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

This basic whole poached chicken recipe is one of the most painless and rewarding things you can make in your kitchen and perfect for meal prep ingredients on lazy (Sun)days to make wholesome dinners, lunch, or snacks during the week. 

It promises a nutritious broth that can be used in various recipes, like hearty chicken or noodle soups, fall-of-the-bone tender meat that yields plenty of shredded or chopped chicken for salads or sandwiches. 

It all adds to a variety of dinner menus, from simple real ingredients and one whole chicken.

Jump to What you get from poaching a whole chicken | Choose a whole bird | Adding vegetables or not | How long to poach a chicken | A few notes on meal prep | Skimming, straining the broth

In general, I eat a very plant-rich diet. Yes, I am one of those who utterly loves her vegetables—it's the way I was raised. That doesn't mean that I don't eat meat on occasion, but it has to be worth it like a tender, succulent, flavorful, or as it is with this poached whole chicken, fall-off-the-bone worth it.

It might sound silly, but I’m a bit nostalgic about this recipe. It still conjures the smell and taste of so many delicious soups and salads my mom would religiously make from it like Straciatella soup. 

Very little is wasted here. For some in my family, the best part is nibbling the little marrow out of the soft and easy-to-chew cooked chicken bones—not a pretty sight but so good.

It's literally the easiest thing in the world to cook, and you can use all parts to produce several healthy meals, which is great if you are into meal prepping some ingredients for the week ahead.

You can get a lot from poaching a whole chicken

There is the meat— It’s moist, tender, and easy to remove from the bones once cooked, which you can enjoy as-is or use in salads, sandwiches, veggie dishes, chicken soups...you name it. 

Then there is the broth—which you can make as plain or flavorful as you want. You can use it immediately to make a hearty soup or to give flavor to other dishes, or store it in the fridge or freezer once cooled for later.

What about leftover stock? I imagine you could use the carcass leftovers to make another light stock, but I have never done this. Not much is left after removing all the meat, and we do love to nibble on the soft ends of the bones. Besides, the flavor from the meat, fat, and carcass is in the hearty broth, and I don't think that those soft-cooked little chicken bones have much left to flavor another stock. But if you are not a bone nibbler, then you could give this a try.

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, and the nutritious broth and soft, luscious chicken meat is so worth eating. 

Choose a whole bird

I know, these days most chickens come at a uniform 3 to 3 ½ pounds. But if you can, get a 4 to almost 5 ½-pound one—I get them at my local farmer’s market. You are doing the same amount of work, but a bigger bird will yield more broth and meat. 

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

Sometimes—more often when you buy poultry directly from a farmer or good butcher—you’ll also get the giblets, such as 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.

If you prefer, 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.

Also, I don’t remove any chicken skin. It’s what gives the broth that perfect balance of fat and flavor, adds to a collagen-rich broth, and prevents the meat from becoming dry. 

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

Adding vegetables or not

Well, there are several methods that you can choose from, and it all really depends on what you have on hand and how you want to flavor the broth.

Adding no vegetables—I normally poach a whole chicken with only adding salt to the water. The broth and meat won’t be as flavorful as when you add vegetables and herbs, but there is still a lot going on. The chicken-flavored and collagen-rich broth is perfect as a base for hearty soups where you want to control as much of the flavoring as possible at the time of making your final dishes. And the meat will be silky and soft for deliciously seasoned chicken salads or sandwiches.

More often than not, I make straight away a soup from the broth (after the cooked whole chicken has been removed). So, I'll add freshly chopped vegetables (like carrots, onions, leeks, or celery, or whatever the soup recipe calls for) from that point. I’ll also immediately debone the chicken, shred the meat with some pieces ending up back into the soup while the rest goes in a side salad—that’s how it was done growing up.

Adding some herbs and onions—if you want to upgrade your broth and meat flavor to the next level, and to the point where enough of the flavors are there that you could just drink the broth straight out of a cup, then I suggest adding one to two onions, a few cloves of garlic, and herbs such as fresh Rosemary next to the salt. I usually don't add garlic since my mom never did either, but I'll admit, after having done it a few times, it can add an aromatic flavor that is perfect for the base of brothy soups or adding a bouillon-like flavor to cook rice and beans. 

Adding vegetable scraps—A more frugal way is adding veggie scraps. Ends of carrots, leeks onions, and even carrot leaves—all my favorites—can be added initially and then strained and removed afterward.

This is also a preferable way of using vegetables to make a tastier broth, but without feeling too guilty of throwing them out before proceeding with fresh vegetable ingredients to finish your (chicken) soup. 

Adding freshly chopped vegetables—You can, of course, add freshly 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 a bit too mushy and not bright enough to use in soup recipes. So I would strain them and use fresh veggies instead.

How long to poach a chicken

This really depends on the size of the bird. I usually bring the water first to a boil over high heat. But then immediately reduce the heat to very low, or I lower it just enough until I can see the occasional bubble breaking through.

This requires you to pay at least 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 it occasionally. That slow bubble is really key to getting that beautiful tender meat. 

Usually, it takes about 1 to 1 ½ hour, depending on the chicken's size, but I look for the chicken to tell me when the cooking time is over. If the meat is super tender and almost falling off the bone when grabbing it with tongs, it’s done. 

More often than not, the whole chicken might break apart when transferring it out of the pot to a plate, so be prepared with tongs in one hand and a large slotted spoon in the other.

A few notes on meal prep

In my kitchen, the tasty broth turns immediately into a soup for dinner.  That can often be as simple as a Straciatella or chicken soup with or without something starchy like noodles or tortellini (Italian dumplings)—omit if you want to keep it low carb.

You can store any leftover soup in the fridge or freezer but without the noodles. You want no mushy mess. It's best to add freshly cooked noodles at the end at the time of serving.

Any broth that isn’t immediately used is cooled down and then either refrigerated or frozen. I will first remove any vegetables or veggie scraps—if any—place the broth in individual-sized airtight containers, and store it in the refrigerator or freezer for later. Once I am ready to use it in a dish, I’ll always spoon off the fat that has congealed on top first and that has turned solid, but I am not too picky about painstakingly removing any tiny chunks of it. 

For the chicken meat, I first let the poached whole chicken, which I remove from the broth, cool down on a large plate. Once it’s cooled down enough to handle, I use my fingers to separate any meat from the bones and skin. 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.

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

Note on skimming, straining the broth

When slow-poaching a whole chicken there is sometimes a froth (solid proteins) that rise to the top and yes, I still have the habit—thank you, mom—of skimming it off with a ladle now and then. 

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

What's next? I'll be sharing a 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 a wonderful Stracciatella soup.