25.6.07

Simple poached chicken


I´ve had a fairly trying two or three days. I lost my mobile phone, had a totally stupid and very ennervating meeting with a publisher, and to topple all, I had to do my income tax returns today. All in all, pretty taxing for the nervous system. The thing to do would be to have eaten a huge pizza with several diet Cokes, but I was also ill on Saturday. All of the best day of the week lying in bed, thinking I was surely dying! That sucks.
So to come back to life, I decided to cook some poached chicken. That´s as unexciting as can be, but soothing and comforting. I always thought poached chicken was the lowest form a bird could take, but after reading Chubby Hubby , I was brought around. It really is a pretty useful thing to have around, can be eaten in all sorts of ways, and is rarely dissappointing. If you poach it well, that is. After a day queing up at the phone shop and paying taxes you don´t want some dry and stringy white disaster. You want juicy and tender strands.
I always follow the method indicated in the Ballymaloe Cookery school book. If you have a whole chicken, and chicken stock, well and good for you. You can then follow the method for chicken rice, also from Chubby Hubby and a thing of wonder. But if not, this method will produce wonderful results from a couple of chicken breasts and a stock cube.
All you do is put the chicken in the stock ( the cube dissolved in the water, that is), bring it slowly to the boil, simmer it for five minutes, turn it off, cover it, and wait half an hour for the residual heat to finish cooking the chicken breasts.
If you want, and it´s a good idea, start with some diced vegetables, onion, celery, carrot and parsley stalks, and boil them fast in little water for 15 minutes, before adding enough water to cover the chicken, and going on as before.
The plus side is that you´re left with a pretty delicious broth that goes a long way to restore and soothe, in the form of a noodle soup with spinach and shiitake mushrooms, and some of the chicken. The rest goes into a fully decadent club sandwich for the man of the house, who, after all, wasn´t so ill, and still has his phone.

9 comentarios:

xps dijo...

Lo tuyo pas mal, pero lo de José, que rico!!

kickpleat dijo...

poaching, eh? you might just bring me 'round!

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) dijo...

Chicken soup cures whatever ails me, as I hope it is doing for you. The poached chicken is the bonus!

Pille dijo...

Hope you're well by now. A poached chicken is not something I do often, but the cock-a-leekie soup used the same technique (boil the whole chicken for 30 minutes, then leave for an hour), and it was moist and delicious. Definitely trying your even quicker way with fillets soon..

Chef JP dijo...

I love the simplicity of this dish. It sounds delicious. I just wanted to stop by and let you know I mentioned your site in my post today (My Favorite Food Blogs - http://www.hellchef.com/foodblog)Thanks for a great site! chefjp

Monkey Gland dijo...

There's a stunning recipe in the Fergus Henderson cook book for a whole poached chicken with leeks. You serve it with aioli and salt...stunning.

Sandi @the WhistleStop Cafe dijo...

So sorry for the Awful Horrible Day~ It sould get better from here!

lobstersquad dijo...

xps: él sí que sabe
kickpleat: yes, come round, it´s really better than it sounds!
lydia: yep, absolutely, it really does.
pille: I haven´t tried the whole chicken thing yet, I´m too greedy and always roast it in the end
chef jp: thanks!
monkey gland: that sounds even better than cock a leekie, but I´m not sure if I´m up to Henderson cooking
sandi: thank you, it was brief, after all

Anónimo dijo...

I love, love! poached chicken. The silky, juicy meat is so wonderful. I also really love pot roasting chicken. you kind of braise/poach it and then roast it so the skin gets crispy. yum!
but what I'm really here to say is that I LOVE that picture! It's so wonderful! you should set up an etsy shop and sell prints so we could all have our kitchens decorated with Ximena originals!

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