Perfect Poached Chicken

This poached chicken recipe makes the juiciest, most tender chicken you’ll ever have! Use our recipe for chicken breasts or thighs. The chicken stays lean, and the texture turns soft, juicy, and tender.

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It takes 10 to 15 minutes to poach chicken. We especially love this poaching method for chicken breasts, although you can absolutely use it to poach chicken thighs.

With our easy poaching method, the chicken becomes super flavor juicy. Use poached chicken to make the best chicken salad, rice bowls, enchiladas, and tacos.

Key Ingredients

• Chicken: You can use chicken breasts or chicken thighs in our poached chicken recipe.
• Water, stock, or broth: I typically use water when poaching chicken, but for more flavor, chicken or vegetable stock works nicely.
• Garlic, shallot, bay leaf, and thyme: These aromatics add flavor to our poaching liquid. The combination of aromatics is up to you and can be adapted based on how you plan to use your poached chicken. For example, if you plan to add it to a Mexican-inspired rice bowl, combine garlic, cilantro, and some cumin. Adding ginger would be excellent for more Asian-inspired dishes.
• Salt: A must! By adding salt to your poaching liquid, you make sure that the poached chicken is ultra-flavorful and perfectly seasoned.

How to Poach Chicken

Poaching chicken is simple. Start by adding your chicken, aromatics, and salt to a pot, and then add enough water to cover the chicken by one inch.

Place the pot over medium heat and wait, without increasing the heat, until the cooking liquid comes to a very low simmer — this takes a few minutes and keeps the chicken soft and tender. Increasing the heat at this point to speed up the simmer can make the chicken tough.

Lower the heat and cook until the chicken is cooked through (about 10 to 15 more minutes), and then transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let rest for a few minutes. Slice and serve.

And that’s it, poached chicken that’s tender and flavorful. See our simple chicken broth recipe for tips on poaching a whole chicken. In that recipe, we gently poach a whole chicken until it is perfectly cooked. Since the chicken cooks for about 1 hour, the poaching liquid turns into the most delicious chicken broth.

Storing Poached Chicken

Poached chicken lasts up to 4 days if stored in an airtight container in the fridge. To keep it extra juicy, add some poaching liquid to the container before storing. To freeze poached chicken, cool and drain it, then store it in a freezer-safe airtight container or bag for up to 3 months. Thaw the chicken thoroughly in the refrigerator overnight before using.

Ways to Use Poached Chicken

Use poached chicken in salads and sandwiches, or add to recipes at the end of cooking to warm through. I love using poached chicken to make creamy chicken salad. I also add poached chicken to rice and grain bowls. See this buffalo chicken bowl as one example. You can also use it anytime a recipe calls for cooked chicken, so add it to soups, enchiladas, and quesadillas.

More Poaching Recipes

We love this poaching method so much, we also use it for perfectly poached shrimp and succulent poached salmon. We have videos for both recipes, so we highly recommend checking them out.