This is the foolproof way to make the JUICIEST Poached Chicken you will ever make. Guaranteed results, dead easy, cooks itself, this is a cracker of a chicken breast recipe that everyone should know!
Use the chicken for any recipe that calls for cooked chicken – sandwiches, salads, pastas, pies, wraps and burritos. Slice it, dice it, shred it. It’s so succulent, it’s going to blow your mind!
Poached Chicken
I feel like poached chicken is a life skill that everyone should know. But depending on how you go about it, it’s either dismally dry, impossible to swallow and completely flavourless.
OR it’s unbelievably succulent, with chicken flavour you never dreamt was possible, so tender and so juicy you can literally SEE the chicken juices sparkling on the surface of every slice.
See?
OK, so let’s get straight to the point – how to make this poached chicken in a way that literally cooks itself, has a huge margin for error, and yields the most incredibly succulent poached chicken you will ever have in your life!
How to poach chicken
- Use 250g / 8.5 oz chicken breast that’s boneless and skinless
- Place in boiling water, cover, then immediately take it off the stove
- Leave for 20 minutes (up to 1 hour ok), then remove the chicken and slice/dice/shred
- Prepared to be BLOWN AWAY by how juicy the breast is!
Barely cooking right?? *She says, smugly*
It’s not on the stove. You don’t need a thermometer. You literally walk away and just leave it, knowing that it’s fine even for up to 1 hour – which I have done countless times, lulled into a serious state of relaxation because of how much confidence I have in this recipe!
What you need to make poached chicken
Fundamentally, all you need is chicken breast. But if you’re intending to use the chicken without adding lots of other flavours, it’s nice to add some flavourings into the poaching liquid.
You can add other fresh or dried herbs and dried spices.
DO NOT add salt or other salted liquids like Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce etc. Salt will affect the temperature at which the water comes to a boil and cools, which may affect the chicken cooking through completely using this method.
Chicken breast this succulent and juicy is even delicious eaten plain when it’s freshly made. But here are a just a few more suggestions for what to make with Poached Chicken – the list is long, it’s a handy to have a stash!
What to make with Poached Chicken
- Sandwiches – use sliced like cold cuts, or diced and used in a mayonnaise based filling (such as diced avocado, egg, mayonnaise, finely sliced celery, chives, red onion or green onion, mustard, salt and pepper);
- Make your own Salad – slice, shred or dice and add to salads. Make your own – try it with the Honey Mustard Dressing (pictured above), French Dressing, Balsamic, Italian, Caesar, or a creamy Yogurt Dressing (5 varieties!);
- Chicken Salad – Use it in any main course salad calling for cooked chicken, such as Chinese Chicken Salad, Thai Chicken Salad, Lemon Chicken Salad or Mexican Chicken Salad;
- Add chicken into one of these salads to transform them into a meal:
Add poached chicken into one of these salads
- Add into a pasta or rice salad;
- Soups – add protein into soups, or use in place of chicken in the recipes (except recipes where cooking the chicken forms part of the broth flavour). Here are some suggestions:
Soups for poached chicken (shred or dice)
- Serve with Sauce – One of my favourite ways to serve it as a meal is with a simple sauce, like this Honey Mustard Sauce pictured below. Either make a salad (the sauce is really just a dressing, so it’s made for salads!), or serve it over mashed potato or rice, or for low carb options, try creamy mashed cauliflower or cauliflower rice!
More sauces for poached chicken – here are some more sauce options for poached chicken. Some of these recipes have another protein in the recipe – just skip that part and make the sauce!
- Ginger Shallot Sauce – this uses this poached chicken recipe! Tastes like Hainanese Chicken.
- Creamy Mushroom Sauce
- Lemon Cream Sauce
- Chimichurri Sauce
- Honey Garlic Sauce
- Pesto!
- Spanish Romesco Sauce
- Creamy Peppercorn Sauce
And a few final ideas for other things to make with poached chicken:
- Burritos
- Chicken Pot Pie
- Chicken Lasagna
- Enchiladas
- Chicken Tacos
- Toss into stir fried noodles or fried rice
- Make a giant Baked Frittata, add into Quiche or make Mini Quiches
- Chicken Rice Casserole – stir it in at the end
- Pasta! Use in place of cooking chicken in any pasta recipe (like this Creamy Chicken Pasta) or add it into a meat free one for an extra hit of protein
And with that – I’m out! I hope this poached chicken becomes a staple recipe for you like it is for me. 🙂 – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Poached Chicken - Foolproof, perfect, AMAZINGLY juicy breast
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts , boneless skinless, 250g/8.5 oz each (Note 1)
Optional flavourings (Note 2)
- 1 lemon , quartered
- 1 bay leaf , dried or fresh
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
Instructions
- Take chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking.
