Tender, juicy chicken - not stringy or tough - is essential for good chicken salad. Poaching your chicken is an ideal way to get this texture. Poaching also does not require you to heat up your oven, which we are always hoping to avoid in the middle of the summer.
To poach chicken for chicken salad or other dishes requiring soft shredded chicken, like tacos, start with two or more chicken breasts on the bone. Rest of the directions below...
Basic method: Put enough water to cover the chicken breasts in a heavy pot. Add at least 1 cup of white wine and 2 teaspoons of salt and bring to a boil. Add the chicken breasts and reduce back down to a bare simmer or less. The water should NOT boil again - bubbles should only come up every minute or so. Cook for about 30 minutes or until no longer pink inside. Cover with a cartouche, if you notice too much liquid evaporating.
Turn off the heat, cover tightly and let cool on the stovetop for half an hour, then put in the fridge overnight to cool completely. When cool shred the chicken off the bone with two forks and chop fine.
Dress it up: Add herbs, spices, or onion and garlic for the chicken to absorb. We like to saute an onion and some garlic in butter until soft, then add the water and wine. You can also poach the chicken in broth - chicken or vegetable - which will make taste even richer. Make sure to let the chicken cool in its broth.
Tip: After shredding the chicken off the bone, return the bones and any cartilage to the pot and simmer for another hour until reduced. You'll have a weak broth that is great for soups and making rice.
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goodness- that photo is most disgusting! And I love chicken!
Thanks for covering this technique though.
I agree...a better photo is in order.
Ah, but that's what skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts poaching in water really look like! :-) Shall we editorially, er, clean up our raw food?
In all fairness, the red onions don't help, and I am SURE someone could take a more photogenic photo of a poaching bird. Send us one and we will post it!
I don't mind the humble picture. I'm going to try this technique because every other time I've tried to poach chicken, it's usually ended up dry and overcooked, not to mention flavorless. Do you find you have to weigh the chicken down with something so that the tops don't dry out when they float to the top?
http://www.howtoeatlikeabird.com/
While the photo is no doubt gnarly, it does demonstrate what happens when something like chicken is poached.
The fat and impurities will start to rise to the surface of the pot as it begins to boil. If the boil is brought down to a gentle simmer, these impurities at the top can be skimmed off with a ladle and discarded. This poaching liquid will now be a clear broth which can be further fortified with more chicken or chicken bones like mentioned above, skimmed again, and turned into chicken broth for soup or it can be frozen and used as stock.
If I'm going to cook something that looks like that at any stage in the process, I think I'm glad to have a photo warn me to expect it.
My method is similar. I use (only) heavily salted water and put the chicken in before turning the stove on. I cook at the lowest possible setting (I have an electric stove and that setting is quite low) for an hour or so. Then I turn off the heat and let the pot sit for a while.
I cover boneless, skinless chicken breasts with water, lid on, bring to boil, and then turn the gas off. I leave them until they, and the liquid, are cooled. The chicken is always perfect, and velvety. I cook eggs like this, too. Equally perfect.