Best New Thing: Boiled Chicken

Perhaps boiling chicken is one of those kitchen fundamentals everyone knows about and I’ve been missing out, but I’ve never heard of it. The closest understanding I have of boiling chicken is of the bones after roasting one (to make chicken stock). Well, boiled chicken is the best new thing in my kitchen. It skips the oven (fantastic during the hot summer months), kick starts a chicken broth (if the same recipe that calls for chicken calls for stock, it is very handy), and takes far less time than roasting. How to boil a chicken? Bring a pot of water to boil, put in the chicken and reduce heat to simmer, then cook for 25-30 minutes. Remove chicken and pull meat from the bone. Done! I’ve grown tired of purchasing chicken breasts because they are almost twice as expensive as bone-in meat, so this makes the bone-in or breast purchase decision easy, though I did boil chicken breasts last night and got the same result as bone-in.

Here’s what I’ve been making with my boiled chicken:

Chicken Gyros (Gourmet), Chicken Pot Pie (Dinner, A Love Story), Tacos, Chicken Spaghetti (Pioneer Woman) and soon, Enchiladas (Pioneer Woman).