Whole Poached Chicken and Bone Broth
Why We Love This!
This is seriously a lifesaver at our house. Predominantly cooked for winter cold and flu therapy, it also pops up anytime we spot a nice free-range chicken at our local farmers market. Once this is cooked, cooled, and split back into the fridge in both pulled chicken and broth separately, it makes for super quick meals and a life-saving broth!
The trick is to gently poach the chicken without overcooking it, remove the flesh from the bones, and return the bones to the liquid to continue cooking the bone broth.
Remember chicken meat doesnt need to turn lilly-white to be cooked. Aside from the breast meat, the bone meat like the thighs should be cooked through, but pale pink in places. Trust your instincts and you will get beautiful succinctly result. You now also have two very versatile components for salads, wraps, soups, risotto, rice, and quick pasta dinners, to name a few.
Ingredients
- 1 medium to large-quality, free-range or organic chicken
- 3 large sticks of celery, leaves removed, roughly chopped
- 3 medium carrots, roughly chopped
- 2 medium brown onions, peeled, roughly chopped
- 40 grams of goji berries
- 4 Chinese red dates (optional)
- 4-5 dried bay leaves
- 1 bulb of garlic, roughly chopped
- 2 large slices of ginger
- 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 10 halved parsley stalks (no leaves)
Prep Time
- Prep:10 minutes
- Chicken - Poach: 35 minutes
- Stock -Simmer: A Further 35 minutes
- Ready in: @ 1 hour
- Keep: Meat Refrigerated for 5 days
- Keep: Stock Refrigerated for 7 days
Instructions
1. Rinse the chicken thoroughly inside and out, and place it in a large stock pot. Add all ingredients except parsley, goji berries, and dates if using. Fill the pot with filtered cold water to cover the chicken.
2. Cover the pot and bring briefly to a boil on high heat. This should take around 10-15 minutes. Watch carefully, and once boiling, lower heat and continue to simmer low, lid slightly ajar, for 10-15 more minutes. This may, of course, depend on the size of the chicken you are using.
3. Turn off the heat and allow to sit for a further 10 minutes with the lid on. Afterwards, remove the chicken from the broth and when cool enough to handle, strip all the meat from bones.
4. Break the meat up slightly, and place pieces in non-reactive air-tight containers. No need to immerse the meat, but spooning a small ladle of broth over the meat will help keep it jelly-like moist when reheating. Cover and refrigerate once cool.
5. On a low heat, re-add bones back to the broth along with the parsley, goji berries, and red dates, and continue to simmer, again with lid slightly ajar, for 35 minutes. Then strain and discard bones and vegetables.
6. Refrigerate or freeze stock when cooled.
Recipe Notes
- If you have time to skim any impurities from the stock during the first poaching process, you will end up with a clearer stock. Although I tend to spend time cleaning out any leftover organ meat from the carcass and washing thoroughly, so I don't have to!
- Try and source the red dates if you can. Any Asian grocer will have them, and while it's perfectly okay without them, it adds a superfood kick.
- Stock can be kept refrigerated for a few days to a week, although if you smell a slight sourness to it within the 7 days, bring it to a 5-minute boil before serving.
