How to Boil Chicken for a Week’s Worth of Meals

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Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food styling by Anna Stockwell

If you ask your preferred AI informant “how to boil chicken” and wind up with an overcooked puck of poultry, shame on the programmers—but they aren’t entirely to blame. The better question is: How should I poach chicken? Poaching refers to something cooked gently in a simmering liquid. Boiling, on the other hand, is rough and tumble, with big bubbles rising rapidly to the surface, knocking things around as they burst. For such delicate meat and for even cooking, the gentle method is far more foolproof.

While you can poach any part of the chicken, boneless, skinless chicken breasts are one of the more popular cuts for this preparation. Poached chicken breasts are moist, tender, and easily infused with spices and herbs. Having a stash on hand shortens weeknight prep time, allowing you to incorporate satisfying protein into otherwise no-cook meals.

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Plus, they’re infinitely versatile: Feed bite-size cuts of poached chicken to your growing toddler, slice them thin and toss with greens and a buttermilk vinaigrette for dinner on the fly, shred and stir them into your favorite simmer sauce to mix with pasta or pile on a bun with your favorite store-bought BBQ sauce. Truly, poached chicken breast is the blank canvas of cooking—you just need to know how to boil them—excuse me, poach them the right way. This step-by-step guide delivers flavorful, juicy chicken every time.

1. Start with cold water

Never submerge chicken directly into boiling water, which will result in poultry that’s raw in the center with a dried-out surface. Instead, fill a large pot with 1½" cold water. Choose a pot that will fit the amount of chicken you want to cook in a single, even layer. (Note: If you use frozen chicken breasts, it’s best to allow them to thaw in the refrigerator overnight before cooking. If you’re short on time, you can poach a chicken breast from frozen, but it may not cook as evenly). If you’re cooking bone-in chicken, you might need more water—add water until the liquid reaches about ½" above the surface of the meat.

2. Season generously

Next, season the cooking liquid liberally with salt and other aromatics. Try smashed garlic cloves, bay leaves, slices of fresh ginger, peppercorns, dried chiles, halved lemons, heartier fresh herbs like thyme or rosemary, etc. Alternatively, you can poach the meat in chicken stock or another flavorful liquid—think fresh apple cider, white wine, or water cut with Shaoxing cooking wine (an especially flavorful, savory wine made from rice) and soy sauce, like in this recipe from Epi contributor Grace Young—for deeper flavors.

3. Don’t boil; simmer

Place your chicken in an even layer on the bottom of the pot. Place the pot over medium heat and keep an eye on it until the liquid barely begins to simmer, then turn the heat to low and cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid. Cook until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the chicken breasts registers an internal temperature of 150° to 155°, about 15 minutes after the water starts simmering, depending on the thickness of the breasts. The total cooking time for bone-in chicken ranges from 20 to 25 minutes.

4. Let it rest

Once the chicken reaches the right temperature, use tongs to remove the breasts from the pot. The temperature of the meat will continue to rise for a few minutes after you remove it from the heat, eventually reaching the USDA-recommended temperature of 165°.

If you’re meal-prepping, go ahead and stash the cooked chicken in an airtight container in the refrigerator—you don’t even need to wait for it to cool. Serving it right away? Let the meat rest for about 5 minutes before slicing and serving. And don’t throw away the cooking liquid! Use it as a building block the next time you make stock or cook dried beans or grains (like wheatberries or farro). Strain the liquid before storing it in an airtight container, which you can pop into the freezer for a day when you have more time.

5. Turn that chicken into a week’s worth of meals

Sure, you could buy a rotisserie chicken at the supermarket and divvy it into dinners all week, but you’d miss the pure flavor of cold poached chicken breasts. If you keep your poaching liquid simple (i.e., just salt), the resulting breasts can be a juicy blank canvas for any dinner or lunch your mind can dream up.

Make the most of salads:

Poached sliced or shredded chicken is right at home in almost any green salad, grain bowl, or pasta dinner. I especially love adding it to cold rice or soba noodles in the summer. Or, use it instead of rotisserie chicken in my crunchy apricot-chicken salad. On cooler nights, swap it for tofu in cookbook author Hetty McKinnon’s spicy celery and glass noodle salad. It’s also the ideal medium for chicken salad (no, you don’t need a recipe).

Stack into sandwiches (or quesadillas):

Wide, thin slices of gently cooked breast make excellent sandwich fodder. Layer them with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, and mayo on your favorite bread, and you’re ready to go. You can also shred the chicken, stack it with cheese between tortillas, and melt it briefly in a hot skillet with salsa for a quick quesadilla or taco—or use it instead of rotisserie chicken to make a batch of enchiladas.

Whip up soup in a flash:

On a busy weeknight, there isn’t enough time to break down a whole chicken or make a stock of skin-on, bone-in chicken parts to make a classic chicken noodle soup—save that for the weekends. But good quality store-bought chicken broth will take you a long way. Use it to poach the chicken, reinforcing the broth. Meanwhile, boil a small pasta (like ditalini) in a separate pot of water. When the chicken is ready, slice or shred it and add it back to the broth (you may need to add more store-bought broth). Add the cooked and drained pasta, roughly chopped Swiss chard, and lemon juice. Simmer for a moment over medium-high heat to bring together all the flavors, and let the chard wilt. Top each bowl with grated Parmesan.

Or eat it on its own (plus sauce)

Even if you’re not a toddler, these tender chicken breasts can be satisfying—they just need a sauce (which you can also meal prep, if so inclined). Think cucumber raita, Senegalese peanut sauce, chili oil, a quick pesto, and beyond.

Editor’s note: This story was first printed in August 2017 and has been updated with additional content by Devra Ferst.

Originally Appeared on Epicurious