- Fill a saucepan with water so the chicken breast will be well submerged with at least 2" / 5cm of water above it in a single layer (can be snug but do not stack).
- Add Flavourings, if using (squeeze in lemon juice, add used lemon).
- Bring water to boil.
- Place chicken breast in water, place lid on, bring back up to the boil. IMMEDIATELY remove saucepan from stove and set aside for 20 minutes (it's fine up to 45 min to 1 hr, won't overcook).
- Remove chicken from water. Slice and be amazed how perfectly juicy and tender the breast is!! Or chop/shred and use as desired.
- If reserving for later use, cover loosely to cool then refrigerate whole - see Note 6.
Recipe Notes:
- 250g/8.5oz each chicken breast - leave in water 20 minutes
- 300g/10oz each breast - take out of fridge 30 minutes prior, leave in water for 25 to 30 minutes
- Larger than 300g/10oz - are you sure they are CHICKEN breasts?? ?
- 220g / 7oz or smaller - recipe works fine but is not quite as juicy, but still juicier than normal simmering method. Can pull out of water earlier using a thermometer - cooked breast is 66°C / 151°F, check at 16 minutes.
- Up to 45 minutes, and I still do not notice any loss of juiciness in the breast
- Around 1 hour, I notice that it is slightly less juicy - but still way juicier than the usual methods of poaching!
- Frozen chicken - must be fully thawed before using.
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
The pool filter is working overtime!
my chicken was moist but a bit pink – is that safe to eat
Did this for the third time tonight, seems fool proof! I always do 6 at a time and put half in the freezer, they thaw really well. Thank you!
Game changer!
I eat a lot of chicken in salads for lunches and just made this for one today!
So moist and juicy.
thank you!
Genius recipe Nagi. I was a bit sceptical and thought the chicken might look a bit pink when I sliced it. But it was perfect and so tender.
Made this this afternoon and it worked a treat. Chicken breasts were nice a moist. After poaching the chicken and removing from the pot, I added a bit of salt, bought the liquid back to the boil and cooked some white rice to make a warm rice salad dish for tonight using the chicken, rice, steam veg, cashew nuts with a little dash of soy sauce. Thanks Nagi.
Delicious and easy!!! Thanks
Mind = blown! I didn’t really like chicken breast until I tried your magic poaching method! Thanks Nagi 🙂
I’m spreading the word… And it has raised a question about poaching a whole chicken. Any thoughts on that? I’ve googled a bit but found no consensus yet.
Just realised I should finally rate this, as this is the third time I am making it. Flavourful and healthy – great recruits.
Perfect Cindy!! Thanks so much 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi – I plan on cooking your poached chicken with the honey mustard dressing. There are mustard seeds in the sauce on the video but not in the recipe?
Hi Nagi. If we do have a chicken breast bigger than 300 grams, do we chop it in half? I have one that is 400 grams! Thanks, Cathleen
Is that even a chicken Cathleen?! I would cut in half lengthways to ensure it cooks. N x
Perfect! Will be adding to the teach to the kids life skills cooking course!
Excellent Katherine!! N x
Hi Nagi,
Thanks for all of your fabulous recipes. Could you please tell me why you can’t start the chicken in cold water and what to do if you don’t have half an hour to leave it out of the fridge. Thanks very much.
Hi Kate, timing will be off if you start in cold water (different pots would take different times to boil), you don’t want the chicken to be fridge cold as it won’t cook through evenly – N x
Just perfect-and so versatile. I want to share with my daughter but she has 3 tweens that eat like 6! Is it safe to cook more breasts with more water in a wider pot?
Gosh I love your recipes, always my go to when looking to try something new.
Cheers!
I wanted to make this to shred over an Asian dish I’m making, would it be beneficial to throw some garlic and ginger in there? Is there any other flavours you can think of that would compliment something Chinese?
Hi Nagi. Claude again. Do you recommend freezing the poached chicken?
Hi Claude, you definitely can! N x
This is the best! I used chicken tenders, all I had, and I live in hide altitude. But it worked perfectly left in 12 minutes and they were perfectly done. I have never had luck cooking chicken breast they have always been dry and chewy.
Thank you!
That’s so great to know Katie! N x
You are a genius! OMG! The chicken was fabulous. Thank you 🙏🏻