Poached Chicken = Lunch for a Week

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." Said by my fellow Philadelphian Benjamin Franklin. Okay, so he's THE Philadelphian. At any rate, I dig his advice.

For the past several months, I've made time to plan my lunches for the upcoming work week. This has helped me to 1) save money, 2) save time each night trying to throw something together for lunch the next day, and 3) eat healthier. All desirable things!

One of the most efficient ways I've found to get a week's worth of lunch is to cook a large portion of something. Recently I began making a whole poached chicken on the weekend, and it's been a great source of easy meals during the week!

Poaching a whole chicken is low maintenance, so easy, and inexpensive (you can even splurge on an organic chicken). And it leaves me with a ton of healthy meal options for the week and a couple quarts of flavorful chicken stock that can be used for soups, cooking rice/quinoa, or braising veggies.

Once the chicken is cooked, you just pull all of the meat off the bones and store it in an airtight container (I like to scoop a few spoonfuls of the broth over top to keep it moist). There are a lot of things you can do with the shredded chicken:

• Add to a salad of mixed greens and veggies to make it a meal. 
• Make a chicken sandwich or wrap (the husband enjoys this). You can dress it up with whatever you like: avocado, mustards, roasted red peppers, arugula, etc. 
• Add to a quesadilla or a burrito (so easy to whip up one of these on a griddle!).
• Use in soups or casseroles.
• Mix it with your fav BBQ sauce, heat, and serve on top of a salt/peppered baked potato with a little cilantro sprinkled on top (seriously, this is so good).
• Add to stuffed peppers.
• Add at the very end to a stir-fry or noodle dish.
• Make chicken salad.

I'm sure there are more ideas — share if you have them!

Even though I have a recipe posted below, keep in mind that this is less of a recipe and more of a concept. If you don't have certain ingredients, don't fret! I tend to use what I have on hand. What you really want to be sure to add is things that will impart flavor: aromatics, herbs, spices. And as for the measurements, they are estimates. I tend to just toss stuff in and trust my gut on how much to add.


Whole Poached Chicken (makes about 1 cup shredded chicken per pound)

Ingredients:
4-6 lb. whole chicken (preferably free range, organic, or both)
1 tsp. peppercorns (or a good pinch)
2 tsp. kosher salt
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1 onion, quartered
1 carrot, sliced into thick chunks
1 lemon, sliced
Several stems of parsley, whole
2 slices ginger (adds a lovely fragrance, totally optional)

Directions:
Rinse your chicken and remove any parts from inside. Trim the skin around the opening of the chicken to reduce the amount of fat in your broth. Place the chicken in a very large stockpot and add all ingredients. Fill the pot with water, about an inch above the surface of the chicken, and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 75-90 minutes (on the longer end if your chicken is on the large side).

Then turn off the heat and allow your chicken to mellow in its stock. You want the chicken/stock to cool somewhat so that it's not scorching hot. This may take a couple of hours and is a very important step — it's what keeps the chicken moist and yummy.

Once cool enough to handle, carefully remove the chicken from the stock and place on a cutting board with a well. Remove all of the skin and discard. Pull the chicken off the bones and shred the meat into bite-size pieces.

Place in an airtight container and spoon about 1/2 cup of the stock on top (skim the fat first so you're not adding any to your healthy chicken).

If you plan to use the broth, you can store it in airtight containers. Either skim the fat before storing, or refrigerate the broth and remove the fat that rises to the top once chilled.


Print this recipe! 

Baked Brown Sugar Wings

The Superbowl. It's Sunday! It's the 49ers vs. the Ray Lewises!

Fact: Last year's game was a little more exciting for me. My team was in it (and won...ahem!).
Fact: This year I have no stake in either team and will use the game as an excuse to eat delicious, sporty finger food.
Fact: I've had a cold that has overstayed its welcome by about 4 days. It has striped me of my sense of taste! Sad trombone. It turns out that I eat strictly for pleasure.

If you like wings (and I mean wings where you can actually taste chicken, not just...fried), please make these! You will be astonished that they are so tender and full of flavor. And baked! So you're leaving behind all of the calories that oil adds.

Roasted Poblano Chicken Enchiladas

I know I'm supposed to be telling you all about my plans for turkeys and potatoes and stuffing of sorts. But what if I just wanted to tell you about these dreamy enchiladas instead? What then? Is that food-blogger blasphemy the week before Turkey Day?

I've always been a rebel.

Well, actually, no I haven't. In fact, when I was getting close to graduating from high school, my dad said to me, "Don't you ever want to get in trouble to see what it feels like? You can get detention if you want!"

So maybe I follow the rules. But there's something that feels a little badass when I'm charring a poblano pepper over an open flame. Yeah, that's right. I meant for that to burn. I meant for the alarm to go off, and for my husband to have to wave a pillow in front of the smoke detector.

Updated! Lemon Rosemary Roasted Chicken

Growing up, a staple in my mom's dinner repertoire for school/work nights was roasted chicken — and it also happened to be my best friend Jen's favorite night to come over for dinner! Even though it's a simple meal to put together, it looks and tastes impressive! And it's a healthy dinner option.

If you have about 15 minutes to put it together and about an hour to let it cook, you're in for a great dinner!

This post isn't so much a recipe but a concept. You can choose from a variety of herbs (I used rosemary and thyme, but you can also use tarragon) and citrus fruits (lemon is my favorite, but oranges give a more delicate citrus flavor and pair nicely with rosemary). Experiment and see what your favorite combination is! Here's my attempt at putting this "concept" into a recipe format.

Spicy Grilled Shrimp or Chicken

This is a great marinade that I've been using a lot lately! It has nice heat to it and is great with shrimp or chicken. It's also a rather attractive marinade...

As I often do, I started with someone else's recipe and adjusted it to my liking (as follows).

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

I have to be honest. Homemade chicken pot pie is really the driving force that made me want to start blogging. You tell people that you're having delicious chicken pot pie for dinner, and they "ooh" and "aah" and say you're fab and very Martha-like.

But really, what's so incredible about going home, pulling a pot pie out of the freezer, and popping it in the oven for an hour? One hour, and you've got this waiting for you.

And this. Oh baby.

If you have a couple of hours one weekend to make these, you're in for about 10 scrumptious, individually-packaged servings of chicken pot pie. Just a few simple ingredients will get you there. I got the original recipe from my parents, but I'm not sure where it originated.