Q: I have a recipe for chicken salad which calls for a poached chicken breast (cooled & cubed). I've looked in all my books and it doesn't tell me how to "poach" something.
--Christy Smith, Beaverton, OR

AskFN: Poaching is best defined as cooking in water over low heat (generally around 170 degrees Fahrenheit), which is slightly lower than a simmer. You want small bubbles to appear around the outside of the pan, but they shouldn't be breaking violently. You’d poach something – instead of boil it – because the rapid heat of boiling would cause foods to toughen up and become unpleasant to eat. Foods that fall into this category include: Fish, chicken, fruit, or eggs out of the shell.

Foods can be poached in anything from water to broth to wine to butter (an especially decadent poaching liquid). One of the major rewards of poaching is the gently-flavored broth that results from poaching for a long period of time. Once the food is removed, the broth can either be reduced and used for sauces, or used as-is as a base for soup.

When poaching chicken for chicken salad, allow the chicken breast to cool in the poaching liquid, then shred it (don’t cube it) for optimum texture.