How to poach a chicken - How To

Sep 12, 2025

Matt Preston shares his tips on the best ways to poach chicken for perfectly soft, tender and juicy results.

There’s much debate about poaching chooks. Mostly among people who have never tasted a poached bird done the right way. But you needn’t worry; poaching chicken is actually really easy – all you need to do is decide what you want to poach, what you want to poach it with, and what you want to do with all the various delicious goodies you’ll have once you’re done.

How to poach a chicken breast

If time is short and you only want the white meat, then just poach a couple of breasts. There is much debate over the method, but I favour a pot of boiling water removed from the stove and a 250g whole breast slipped in. I’ll leave it there, covered with a lid, to gently cook in the water’s residual heat for half an hour (but check after 20 minutes). The temperature should be at 65°C when tested at the thickest part of the breast with a kitchen thermometer. What you’ll end up with is what’s called ‘white-cut chicken’, with silky meat that hasn’t tightened up from boiling. For more than one breast, you’ll need to use a bigger pan with more boiling water.

Chef Danielle Alvarez uses poached whole breast for her poached chicken, freekeh and tarragon salad, but she likes to poach 400g breasts very gently, with the water steaming but not bubbling, for 40 minutes.

How to poach a whole chicken

Soy-poached chicken with lemongrass brown rice

You can poach a whole bird, but I would use chicken stock instead of water, with slices of fresh ginger, a couple of blades of star anise and chopped coriander stems added as aromats. Put the bird in a large, heavy-based pot, cover with the stock and bring to the boil. Remove and leave covered with a lid to cook through from the residual heat for 45-50 minutes for a 1.5kg bird. To check it’s done, test the thickest part of the thigh and the breast with a kitchen thermometer – it should be at 65°C. One thing to note: there will still be a pinkish hue around the joints, which can have people freaking out that it isn’t cooked, although it is. I love serving this with warm rice tossed with the fat rendered and floating on top of the resulting stock, and the stock reduced after the chook is removed to make a broth. Serve with a fresh Chinese chilli sauce and a geung yung (a classic Cantonese condiment of chopped ginger and long green shallots, scalded with very hot oil and seasoned with salt and sesame oil) and you basically have a cheat’s version of the classic Hainanese chicken rice.

For a more traditional method, put the chook in a snug pot with some carrot, celery, onion and herbs, cover with cold water, bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 90 minutes. That’s Jamie Oliver’s preferred technique as well. Or try MKR judge Colin Fassnidge’s recipe for soy poached chicken with lemongrass brown rice, in which you poach a whole chook with water seasoned with chicken, garlic, ginger, onion, makrut lime, lemongrass, soy, vinegar, coriander root and chilli. You can also try his recipe for poached chicken with warm spiced couscous salad, which uses poached drumsticks.

How to turn the poaching liquid into stock

Chicken broth with kale, quinoa and preserved lemon

I’ll leave it up to you with picking the aromats (vegetables, herbs, spices) you add to the large pot of water (or stock) you plan to poach the breast or whole bird in, but know that this poaching liquid can be turned into a homemade stock, so if you plan to use this stock, it’s best to keep your aromats mellow and not overbearing. Follow this easy recipe or, for the ultimate lesson in stock-making, try chef Sam Young’s Chinese master stock.

Bring the poaching liquid back to the boil, along with the chicken carcass and bones after you’ve stripped the meat off the bird, and then reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes to turn it into a stock to use in risottos or soups. A simple cock-a-leekie (Scottish chicken and leek soup) or cream of artichoke soup like they serve at Duarte’s Tavern in California would be different picks. Add any chicken meat you have leftover after making your pie, chicken sandwiches, risotto or whatever. Delicious!