Chicken is a regular part of our weekly dinner rotation, whether it’s boneless breasts in a pesto sauce, chicken thighs and legs in a fragrant blend of Moroccan spices or crispy skinned roast chicken redolent of garlic and lemon. I turn to poached chicken when I am making a broth that is going to be made into chicken stock or a chicken soup. Recently, one too many dinners out, vacation and parties called for a few weeks of eating light. So I was interested to see an article in the latest issue of Fine Cooking, “Beyond Roast Chicken. Three new ways to cook a whole bird from three creative chefs.”
That’s what attracted me to the recipe that Lidia Bastianich offered in this article, poached chicken with salsa rustica. Lidia is a master of Italian cooking, a restaurateur, and author of many cookbooks. Her television programs on PBS are not only informative but entertaining as well. So I decided to follow Lidia’s lead and made a poached chicken for dinner.
Poaching is a technique that cooks chicken gently and slowly, submerged in a liquid that is heated to just under the boiling point, about 180F, when small bubbles begin to break the surface. The cooking process begins with a broth of herbs and spices, enhanced with dried porcini mushrooms and Parmesan rinds, providing the rich umami. Fragrant root vegetables, fennel and celery root, along with shallots, leeks and turnips are added next to the broth. Taking a step from what we normally do with our roast chicken, she stuffs it with peppercorns, bay, crushed garlic and lemon. The chicken is double wrapped in cheesecloth which both keeps the aromatics in the bird and not in the broth and provides a way to retrieve the chicken from the pot at the end of cooking. Poaching chicken provides both a moist flavorful chicken with no additional fat and a flavorful broth to serve with the meal and later as a soup.
Don’t skip the salsa rustica that accompanies this dish. Made mostly with pantry ingredients, it’s the first salsa I’ve ever seen that includes a hard-boiled egg. It adds a pop of color to the very flavorful but pale chicken and a unique piquant flavor. I could see serving this salsa with fish and pork as well.
Be sure to use Turkish or true bay leaves, laurus nobilis. California bay leaves are not from the same family but are similar in shape. They have a strong menthol flavor that will overpower the dish. I am fortunate that we have several Turkish bay trees to pick my leaves from. The salsa rustica recipe called for dill gherkins but I picked up a jar of cornichons. So is there really that big of a difference? Gherkins can refer to both a variety of cucumber, harvested very small for the pickling process and the pickle itself. Gherkins can be either tart or sweet. French cornichons are the tart, crisp pickles made from gherkins or other cucumbers picked small. My choice was fine since the original recipe called for dill (tart) gherkins.
The broth, delicious on it’s own, can be made into a quick soup. Bring the broth to a simmer and add a small pasta such as ditalini or orzo. Cook until al dente and serve topped with grated cheese and finely chopped parsley. We used the broth several days later to poach halibut fillets seasoned with a ginger citrus herb blend and topped with fresh lime peel.
Poached Chicken with Salsa Rustica from Fine Cooking #122
Serves 4-6, yields 3 quarts broth
Salsa Rustica
Ingredients
- 1/3c extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4c red wine vinegar
- 1/3c thinly sliced scallions
- 1/4c finely chopped red onion
- 1/4c finely chopped jarred roasted red pepper
- 1/4c finely chopped cornichons
- 1 hard boiled egg, finely chopped
- 1T balsamic capers, drained
- 1/8t dried mustard
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- 2T finely chopped flat leaved parsley
- Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Directions
- In a medium bowl, whisk the olive oil and vinegar. Add the scallions, onion, roasted red pepper, cornichons, egg, capers, mustard and a pinch of cayenne. Whisk to combine.
- The salsa can be made up to 5 days ahead, but you will probably consume it before the chicken is cooked so either make a double batch or make it the day of! Cover and refrigerate, let sit at room temperature for a half hour before serving. Before serving, stir in the parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Poached Whole Chicken
Ingredients
- 8 sprigs flat leaved parsley
- 1T plus 2t whole black peppercorns
- Kosher salt
- 1/4c dried mushrooms (1/4oz), preferably porcini
- 4 fresh Turkish bay leaves
- 1 piece of Parmigiano-Reggiano rind (optional but nice)
- 8 large shallots, peeled
- 2 large turnips cut into 1 inch wedges (carrots were the original choice…)
- 2 large leeks, white and light green parts, cut crosswise into 4-inch pieces, halved lengthwise and rinsed
- 1 large fennel bulb, trimmed and cut through the root into 6 wedges
- 1 medium celery root, trimmed, peeled and cut into large wedges
- 1 whole chicken (about 3 1/2 lb) my brand of choice is Bell and Evans
- 3 large cloves garlic, smashed
- 1 lemon, halved
Directions
- Place the parsley sprigs and 1 tablespoon of the peppercorns on a six inch square of cheesecloth. Tie up with string to make a sachet.
- Pour 6 quarts of water to a 10-12 quart stockpot. Add the sachet, 2T salt, the dried mushrooms, 2 bay leaves and cheese rind if using. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the shallots, turnips, leeks, fennel and celery root. Return the liquid to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, partially cover and let vegetables simmer while you prepare the chicken, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Remove the giblets from the chicken (mine didn’t have them!!), rinse them and reserve. Into the chicken cavity place 1t salt, the garlic, the remaining 2t peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, the juice of the lemon and the squeezed lemon halves. Tie the bird’s legs together and tuck the wings behind the neck.
- Cut a 30 inch double-layer cheesecloth square and lay it on a work surface. Put the chicken in the center, breast side up. Tie two diagonally opposite corners snugly over the bird with a simple over hand knot. Tie the other corners the same way.
- Cut a yard long length of string and thread one end through the cheesecloth topknots. Pull the ends even and tie in a double knot close to the cheesecloth.
- Lower the chicken into the broth, being careful to keep the string out of the pot. Loop the free end of the string around a handle of the stockpot so it doesn’t fall into the pot. Add giblets if using. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
- Cook, uncovered until the chicken is cooked through, an instant read thermometer inserted into the breast will register 158-160F. The chicken will continue to cook after you remove it from the pot, the final temperature will be 165F. Start checking at 45 minutes. If you prefer firmer vegetables, check on them sooner and remove them with a slotted spoon.
- Set a deep rimmed baking sheet large enough to hold the chicken near the pot. Transfer the chicken to the baking sheet, letting the excess liquid drain back into the pot. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the vegetables to a bowl and ladle a bit of the broth over them. Cover to keep warm.
- Unwrap the bird, remove the string and discard the ingredients from the cavity. Pour some hot broth over the bird and cover loosely with foil to keep it warm.
- Set a fine strainer over a deep pot and strain the broth.
- Carve the chicken and serve with the vegetables, moistened with some broth and topped with salsa. Leftover broth can be refrigerated for 5 days or frozen up to 3 months.
