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| Chinese Poached Chicken with Soy Ginger Sauce |
Poaching is a virtually fat-free way of cooking chicken and fish. Although seldom used in American kitchens, poaching is a popular way of cooking in China. Growing up, I remember watching Titus Chan’s cooking show, “Cooking the Chanese Way,” (yes, I know, very corny, but the recipes were really good!) and making his Chinese Poached Chicken for dinner. I was fascinated by how soft and silky the chicken was, using such a simple cooking method.
Today, I decided to poach chicken breasts for a quick and easy dinner. I made a simple soy ginger sauce, stir-fried Chinese vegetables and rice to accompany the poached chicken. Any leftover poached chicken can be eaten the next day with soba noodles in soup or Kalyn’s Kitchen’s Spicy Whole Wheat Sesame Noodles.
Today, I decided to poach chicken breasts for a quick and easy dinner. I made a simple soy ginger sauce, stir-fried Chinese vegetables and rice to accompany the poached chicken. Any leftover poached chicken can be eaten the next day with soba noodles in soup or Kalyn’s Kitchen’s Spicy Whole Wheat Sesame Noodles.
Here’re how you poach chicken, using a traditional Chinese approach. The soy ginger dipping sauce is strong, so use sparingly.
Chinese Poached Chicken with Soy Ginger Sauce
Chinese Poached Chicken
6 cups water
2 stalks celery, cut into 2” pieces
1/2 cup fresh coriander, cut into 2” pieces
2 shallots, peeled, cut in half
1 piece ginger, 1½” long, sliced thinly
2 scallions, trimmed, cut into 2” pieces
1 garlic clove
10 whole coriander seeds
6 white peppercorns
8 Szechuan peppercorns
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons Shao-Hsing wine or sherry (not cooking sherry)
2 split chicken breasts, or 1 whole chicken breast, cut in half
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| Soy Ginger Sauce |
Soy Ginger Sauce:
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons mushroom soy sauce or dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 ½ teaspoon minced ginger
1 ½ teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons finely julienned scallion
1/4 teaspoon agave nectar
pinch white pepper
1/3 cup poaching liquid
fresh coriander, for garnish
In a large saucepan, place water, celery, coriander, shallots, ginger, scallions, garlic, coriander seeds, white peppercorns, Szechuan peppercorns and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
Add rice wine. Place chicken breast halves in poaching liquid, skin side up. Bring back to boil; lower heat, cover pot and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn chicken breasts over, and simmer 5 more minutes. Turn off heat and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes. Remove chicken from poaching liquid and let cool, covered with plastic. Remove bones and skin, and reserve for future use. Shred chicken into bite-size pieces.
To make sauce, combine all Soy Ginger Sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
Serve chicken with Soy Ginger Sauce on the side. Garnish with fresh coriander.
Note: Save bones and skin from poached chicken, and cook with remaining poaching liquid to make chicken broth. Skim fat from surface. Freeze broth for future use.
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| Mushroom Soy Sauce and Chinese Rice Wine |
It was nice meeting you at BlogHer Food. I look forward to reading your blog.
Great meeting you to Maria. Love all your soup recipes!
That looks nice! I do enjoy a good Chinese poached chicken.
Growing up, we had this a lot, and I took it for granted. Now I am reliving that experience with much appreciation. So simple, but delicious.
Poaching the chicken is such a great method for cooking. Great post! The soy ginger sauce sounds delicious.
I hope more people will try poaching, it keeps everything so moist and it's a healthy way to cook. The best part is that you can play around with some wonderful sauces to compliment the dish.