Poached chicken breasts make for tender, succulent chicken that you can use in a variety of recipes, such as soup, pot pie, or burritos. Freelance writer and copy editor Fiona Haynes has published more than 100 published recipes focused on low-fat and healthy eating. Danilo Alfaro has published more than 800 recipes and tutorials focused on making complicated culinary techniques approachable poached chicken breast home cooks.
Southern-cuisine expert and cookbook author Diana Rattray has created more than 5,000 recipes and articles in her 20 years as a food writer. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice. Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. Poaching is a gentle, low-temperature cooking technique that works especially well for chicken breasts.
When done correctly, you’ll end up with moist and tender chicken breasts and flavorful cooking liquid. It’s important to note that poached chicken is not boiled chicken. Boiling chicken is a good way to overcook it. The whole point of poaching is to cook it gently so that it stays juicy and tender. Poaching is defined by the temperature of the cooking liquid, and it corresponds with a water temperature of between 160 and 180 F. In this range, you won’t see any bubbles. Rather, the water will appear to shimmer.
Boiling, on the other hand, occurs at 212 F, and is characterized by large, continuous bubbles and lots of steam. Simmering happens somewhere in the middle, from 180 to 200 F. You’ll see a bubble now and then, especially at the surface. But with poaching, you’ll see none of that. The simplest way to poach chicken breasts is in plain water, but at the minimum, you should add salt to the water.
Stock, broth, or court bouillon are even better choices. Yes, you can overcook chicken even when poaching it. It takes a while, but it can happen. Overcooked chicken is dry, shrinks in size, and becomes rubbery or chewy. This happens when chicken is cooked beyond an internal temperature of 165 F.