Poached chicken
4 chicken breasts
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
1 small onion
4 cups chicken stock or water
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
This recipe will take any kind of chicken, but breasts are easiest. The amounts are variable as well. You need enough liquid to cover the chicken as it is poaching and you need about 1 cup of chopped vegetables for each quart of liquid.
Add all ingredients to the cooking vessel of your choice. I like an electric saute pan for better heat control. You want the temperature of the liquid to stay near 185F or below. Use a probe thermometer for this. Keep liquid at this temperature until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 140F. Add some cool water or stock to the mixture to cool it to 140F. It can stay like this for as long as you need, but needs to remain for at least 15 minutes.
Notes on food safety. Most people remember that chicken needs to hit 160F to be safe, but it only needs to make it there instantaneously. Killing bacteria is a matter of heat and time. The bacteria start to die at 130F, but according to the Food Safety Inspection Service(FSIS) it takes about 2 hours at this temperature to do a complete job. At 140F it only takes 12 minutes so 15 minutes is actually rather conservative, and because the meat never reaches 160F the chicken is less damaged and stays moister.
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