In an earlier recipe, I mentioned my plans to write a cookbook, exclusive to recipes using shredded chicken as the key ingredient. This post is chapter 1: “Preparing your key ingredient“. As simple as it sounds, boiling chicken is an art. The trick is to cook the chicken without leaving it too dry. And here is how:

Procedure:

• Take enough water in a large vessel to fit the chicken pieces and bring it to boil – WITHOUT the chicken
• Cut the chicken breasts (or other pieces) into sizable chunks
• Once the water is boiling, reduce the flame & drop the chicken pieces into the vessel
• While the chicken boils, keep skimming the foamy protein that floats on the top (as shown below)

• Only 2 minutes later, turn off the flame & cover with a lid
• 15 minutes later, the chicken is ready to shred

The pieces are no longer hard enough to be cut, so you can either shred with your fingers, or pull with a fork. Depending on what you’re cooking, you can decide how fine to shred. I leave slightly larger chunks for pizzas, sandwiches, etc and prefer a finer version for soups, nachos, etc. Excess chicken can be stored in the deep freezer for a couple of weeks, but except some degradation each time you thaw it.

If you’re a real chicken fan, you wouldn’t waste the stock that’s left behind. When you follow the above method, the stock is not concentrated enough for consumption. So I add half of a Maggi Magic cube and use the stock for further cooking or just add pepper and have it as clear soup. I’m clearly a chicken fan 😉