This is the foolproof way to make the JUICIEST Poached Chicken of your life. Dead-easy and guaranteed to work every time, this is a cracker of a chicken breast recipe that everyone should know! Use the chicken for any recipe that calls for cooked chicken – sandwiches, salads, pastas, pies, wraps and burritos.
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
Poached Chicken
I feel like poached chicken is a life skill that everyone should know. But depending how it’s executed, on the one hand it can be like chewing on chipboard: dismally dry, impossible to swallow and completely flavourless.
On the other hand – the successful hand – it’s unbelievably succulent, with chicken flavour you never dreamt was possible, and so tender and juicy you can literally SEE the chicken juices sparkling on the surface of every slice.
See?
OK, so let’s get straight to the point – how to make this poached chicken in a way that literally cooks itself, has a huge margin for error, and yields the most incredibly succulent poached chicken you will ever have in your life!
How to poach chicken
Use 250g / 8.5 oz chicken breast that’s boneless and skinless
Place in boiling water, cover, then immediately take it off the stove
Leave for 20 minutes (up to 1 hour ok), then remove the chicken and slice/dice/shred
Prepared to be BLOWN AWAY by how juicy the breast is!
Barely cooking right?? *She says, smugly*
It’s not on the stove. You don’t need a thermometer. You literally walk away and just leave it, knowing that it’s fine even for up to 1 hour – which I have done countless times, lulled into a serious state of relaxation because of how much confidence I have in this recipe!
What you need to make poached chicken
Fundamentally, all you need is chicken breast. But if you’re intending to use the chicken without adding lots of other flavours, it’s nice to add some flavourings into the poaching liquid.
You can add other fresh or dried herbs and dried spices.
DO NOT add salt or other salted liquids like Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce etc. Salt will affect the temperature at which the water comes to a boil and cools, which may affect the chicken cooking through completely using this method.
Chicken breast this succulent and juicy is even delicious eaten plain when it’s freshly made. But here are a just a few more suggestions for what to make with Poached Chicken – the list is long, it’s a handy to have a stash!
What to make with Poached Chicken
Sandwiches – use sliced like cold cuts, or diced and used in a mayonnaise based filling (such as diced avocado, egg, mayonnaise, finely sliced celery, chives, red onion or green onion, mustard, salt and pepper);
Make your own Salad – slice, shred or dice and add to salads. Make your own – try it with the Honey Mustard Dressing (pictured above), French Dressing, Balsamic, Italian, Caesar, or a creamy Yogurt Dressing (5 varieties!);
Chicken Salad – Use it in any main course salad calling for cooked chicken, such as Chinese Chicken Salad, Thai Chicken Salad, Lemon Chicken Salad or Mexican Chicken Salad;
Add chicken into one of these salads to transform them into a meal:
Add poached chicken into one of these salads
Add into a pasta or rice salad;
Soups – add protein into soups, or use in place of chicken in the recipes (except recipes where cooking the chicken forms part of the broth flavour). Here are some suggestions:
Soups for poached chicken (shred or dice)
Serve with Sauce – One of my favourite ways to serve it as a meal is with a simple sauce, like this Honey Mustard Sauce pictured below. Either make a salad (the sauce is really just a dressing, so it’s made for salads!), or serve it over mashed potato or rice, or for low carb options, try creamy mashed cauliflower or cauliflower rice!
More sauces for poached chicken – here are some more sauce options for poached chicken. Some of these recipes have another protein in the recipe – just skip that part and make the sauce!
Ginger Shallot Sauce – this uses this poached chicken recipe! Tastes like Hainanese Chicken.
And a few final ideas for other things to make with poached chicken:
Burritos
Toss into stir fried noodles or fried rice
Make a giant Baked Frittata, add into Quiche or make Mini Quiches
Chicken Rice Casserole – stir it in at the end
Pasta! Use in place of cooking chicken in any pasta recipe (like this Creamy Chicken Pasta) or add it into a meat free one for an extra hit of protein
And with that – I’m out! I hope this poached chicken becomes a staple recipe for you like it is for me. 🙂 – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
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Poached Chicken – Foolproof, perfect, AMAZINGLY juicy breast
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts , boneless skinless, 250g/8.5 oz each (Note 1)
Optional flavourings (Note 2)
- 1 lemon , quartered
- 1 bay leaf , dried or fresh
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
Instructions
- Take chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking.
