Here’s how to poach chicken breasts so it comes out juicy and flavorful every time. So easy and so many ways to use the cooked chicken!
Poaching may not be something you think of often, other than poaching eggs for eggs benedict. But you can poach all sorts of things! This Poached Salmon recipe is great and today I’ll show you how to poach chicken breasts. It’s so easy and the chicken ends up wonderfully tender.
Scroll down to read more about how it all comes together or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.
What Is Poaching?
Poaching is gently simmering food in liquid. The moisture around the food helps keep it juicy, and the slower, more gentle heat helps keep it tender.
Poaching doesn’t add a lot of flavor, however. You won’t get the browning that baking or pan-searing will get you, or the smoky notes of grilling. But sometimes that simple, straight-ahead flavor of the food itself is ideal. If you’re making a chicken salad for example, the mild flavor of poached chicken will keep your salad light and fresh-tasting.
You can also poach shrimp or even poach frozen chicken!
How To Poach Chicken Breasts
Now that I’ve convinced you to give poaching chicken breasts a chance, here’s a couple of tips to ensure your chicken comes out as juicy and flavorful as possible.
One, start your chicken breasts in a pot of cold water, and bring it up to a boil gently. Don’t boil your water first and then add the chicken. The shock of hot water can end up toughening up the chicken.
Add plenty of salt to the water, especially if you plan to eat the chicken as is and not mixed with any other ingredients. The recipe below only uses 1 and 1/2 teaspoons, under the assumption that you will season the chicken afterwards when using it in a recipe. If you plan to eat the chicken as is or with minimal other ingredients, then use 2 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt.
Optionally, you can add other flavors to your poaching liquid. For a basic poaching liquid, I like garlic, peppercorns, and parsley. You could also try sprigs of fresh rosemary or bay leaves.
With the exception of the salt, all these aromatics will make only a subtle difference, so don’t fuss over it too much. Add what inspires you and play around with the flavors.
As soon as the water comes to a boil, take the skillet off the heat and let the chicken finish cooking by simply sitting in the hot water. It’ll take about 10 minutes for four breasts to reach 150°F.
Why aren’t we cooking to 165°F as usual for chicken? In lean white meat, maintaining an internal temperature of 150°F for 3 minutes is as food safe as 165°F for 10 seconds. So, poach your chicken to 150°F, let it rest for 5 minutes, and enjoy juicy, flavorful cooked chicken every time.
How To Use Poached Chicken
I already mentioned that poached chicken is perfect for chicken salad. Poached chicken is also great on a green salad or rice bowl or in a pasta salad.
Shred the chicken and toss with salsa to use in tacos or with BBQ sauce for chicken sandwiches. Cut up pieces of chicken and add to soup or mix in with fettuccine alfredo. Since the chicken is tender and doesn’t have lots of added flavor yet, it’s great to meal prep with and use in all sorts of dishes.
More Cooking Methods For Chicken
You can browse every one of my chicken recipes but here’s some more ways to cook chicken that you should know.
- Best Baked Chicken Breasts
- Baked Bone-in Chicken Breasts
- How to Grill Chicken
- Breaded Air Fryer Chicken Breasts
- How to Roast a Whole Chicken
- Pan-Fried Chicken Breasts
- Perfectly Cooked Chicken Thighs
Podcast Episode About Poaching Chicken Breasts
Listen to me explain briefly about how to poach chicken breasts, along with some other great tips, by clicking the play button below:
How to Poach Chicken Breasts Recipe
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Entrée
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
DESCRIPTION
Optionally add additional ingredients to the water for flavoring. I like to add 8-10 peppercorns, 2 cloves garlic, smashed, and a handful of fresh parsley.
Ingredients
- 4 (7-8 oz.) boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 4 cups cold water, or more if needed
- 1 and 1/2 tsp. salt*
Instructions
- Put the chicken in a skillet large enough to hold it in a single layer.
- Add the water and sprinkle the salt on top. (If the water doesn’t cover the chicken add more until it does.) Add any additional flavorings.
- Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat.
- Turn the breasts over, then cover the skillet and remove it from the heat.
- Let the chicken sit in the hot water until the internal temperature is 150°F**, about 10 minutes. (The time will vary depending on the size of the breasts.)
- Take the chicken out of the water and let it rest at least 5 minutes before slicing or serving.
Love this recipe? I’d appreciate it if you could scroll down and add a *5 star rating* to help others know they’ll love it as well!
Notes
*This recipe doesn’t use very much salt because I assume that you will put this chicken into other recipes that will contain salt. If you are planning to eat the chicken as is or with minimal other ingredients, increase the amount of salt here to 2 and 1/2 teaspoons.
**This temperature is below the recommended USDA guidelines for chicken, which is 165°F. If you are immunocompromised, pregnant, or have any other concerns about this, cook the chicken to a temperature of 165°F.
Thank you for this recipe. I tried it last night and it came out just a little bit tough and without a lot of flavor. I re-read the recipe this morning to see what I missed. I forgot to turn the chicken breasts over for starters, but would there also be evidence by way of the flavor and texture that I under-measured the salt?
Terry, I’m not sure about the toughness. The chicken is only cooking to 150F, which is quite rare for chicken, really. It should be quite tender. Did you use a thermometer? It’s possible your chicken breasts were smaller than the ones noted in the recipe.
As to the salt, I just went and added a note to the recipe about this. My intention with this recipe was that people would be cooking the chicken to use in other recipes, and there would be salt added at that point. I therefore didn’t want the chicken overly salty. But that wasn’t actually specified anywhere, my mistake. So now the recipe says to use 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt if planning to use the chicken in recipes but to use 2 and 1/2 teaspoons if planning to eat the chicken as is or with minimal other ingredients. Thank you for your feedback, and I hope my answer has helped.
I came to your website to read about brining chicken breasts and fell down a rabbit hole :-) I’ll be a frequent flyer, for sure. For now, I’m brining, then probably poaching because I want to shred in my Vitamix (game-changer) and use for chicken salad and quesadillas. I need to cook up boneless thighs and bone-in/skin-on thighs, as well I’m not sure if I should brine the thighs, or not, so I’ll look around your website before I do. Thanks for all the help!
I’m thrilled you found me and are getting the information you need, Jen! In case you didn’t find it yet, brining chicken thighs info can be found here – https://cookthestory.com/how-to-brine-chicken-thighs/ Enjoy!