Today's Kitchen Tip: Try poaching chicken

I wanted to make some chicken salad and I usually use roasted chicken to make it.  I didn't have any handy but I did have raw chicken breasts.  I decided to poach some chicken since I didn't want any flavors from grilled or sautéed chicken to come through.

Poaching is a method of cooking used to gently cook foods in a flavored broth.  We love to use it for chicken and fish, but this tip focuses on chicken. 

We use a flavored broth because if you put chicken in plain water, the water will taste great; the chicken, not so much.

We happened to use chicken broth, carrots, celery, onions, pepper corns, garlic and a little lemon in our poaching liquid.  I will often use fresh herbs but today I did not.  I let the poaching liquid simmer for about 20 minutes for the flavors to blend.  Then I added the chicken breasts and made sure the breasts were fully covered with liquid.  I covered it, turned the heat down and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.  When the breasts reached 160 degrees F, they were ready.  They were full of flavor and perfectly colored for my chicken salad.  I also like to poach chicken in a Mexican-flavored broth and make enchiladas with the chicken.

Today's two-fer tip...don't throw away the cooking liquid.  It's perfect as a base for soups.