- Fill a saucepan with water so the chicken breast will be well submerged with at least 2" / 5cm of water above it in a single layer (can be snug but do not stack).
- Add Flavourings, if using (squeeze in lemon juice, add used lemon).
- Bring water to boil.
- Place chicken breast in water, place lid on, bring back up to the boil. IMMEDIATELY remove saucepan from stove and set aside for 20 minutes (it's fine up to 45 min to 1 hr, won't overcook).
- Remove chicken from water. Slice and be amazed how perfectly juicy and tender the breast is!! Or chop/shred and use as desired.
- If reserving for later use, cover loosely to cool then refrigerate whole – see Note 6.
Recipe Notes:
- 250g/8.5oz each chicken breast – leave in water 20 minutes
- 300g/10oz each breast – take out of fridge 30 minutes prior, leave in water for 25 to 30 minutes
- Larger than 300g/10oz – are you sure they are CHICKEN breasts?? ?
- 220g / 7oz or smaller – recipe works fine but is not quite as juicy, but still juicier than normal simmering method. Can pull out of water earlier using a thermometer – cooked breast is 66°C / 151°F, check at 16 minutes.
- Up to 45 minutes, and I still do not notice any loss of juiciness in the breast
- Around 1 hour, I notice that it is slightly less juicy – but still way juicier than the usual methods of poaching!
- Frozen chicken – must be fully thawed before using.
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
The pool filter is working overtime!
Holy moly. Tin and Dozer know what they are doing!!! Thank you thank you.
WOW! You said it Nagi.. so easy. Super moist. This was my first time ever poaching chicken and it was simple as! This will become a weekly thing in my household. My 3 year old can’t stop eating it!! Meal prep chicken is sorted! Thank you!!
Forgot to rate!!
i accidently put salt in!! will it affect it???
It should be fine Sarah! N x
Made this today. Not only is it as juicy as promised but it made my house smell smell like a florist.Great cutting tip too. Thanks Nagi. You are a wizard.
There is a small discrepancy in your method. Water boils at 212 F at sea level. If you are at high altitude, some modification will be necessary, i.e. longer time in boiling water or longer soak time.
I bet you feel better for getting that off your chest, Roy!
I was a little thrown by the simplicity of the recipe, as most other poaching methods include salt (presumably to seal in juiciness) but your method worked flawlessly. I left the pot on the stove for the full hour after adding the chicken, and the thermal mass of the water was sufficient to cook the chicken through.
I shredded one breast for chicken tacos and sliced the other one thinly against the grain for an alfredo dish.
Perfect and easy – best of all worlds.
So easy and delish! I saved the poaching water to use as a light stock, as I’d used bay, celery, pepper corns and lemon as flavourings.
Nice Alimak! N x
Can I cook more then the two breasts listed at one time? Does that change the water temp or throw off the recipe?
Amazing!! I’ve never cooked chicken like this but it was so excellent and so soft
I tried cooking 2 butterflied 10oz breasts at once, and used a bit less than 2″ of water in a 10″ pot. After I put the breasts in, I couldn’t get the water to return to a boil fast enough for me to be comfortable, so I took the pot off the heat in a couple min. I was watching the internal temp with a thermometer, and when I took them off, the center parts were cresting 170F, higher than we need it.
2 minutes after I removed from heat, the centers were 135F. And 5min after that, 155F, while the water was still 190, so plenty of thermal mass to keep cooking the chicken.
I decided to gamble and pulled the breasts out to rapidly cut off cooking. Let it stand in air for about 10min.
So 2min of burner after I put the breasts in, 7 min of sitting in hot water, 10min resting.
They came out quite tender, but it seems like the thermal mass of your boiled water is a huge variable in standing in water time that would work.
I just made the poached chicken!! I had my doubts that it could really be that easy but it is!!! Very juicy, simple and quick-ish. Even my picky mother-in-law liked it!!!!
