Clean and remove the inside of a 3 pound whole chicken. In a 12 quart pot bring enough water to a boil to cover a 3 pound chicken. Place the whole chicken in the boiling water. The water will stop boiling in just a moment or so. Using wooden spoons so that you don't tear the skin, remove the chicken from the water and place it on a tray or large platter. Cover the pot and bring the water back to a boiling point. Put the chicken back into the pot, cover and turn off the heat. Leave chicken in the pot and the pot on the burner, but you will not need any more heat. The water will be hot enough to 'cook' the chicken. After an hour the chicken is done. Remove, cool and debone the chicken. The chicken will be very tender. If you are not using the chicken right away, save a small amount of liquid to keep the deboned chicken moist, if necessary; however, discard the remaining liquid as it is not suitable for soup.
I like to use an organic, free range chicken that is free of antibiotics and hormones. Try the Balducci's Whole Chicken at Kings or Griggtown Whole Chicken at Alan's Orchard.
OK now you have an entire chicken worth of shredded meat. What to do with it?
-Add to hot chicken broth with corn, scallion, mushroom, sliced carrots and sliced ginger
-Top a bed of organic field greens and add goat cheese, toasted pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes and goddess dressing
-Mix with bbq sauce and make a sandwich on toasted hard rolls, top with onions or slaw
-Add protein to your favorite pasta with veggie dish
-Layer into a ciabatta with fresh mozzarella, sliced eggplant cutlets and panini press it till it oozes
-Mix with 1 tbls of pesto to make an herby chicken salad, add to salad or sandwich.
-Top tortilla chips with chicken, black olives, salsa verde and shredded colby jack and bake for 15 mins at 350 for killer nachos-Serve on warmed tortillas with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, avocado and salsa verde
-Substitute for ground beef in a taco recipe
If you try any of these ideas, please let me know how it worked out. Please email me at westfieldfoodie@gmail.com or reply to this blog.
shop the blog:
Sliced Eggplant Cutlets, Mixed Field Greens - Alan's Orchard
Fresh Mozzarella - Perrotti's
Goat Cheese, Toasted Pine Nuts - Trader Joe's
Katchkie Farm Salsa Verde, Stonewall Kitchen Basil Pesto - Kings
3 comments:
I poached some boneless breasts the other day for Mark Bittman's Chicken Salad with Skordalia. Thanks for the tip on poaching a whole chicken.
I'm not clear on what you get from the extra step of removing the chicken and putting it back in. How does that improve the result over just turning off the water when you put the chicken in the pot the first time?
We get our organic chicken from Wegmans which has a good selection of organic meat. Thanks for the recommendations on what to use chicken in - we usually just default to covering it in bbq sauce!
Tom, I had the same question. If anything, it's an opportunity I don't need to be splashed with boiling water when it drops back in. I will have to get another opinion on that! thanks for your input.
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