Fall-off-the-bone poached whole chicken (meal prep)

This basic poached whole chicken recipe is one of the easiest yet most rewarding and cost-effective nutritious food you can make in your kitchen. 

It promises a rich chicken broth, fall-of-the-bone tender meat, and a light stock you can use to make many delicious recipes.

You'll get flavorful, simple ingredients from one whole chicken and endless dinner ideas.

I will show you how to poach a whole chicken at home. It's easy to do and perfect if you are into meal prepping.

Make it on lazy (Sun)days. It will save you money and give you the tastiest ingredients to produce several healthy meals for the week or weeks ahead.

Jump to:

• Why you should poach a whole chicken
• Poaching versus boiling a whole chicken
• Choose a whole bird
• How long does it take to poach a whole chicken
• Should you remove chicken skin before cooking
• Elevate the flavors of your broth and shredded chicken
• What to do with chicken giblets
• How to poach a chicken
• How to shred the chicken meat
• What to do with the broth
• Note on skimming, straining the broth
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Why you should poach a whole chicken

• It's one of the most economical ways to make nutritious food or prep your meals for the week.
• There is moist, tender, flavorful meat (poached shredded chicken) to enjoy in salads, sandwiches, veggie dishes, chicken soups, and so much more. 
• Then there is rich chicken broth to make a hearty soup, healthy gravy, or flavor other dishes.
• And you'll have leftover stock. You can reuse the chicken bones and fatty skin and make another light stock to augment other dishes. 
• It's a satisfying thing to make in your kitchen and only requires a bit of your attention now and then while it simmers on the stove.

Poaching versus boiling a whole chicken

• If you want deliciously tender shredded chicken meat and deep, delicate chicken broth flavors, you need to cook the chicken gently in liquid and below boiling point.

• At first, I bring the liquid to an initial boil or simmer on medium/high heat. But immediately lower the heat to maintain a slow and gentle bubble.

• If a chicken is boiled or cooked too quickly, it will toughen the meat and leave you with a flavorless broth. Slow and steady is the way to go here.

• The process is simple and requires little interference other than keeping an eye on your chicken and skimming off any extra fat or foam that comes to the surface.

Choose a whole bird

• These days, most chickens come at a uniform of 3 to 3 ½ pounds.
• But if you can, get a 4 to almost five ½-pound one—I get them at my local farmer's market. 
• A larger bird will yield more broth and meat for the same amount of work. 

Since you are using the whole chicken from its bones to its tissues and fat, choose the best quality poultry you can afford—free-range and organic if possible. It plays a role in the taste of the broth and the meat.

How long does it take to poach a whole chicken

• It, of course, depends on the size of the bird. 

• Usually, it takes about 1 to 1 ½ hours, depending on the chicken's size.

• In general, count on about 15 minutes per pound of cooking time.

Should you remove chicken skin before cooking

Please don't.

It will give your collagen-rich broth that perfect balance of fat and flavor and prevents the meat from becoming dry. 

If you really want a lighter broth, refrigerate it overnight. The fat will congeal on top, and you can skim it off before using it.

Elevate the flavors of your broth and shredded chicken

Salt—add at least salt to the poaching liquid. Sometimes adding nothing else but salt is preferred when using the collagen-rich broth and shredded chicken as a base in recipes where you want to control most of the flavoring when making the final dishes. 

Add herbs or onions—Want to upgrade your broth so that enough flavors are present to enjoy immediately? Then add onions, a few garlic cloves, and herbs such as fresh rosemary or thyme. Those ingredients all add aromatic flavors perfect for making brothy soups or adding a bouillon-like flavor to cook rice and quinoa. 

Add veggie scraps—The ends of carrots, leeks, onions, and even carrot leaves—all my favorites—can be added initially and then strained and removed afterward.

It's a great way to use vegetables for making a tastier broth without feeling too guilty about throwing them out before proceeding with fresh vegetable ingredients to finish your (chicken) soup or dish. 

