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.
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!
Jeanne
Y
Lil
peabody
Katie
Coffee and Vanilla
Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)
We Are Never Full
Kalyn
April 27th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
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.
April 27th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
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.
April 27th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
I have never poached anything, ever! I thought it was difficult. You make it seem so easy! Hmmmm…..I am sensing a must try!
April 28th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Welcome back Scott!
April 28th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
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.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
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!
April 28th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Chris: It is easy actually. More an idea than a recipe, but delicious none the less!
April 28th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Julia: Thank you very much! Great to be back - but better to be away
April 29th, 2007 at 3:39 am
I’ve never tried to poach chicken before. Or anything else, come to think of it! Seems easy enough. The picture looks fab!
April 29th, 2007 at 11:56 am
Vani: And it tasted delicious, too! It really is easy. Poaching fillet steak in red wine is another favourite, although a little more expensive!
April 29th, 2007 at 11:56 am
Vani: And it tasted delicious, too! It really is easy. Poaching fillet steak in red wine is another favourite, although a little more expensive!
April 29th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
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)
April 30th, 2007 at 8:43 am
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?
May 1st, 2007 at 12:21 am
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.
May 1st, 2007 at 8:35 am
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!
May 1st, 2007 at 1:49 pm
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…
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:14 pm
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
August 10th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
hmmm…this is quite easy to do.
i can’t wait to try this one….