Poached Chicken - Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 medium 1,3kg pasture reared chicken
• 2 litres veg stock
• 3 carrots, finely sliced
• 4 celery sticks, finely sliced
• 1 large onion, finely sliced
• 3 large leeks, finely sliced, washed well
• 4 garlic cloves bashed
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon peppercorns
• 3 star anise
• 4 cloves
• 15 g parsley

Method

• Add the chicken to a medium casserole, add the stock, and bring to a gentle simmer. Skim the white foam and discard. I tend to skim throughout the cooking process.
• Add all the ingredients to the chicken and gently simmer for 40 minutes, under no circumstances do we want to boil the liquid, we are looking for a gentle simmer, one where you can definitely see bubbles and steam but not a boil.
• After 40minutes, remove from the heat, and leave to cool (& cook) for another 40 minutes off the heat.
• Carefully remove the chicken and drain and reserve the cooking liquid.
• When cool enough to handle, shred the chicken keeping the wings intact.
• For the cooking liquid you have two options here: Option 1 would be to use or freeze the cooking liquid as it is as a fragrant light stock, good for soups. You can freeze the whole carcass too.
• Option 2 would be to simmer the cooking liquid with the carcass (wings attached) to intensify the flavour. You will reduce the liquid to half by then you will be left with a killer stock, great for risottos.

Recipe by Adre's Kitchen