Add freshly chopped vegetables—You can always add newly chopped vegetables like carrots, onions, leeks, or celery from the beginning to give extra flavor. They're even tasty enough, in my opinion, to enjoy in a cup of broth that same day. But they might be too mushy and not bright enough for soup recipes. So I would eventually strain them, but it does add a lot of extra flavor to your broth.

What to do with chicken giblets

Sometimes, you'll also get chicken giblets like the heart, neck, liver, and gizzards. 

I add these to the pot, except for the liver—it has a distinctive taste that can overwhelm the flavors of the broth.

Note: Single out the liver, refrigerate to pan-fry later with garlic and onions to toss on top of your green salad for a quick lunch.

How to poach a chicken

It's easy. Just pay attention in the beginning. But once you have that slow tempo of bubbles coming up now and then, you can walk away doing other stuff while keeping tabs on time and checking in occasionally.

That slow bubble is really key to getting that beautiful tender meat.

1. Place the whole chicken and the giblets (except the liver) in a large, deep stockpot—the chicken has to fit in the pot comfortably.
2. Add your chosen veggies, veggie scraps, and herbs.
3. Add cold water, enough for the chicken to fully submerge with a depth of two inches. 
4. Flavor the water with salt.
5. Heat the water over high heat, pot covered. I usually bring the water first to an initial boil or simmer.
6. At the first signs of bubbling, reduce the heat just enough until you can see the occasional bubble breaking through the water.
7. Partly cover the pot and cook for about 60 to 90 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked and the meat almost falls off the bone. 
8. Turn over the chicken at least once during the cooking process.
9. Skim off any foam (protein scum) that comes to the surface and discard.
10. Check for doneness: stick a skewer into the joints where the drumstick meets the thigh. All the juices should run clear. If you use a thermometer, it's done when it reads at least 165°F/75°C. 

How to shred the chicken meat

• Carefully remove the chicken. The whole chicken might break apart when transferring it from the pot to a plate, so be prepared with tongs in one hand and a large slotted spoon in the other.

• Allow it to cool down.

• When cool enough to handle, separate meat from the bones and skin with your fingers. You can use a fork to pull the meat apart into shredded chunks, or you can always use a knife to cut it into smaller pieces—whatever you prefer.

• Use immediately or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 or 4 days.

• A good portion of that shredded chicken can be used in chicken soup or tasty chicken salads, and you can refrigerate extras to fill up other dishes or make sandwiches. 

Note: chicken bones and skin can be used for another round of making light chicken stock. But we love nibbling the little marrow out of the soft, easy-to-chew-cooked chicken bones—not a pretty sight but so good. So, there is never much left to flavor another chicken stock. But if you are not a bone nibbler, reuse the chicken bones and skin or discard them.

What to do with the broth

• Strain any veggie scraps or herbs used to flavor the chicken broth.

• You can turn the broth immediately into soup for dinner. That can often be as simple as a Straciatella, noodle, or chicken soup ( add freshly chopped vegetables (like carrots, onions, leeks, celery, or whatever the soup recipe calls for). 

• If not immediately used, place the broth in individual-sized airtight containers, and store it in the refrigerator (up to 4 days) or freezer for later (up to 6 months). 

• Once you're ready to use it in a dish, spoon off the fat that has congealed on top and turned solid. I am not too picky about painstakingly removing any tiny chunks of it. 

Note on skimming, straining the broth

Sometimes a foam (solid proteins) rises to the top when slow-poaching a whole chicken.

I still have the habit—thank you, mom—of occasionally skimming it off with a ladle.

But I am not overly obsessed about it and am less concerned with an utterly perfect strain that might leave some of these bits of protein sink to the bottom. At least not for a (chicken) soup.

But if you want to get it clear, like a consomme type of stock, strain it before it is completely cooled.

What's next? Try this simple chicken salad recipe to use up that shredded chicken, an Asian-inspired buckwheat noodle soup that can use some of this chicken broth, and make this delicious Stracciatella (or Italian egg drop) soup.

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