Wahoo, sounds like you nailed it Nancy! N x
This method is a game changer. I missed the note about not salting the water, so the chicken came out a little overdone/dry but still worked fine in my pesto pasta. I’m sure it tastes even better when done correctly. After removing the chicken from the pot, I brought the water back to a boil and used it to cook the noodles. Easy lunch.
Perfect Laura!!! Love a one pot dish!! N x
I actually have a question. I was looking over your chicken pot pie recipe and saw that you cook the chicken on a low simmer about 15 minutes and then use the stock liquid. I want to follow this method, but I am using chicken breasts rather than thigh meat, as in your recipe. I still like the idea of the stock/milk/bouillon combo, but I know I’m not supposed to boil it (as this recipe does). My question is…How do I combine these methods or is one superior to the other in regards to chicken pot pie? Thanks so much!
Just started a healthy 21 day eating plan. I needed poached chicken and I used this recipe Monday. Now, it’s Friday and I’m poaching chicken breasts again but adding garlic, bayleaf and lemon to the water. This so easy and made delicious chicken. thank you.
Nagi, this recipe amazed me. I admit I was skeptical. I cooked two 5 oz breasts for twenty minutes, temped them, and they were perfect at 160°. Thank you.
You’re converted now!!! 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi! So glad I found your site. I used this recipe for chicken legs, with a bit of tweaking to the cooking time for the high altitude and the sizes of the pieces. Then I coated the poached legs with a mixture of bread crumbs, seasoning, and oil, and air fried them. It worked out perfectly. My husband said he never had such juicy chicken before. Thank you so much!
Five stars, of course!
Hi Nagi, this (and many, many other recipes of yours) is amazing and perfect.
It seems the breast is cooked because all the meat is white when sliced into. However once sliced, the juices that collect at the bottom of the container is tinged pink. Has it been cooked to a safe level? And should the chicken sit in those pink-tinged juices for storage?
Being a little paranoid, I tip it out and then pour boiling water over the top and drain (still juicy!!) but wondered if this is necessary? I always leave the chicken in poaching liquid for minimum 30 minutes (paranoid!)
Hi Mai, that all depends on how big the chicken is that you’re poaching – is it larger than the recipe size that it may just need a little longer in the poaching liquid? I wouldn’t pour boiling water over the top again – you’ll be scorching the chicken and it will dry out. N x
Hi Nagi, this recipe is excellent and works every time – thank you for sharing!
I also have the same issue of having slightly pink juices after slicing. The chicken is definitely cooked through but I do feel paranoid. I left one breast for 30 mins and the second for 40 mins but still the same result with the pink juices. Any further suggestions would be great.
My husbands heart sank when I said I was making poached chicken, I followed your recipe exactly, even the honey mustard sauce. I served it with a simple mango salad. After he’d eaten it he said it was the nicest chicken I’ve made and I can make it anytime
Very happy, thank you for a keeper.
I always seem to overcook chicken but this was perfect.
You’ve converted him now Jacqueline!! N x
honestly my local safeway sells chicken breast on sale for 99c/lb from the butcher block so i can’t pass that up – and those suckers are at least a pound each! i just chop it in half, though, and this works great 🙂
Oops, I forgot to say Thank You to Nagi. I’ve used a few of your recipes and you do not disappoint.
Your Safeway and my Albertson’s puts those huge chicken breasts on sale regularly. I usually split and pound them for chicken cutlets, but I really want to make chicken salad. I’m giving this a try. Thanks
Thanks for sharing this recipe Nagi. This is honestly like a life skill that everyone needs to learn! The most tender chicken breasts I have ever made. Thanks again
And it’s so versatile Sara!! I’m so glad you’re converted 🙂 N x
Even hubby loved it!.. Had never made Poached chicken before and even more so avoided breast as it was always dry compared to thigh meat…Moist & Tender as described. Another winner for the cookbook that will be made again.. Might even get adventurous and add a few more spices to the pot… (-;
Oh. My. Goodness. Amazing. Best poached chicken I’ve ever tasted. Thanks so much Nagi.