Chinese Poached Chicken with Ginger Soy Sauce is a healthy and delicious way to prepare chicken. Make extra poached chicken and use in salads, soups, and noodle dishes throughout the week. 52 calories/0 Freestyle points per serving.
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 baby bok choy and brown rice to accompany the poached chicken. Any leftover poached chicken can be eaten the next day with soba noodles in soup, Asian Slaw with Spicy Peanut Sauce or Chinese Sesame Noodles.
Chinese Poached Chicken with Ginger Soy Sauce is a healthy, delicious way to enjoy chicken, and it is virtually fat-free except for the sesame oil in the soy ginger sauce. Serve warm or cold.
Here’s how you poach chicken, using a traditional Chinese approach. The ginger soy sauce dipping sauce is strong, so use sparingly. Please note the simpler poaching liquid in the headnotes.
Chinese Poached Chicken with Ginger Soy Sauce
For a simpler version of this recipe, poach the chicken with just ginger, scallion, black peppercorns, and salt. If you don't have dark soy sauce, substitute with 1 more teaspoon of regular soy sauce.
Ingredients
Chinese Poached Chicken
- 2 stalks celery cut into 2" pieces
- 1/2 cup cilantro cut into 2" pieces
- 2 shallots peeled, halved
- 1 piece ginger 1 1/2" long, sliced thinly
- 1 clove garlic
- 10 whole coriander seeds
- 6 white peppercorns
- 8 Szechuan peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or sherry not cooking sherry
- 1 whole chicken breast on the bone with skin, or 2 split chicken breasts (~ 2 pounds)
Soy Ginger Sauce
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ginger minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons scallion finely julienned
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- pinch white pepper
- 1/3 cup poaching liquid
Garnish
- fresh cilantro sprigs
Instructions
Chinese Poached Chicken
-
In a large saucepan, place celery, coriander, shallots, ginger, scallions, garlic, coriander seeds, white peppercorns, Szechuan peppercorns and salt. Add enough water to cover chicken (I put the chicken in the saucepan to see how much water I need, then remove the chicken). 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 10 more minutes. Turn off heat and let stand, covered, for 15 minutes.
-
Remove chicken from poaching liquid and let cool, covered with plastic. Reserve 1/3 cup poaching liquid for Ginger Soy Sauce and to make chicken soup afterwards.
-
Remove bones and skin from chicken, and add back to remaining poaching liquid in pot. See recipe notes about making chicken broth.
-
Shred chicken into bite-size pieces.
Soy Ginger Sauce
-
To make sauce, combine all Soy Ginger Sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
To Serve
-
Serve chicken with Soy Ginger Sauce on the side. Garnish with fresh coriander.
Recipe Notes
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.
0 Freestyle points per serving.
Soy Ginger Sauce
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.
Those chicken slices look really tender and juicy!