pot, cook for about 7 minutes, then turn off the heat, leaving the chicken to finish cooking in the hot water for 3 minutes, depending on the size of your chicken.
I only had 4 chicken breasts, so it didn’t take me very long to cook at all.
To avoid making this post super long, I am linking the cold sesame noodle recipe here.
Recipe: chicken salad with fresh herbs
Combine 1/2 of a small diced onion, a couple of tablespoons of fresh herbs, dallop of plain yogurt and a teeny bit of mayo with salt and pepper. Add minced jalepeno if you want, for an extra kick! And a sprinkle of curry powder! Let flavors combine in the fridge for a couple of hours and you will have yourself some yummy chicken salad!
July 13, 2009
ooo i like this one! i was excited to read this post. I just poached chicken yesterday… i like this recipe! i wonder where to find more poached chicken recipes… also i wonder if you add more water if you could do anything w/ the broth…