Quote:
Originally posted by viet_mom
Someone on here suggested I "pouch" chicken breast so it is squishable in one's finger. Do you mean a boneless think sliced breast? And how do I "pouch" it? I tried a hotdog but it's too hard for her and she can't pulverize it.
Thanks everyone!
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I think that was me, and I meant "poach." Poaching is a method of cooking in liquid below boiling. For chicken, the water temp should be around 185. It's hard to tell temperature of non-boiling water, but 185 is about where small bubbles form on the bottom of the pan and the top of the water steams, but there are no rising bubbles.
Try this: bring a two cups of water to a boil in a fair sized saute pan or saucier. Lay in a chicken breast, and cook on one side for 20 seconds. The water should come up over half the side of the chichen. Too much water isn't something to worry about, but if it's too low, add more. Flip the breast with tongs and immediately turn down the heat to medium low. Let the water drop below boiling until it is just steaming a little with a few bubbles forming. Let the chicken poach like this for a while (20 minutes or so), and then flip and give it some more time (another 10 minutes, but a little longer won't hurt it). Since your water is around the target termperature for the food, it's not going to overcook too readily.
Take it out and let it cool. It will be squishable, especially when cut into small cubes. The first couple of times, you might want to try cutting it open to check for doneness before taking it out - it should be white all the way through the thickest part. One of the advantages of poaching is that it doesn't seem to make much of a difference if you cut a breast open while cooking (cut open a grilled or sauted breast while it's cooking and all the juices will run out).
This method of cooking is also great with fish (for you, and for baby when she gets a little older I suppose), but there the cooking temperature can be even lower.
I learned to poach from watching "Good Eats" on the Food Network. I was going to refer you to the transcript page for the episode, but I notice that it's replaying soon:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show..._19118,00.html (spree: food)
The show is weird, but the techniques it shows and explanations it gives are great, so I recommend catching the episode if you can.
