Poached chicken breast. Oh, and soup!

Friday April 27, 2007 · by Scott · in Meat & Fish, Soups & Sauces

I’m just back from my Easter holiday, and it’s all busy busy busy – which I’ll write about in a few days. In the mean time, here’s a quickie for you all – Poached Chicken Breast. Poaching is one of my favourite ways of cooking chicken – a meat I otherwise don’t cook very often at all.

Poached Chicken Breast

Poaching gives a great texture and nice flavour to what is an otherwise quite bland meat. I like to serve it alongside a fresh and crisp salad – tarted up with a dressing of Blood Orange juice.

There’s a couple of interesting things about this recipe. First, it’s cooked with the heat turned off (which probably has something which Molecular Gastronomy could explain better then me), and secondly, the resulting stock liquid can be turned into a soup quickly and easily. Dinner for two days!

Perfect for the very warm April weather it seems Britain has been having while I’ve been away. Oh, and on that note – it hasn’t rained in over 20 days in my location (North Lincolnshire) – but the day I get home from holiday, guess what? Rain. Typical!

Poached Chicken Breast Recipe – Ingredients

2 Chicken Breasts
1 Stick Celery (chopped)
2 Spring Onions (chopped)
Fresh herbs of your choice – I used a round handful of Marjoram.
Salt & Pepper
1 Carrot peeled and chopped (for the soup)
1/2 Potato, peeled and chopped (for the soup)

Poached Chicken Breast Recipe – Method

Place celery, spring onions, herbs and salt and pepper in water and bring to a boil, simmering for 15 minutes.
Place chicken in the water, then turn off and remove from heat.
When water is cool, your chicken can be sliced and eaten.

Simple yet delicious!

And the soup?

Well, we don’t want to waste anything, so…

Place carrot and potato in the water (now almost a stock – but you might want to add a little more – or a stock cube). Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Purée with a blender, then add 1 tsp of Honey and 1tbsp double cream.

Stir well and enjoy!

http://thyme2.typepad.com Katiez

The simple things are often the best – and how can you go wrong with 2 meals so effortlessly?
Poached chicken stays a lot moister, I think, also.
http://blog.khymos.org Martin Lersch

Nice example of low temperature cooking!

More info on how to prepare fish in cooling water and a perfect steak with DIY sous-vide after the jumps.
http://melecotte.blogspot.com/ Chris

I have never poached anything, ever! I thought it was difficult. You make it seem so easy! Hmmmm…..I am sensing a must try!
http://asliceofcherrypie.blogspot.com/ Julia

Welcome back Scott!
http://www.realepicurean.com scott

Katiez: I agree that poached chicken stays moister. It would probably work with turkey too, which is another meat with a tendency to dry out with traditional cooking methods.
http://www.realepicurean.com scott

Martin Lersch: Excellent resources on your site. I’ve actually had a browse before and was suitably impressed. I’ve linked to your low temperature cooking article since it’s very informative. Much more so then I could even attempt to be!
http://www.realepicurean.com scott

Chris: It is easy actually. More an idea than a recipe, but delicious none the less!
http://www.realepicurean.com scott

Julia: Thank you very much! Great to be back – but better to be away
http://mysoorean.blogspot.com Vani

I’ve never tried to poach chicken before. Or anything else, come to think of it! Seems easy enough. The picture looks fab!
http://www.realepicurean.com scott

Vani: And it tasted delicious, too! It really is easy. Poaching fillet steak in red wine is another favourite, although a little more expensive!
http://www.realepicurean.com scott

Vani: And it tasted delicious, too! It really is easy. Poaching fillet steak in red wine is another favourite, although a little more expensive!
http://www.aidanbrooks.blogspot.com Trig

Welcome home Scott, hoping you had a great time away from the grindstone of everyday life. I’m also a firm believer in, wherever possible, making use of all of of my cooking bi-products. I get such a sense of satisfaction to know that I’m limiting the amount of waste I produce through cooking (recycling food packaging etc. but especially knowing I can make something equally appetising with leftovers/bi-products)
http://www.realepicurean.com scott

Trig: Thankyou very much It’s surely one of the problems facing the modern world – lack of reuse leading to depletion of resources. While that doesn’t apply directly to food, it’s certainly valid – more people = worse conditions for animals due to increased demand. And then to not even use the dead animal fully?
http://www.theperfectpantry.com Lydia

Do you poach covered (I assume) or uncovered? I really don’t like undercooked chicken, so I’d be a bit nervous about this recipe. But I can see how it would produce incredibly moist meat.
http://www.realepicurean.com scott

Lydia: I do it covered. Not sure if that’s right or not, but it of course holds the heat for longer. There is, I’m sure, no negative to be had by holding the chicken at a simmer for 5 minutes or so to be extra safe. I’m sure that scientifically the weight of the chicken compared to the volume of the water should be considered – so I wouldn’t try to cook too many at once!
http://www.superfood.blog-city.com Richard

I’ve been poaching fish in the same way quite a bit recently – I love it!

Regarding your comments on not throwing stuff away – I’ve decided I’m a flavour miser – I can’t throw stuff away when it has flavour and the potential to flavour something else. So currently in my freezer, you’ll find a bag of asparagus trimmings and a pot of asparagus cooking water (for a forthcoming risotto or soup), a bag of fennel trimmings (for stock in general), a bag of prawn shells, a few old rinds of parmesan… and various other stuff that doesn’t have a lable…
http://www.realepicurean.com scott

Richard: Ah, I never thought of using Asparagus trimmings for anything – so good on you to think of that one! In fact, I foolishly binned a bunch earlier today
lala

hmmm…this is quite easy to do.
i can’t wait to try this one….
http://npacemo.com/ Vladimir Tsvetkov

This recipe is really great, but I need to get assurance that this recipe meets all hygienic and food safety regulations. According to the HACCP standards for preparing poultry (check the table in the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the US Department of Agricultures) the critical control point is 25 minutes of simmering a boneless chicken breast. Does the cooling preparation is in affordance with this requirement?
- http://www.realepicurean.com scott
  
  Hi Vladimir,
  A good question. The most common bacteria in chicken are campylobacter and salmonella. To kill these it is recommended by many food standards agencies that the core temperature of the chicken should be 85 degrees Celsius when cooked; guidelines for killing campylobacter suggest a core temperature of 70 degrees for 2 minutes or more. Therefore a temperature probe is recommended if you are worried.
  
  I remember most of this through my Advanced Food Hygiene training, but also checked details on the internet; the FSAI website confirmed my beliefs.
  
  Hope this helps!
  - http://npacemo.com/ Vladimir Tsvetkov
    
    Thanks Scott,
    I’m definitely considering of buying a dip probe thermometer.
    
    Anyway, yesterday I’ve used this way of preparing chicken breasts, added extra 2 minutes and a half in the frying pan with some red wine to be extra sure – quite dangerous operation I should say and I don’t recommend it – not sure whether the two minute frying contributed to the taste (rather not), but this caused a smoky mess in my kitchen. For my relief the result was really tasty – the meat was very tender and my girlfriend really enjoyed it.

Poached chicken breast. Oh, and soup!

Poached Chicken Breast Recipe – Ingredients

And the soup?

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