Poached Chicken – Juicy, guaranteed!

This is the foolproof way to make the JUICIEST Poached Chicken of your life. Dead-easy and guaranteed to work every time, 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.

This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!

Poached Chicken 

I feel like poached chicken is a life skill that everyone should know. But depending how it’s executed, on the one hand it can be like chewing on chipboard: dismally dry, impossible to swallow and completely flavourless.

On the other hand – the successful hand – it’s unbelievably succulent, with chicken flavour you never dreamt was possible, and so tender and 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

Asian Slaw – healthy, crunchy Asian Cabbage Salad

Noodle Salad with Sesame Peanut Dressing (Work lunch idea!)

Coleslaw

Shredded Red Cabbage, Carrot and Mint Salad

Pea, Cabbage, Parmesan and Mint Salad

Brussels Sprout Salad

Greek Lemon Orzo Salad (Risoni)

Pearl Couscous Salad

Roast Pumpkin, Spinach and Feta Salad

Lemon Potato Salad

Side Salads

Pasta and Rice 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)

Chicken and Rice Soup

Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup

Laksa Noodle Soup

Chinese Corn Soup with Chicken

Super Low Cal Healthy Creamy Vegetable Soup

Quick Taco Soup with Pulled Pork

White Chicken Enchilada Soup (or Turkey!)

Healthy Vegetable Soup (Extra Tasty!)

Hot and Sour Soup

Lentil Soup (seriously amazing!)

Foolproof Poached Chicken Chinese Noodle Soup

EMERGENCY Corn Chowder Soup – Easy Soup recipe!

Soups

• 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

• Hollandaise or Béarnaise 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

This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!

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Poached Chicken – Foolproof, perfect, AMAZINGLY juicy breast

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats

Prep: 10 mins

Cook: 25 mins

Total: 35 mins

Dinner

Asian

4.96 from 85 votes

Servings2 breasts

Tap or hover to scale

Print

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Recipe video above. Forget every other method you've used. This recipe GUARANTEES the juiciest chicken breast you've ever made in your life. No special equipment, no fancy gadgets. It's dead easy and foolproof. Use for anything that calls for cooked chicken. Slice it, dice it, shred it, pile onto sandwhiches. HIGH ALTITUDE locations – please see note 4

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:

WHY THIS METHOD WORKS – This recipe works consistently every time because the chicken starts off in boiling water which is 100°C/212°F no matter which country, what stove, and what pot you’re using! Chicken cooks at 65°C/150°F, so while the boiled water is at or above this temperature, the chicken is cooking. Once it falls below this temperature (as the water cools off the stove), the chicken stops cooking and thus prevents the breast from overcooking, yielding a guaranteed perfectly cooked juicy chicken breast every single time!

1. Chicken breast size and cook times

• 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.

2. Flavourings are optional, they provide a subtle hint. Good if you plan to eat without adding tons of extra flavour eg slice and use on sandwiches. Feel free to add more fresh or dried herbs or dried spices.

DO NOT add salt or anything with salt in it (sauce or powders). Will affect boiling point and cooling rate of water = might affect chicken cooking through properly.

3. Pot – Big enough so breast lies in single layer. If scaling recipe up, use larger pot. I’ve done 6 breasts in a large pot.

4. High altitude locations: The higher above sea level you are, the lower the boiling point of water. This means that if you are located in a high altitude area, the recipe needs to be amended to boil water with chicken in it before taking it off the stove, to ensure the chicken cooks through. I recommend using a meat thermometer to check chicken for doneness – start by boiling for 1 minute, take off stove for 20 minutes, check temperature (cooked breast 66°C / 151°F). If undercooked, remove chicken from water, bring back up to boil, put breast back in and take off stove. Check internal temp every few minutes. Then next time you make poached chicken, increase or decrease boiling time prior to taking off stove!

5. Slicing tip – for the most tender bite, look for direction of grain and cut 90 degrees across the grain (see video).

6. STORAGE – Remove from water. Best to store whole, uncut, for juiciest chicken. Airtight container in fridge for up to 4 days. It’s incredible how juicy it is even cold, straight from fridge.

Freezing – not as juicy but can be frozen. Thaw and use.

7. Nutrition per chicken breast (250g/8.5oz)

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 250gCalories: 285cal (14%)Protein: 53g (106%)Fat: 6g (9%)Saturated Fat: 1g (6%)Cholesterol: 160mg (53%)Sodium: 290mg (13%)Potassium: 925mg (26%)Vitamin A: 75IU (2%)Vitamin C: 3mg (4%)Calcium: 13mg (1%)Iron: 1mg (6%)

Keywords: poached chicken, poached chicken breast

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