Simple Poached Chicken

I have always been in awe each time this grandma who is an awesome home cook from a daily homecooked meal closed group on Facebook dishes up steamed chicken. Her steamed chicken always appears perfect from color to doneness to how the chicken is chopped meticulously.  One day, I asked her what her secret was and she told me that she poached the chicken, not steamed. She poached the whole chicken for 10 minutes, turn off the flame and let the chicken sit in the pot of hot water for another 10 minutes.  The chicken is then removed from the pot and chopped.




This week I tried cooking poached chicken using my own method. I used only chicken drumsticks and ribs.  I have never chopped a whole chicken in my entire life, can you beat that?  And I don't think I can ever bring myself to chopping a whole chicken, especially raw ones.  Each time I cut meat, my imagination runs wild! haha!

Ingredients needed for the poaching liquid:
1.  Carrots - diced
2.  Big onions - diced
3. Tomatoes - diced
4.  Celery, potatoes and whatever vegetables / herbs that you fancy


Directions:
First I boiled the carrots, big onions and tomatoes in a wok for about half an hour. While the vegetables are boiling in the wok, I cleaned the chicken drumsticks, ribs and washed vegetables.

You can flavor the poaching liquid with whatever aromatics, herbs and vegetables you have on hand.  The poached liquid can then be drank as soup. My poaching liquid is ABC soup which turned out to be really sweet, rich and yummy as I didn't use a lot of water like I would when boiling ABC soup.

When the carrots turn soft, put the chicken into the wok / pot. Set your timer to 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, turn off the fire. Let the chicken sit in the poaching liquid for another 10 minutes.

I removed the ribs first as and then turn the fire on again with the drumsticks still inside the wok as the inner part of the flesh looked red. I poached the drumsticks for another 5 minutes and removed immediately from the wok.

Pan fry some garlic and drizzle the garlic and oil on the chicken.  Flavor with organic shoyu, chopped scallions and sesame seed oil (optional).

The result of my poached chicken was excellent!  The girls loved it very much. For someone who does not like steamed chicken, I loved my poached chicken!

I'll definitely be cooking this again very soon.

Our dinner that evening -
Poached chicken and onion omelette.





ABC soup and sauteed organic vegetables with minced garlic.



Our juicy, smooth and aromatic poached chicken. So delish!!




Poached chicken can be your pick-me-up dish on busy week nights.  You can add lots of vegetables into the poaching liquid and have a rich chicken broth with vegetables as sides.   This won't take you more than an hour to prepare :)