Poached Chicken Chicken Breast Rick Bayless Recipes

Steps:

• Tie the parsley, oregano, rosemary and thyme with kitchen twine to create an herb bundle. Place the chicken, celery, carrots, onions, herb bundle, garlic, lemon, peppercorns and bay leaves in your biggest pot, and cover with water - hopefully 3 to 4 quarts. Bring to a low boil, reduce the heat and simmer 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove the chicken, strain the stock and return to stove top. Season the stock with salt. Bone and skin the chicken and shred the meat with a knife or tines of 2 large forks. Combine the light and dark meat.;

Steps:

• Place onion, water, and salt in a 2-quart saucepan and bring to a boil.
• Add the chicken (plus addtional hot water to cover, if necessary), skim off any new foam that rises during the first minute of simmering, add herbs and bay leaves, partially cover and simmer for 13 minutes over medium heat.
• Remove the pot from the heat and let the checken cool in the broth, if there is time.
• Skin and bone the chicken, then shred the meat into small pieces, Sprinkle with salt before using, unless directed otherwise in your recipe.

Steps:

• Roast the tomatoes and chiles on a baking sheet 4 inches below the broiler until they're darkly roasted with blackened and blistered spots, 5-6 minutes per side. (If using canned tomatoes, drain the tomatoes and set aside. Toast the chiles in a small dry skillet over medium heat, turning regularly, until they're soft and splotchy-black, about 5 minutes.)
• Dice the onion, reserving a few rings for garnish. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat; cook the diced onions, stirring regularly, until golden, about 7 minutes. Meanwhile, remove the tomatoes and chiles from the oven and cool.
• Working over your baking sheet, pull off and discard the blackened tomato skins and, for round tomatoes, cut out the hard "cores" where the stems were attached. Transfer tomatoes and chiles to a food processor or blender, along with all the juices on the baking sheet. Blend to a smooth purée.
• Add the puréed tomatoes and chiles to the onions and cook, stirring, until they darken in color and thicken to the consistency of tomato paste, 7-8 minutes. Stir in the broth, partially cover, and simmer 15 minutes. Whisk in the sour cream and season with 1 teaspoon of salt.
• Lay the tortillas out on a baking sheet (2 sheets if you have them, for more even heating), and lightly brush both sides of the tortillas with lard or oil. Bake at 350 degrees F just long enough to warm through and soften, about 3 minutes. Stack the tortillas and cover with a towel to keep them warm and pliable.
• Spread about ¼ cup of the sauce over the bottom of four to six 9-inch individual oven-proof serving dishes, or smear about 1 cup of the sauce over the bottom of a 13x9-inch baking dish. Working quickly while the tortillas are still pliable, roll a portion of the chicken into each tortilla, then line them up in the dishes, seam-side down. Cover with the remaining sauce, then sprinkle with the cheese. Bake until the enchiladas are hot and the cheese has browned slightly, about 15 minutes.
• Garnish the enchiladas with reserved onion rings and cilantro sprigs before serving.

Steps:

• Combine chicken stock, water, yellow onion, celery, carrots, tomato paste, salt, peppercorns, and bay leaf in a large pot; bring to a gentle simmer. Decrease heat to medium-low and simmer, checking the flavor occasionally, until vegetables are slightly tender, 30 to 45 minutes.
• Bring stock to a boil and add chicken, pouring in more water if chicken isn't completely covered in liquid. Bring poaching liquid to a boil; remove pot from heat and cover tightly with a lid until chicken is no longer pink in the center, about 15 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 165 degrees F (74 degrees C).

Steps:

• Tip the carrot, celery and garlic into a large saucepan. Tie the herbs together in a bunch with a piece of kitchen string, then add to the pan with the chicken breasts, water and 2 tsp salt (adding a little more water if it doesn't quite cover the chicken). Bring to the boil, then immediately lower to a simmer and cook over a very low heat for 10-12 mins, or until the juices run clear in the thickest part of the breast.
• Remove the pan from the heat and scoop out the chicken breasts from the poaching liquid. Slice or tear the chicken into pieces and use in salads, soups or sandwiches.

Steps:

• Preliminaries: On a rimmed baking sheet, roast the tomatillos 4 inches below a very hot broiler until splotchy black and thoroughly soft, about 5 minutes per side. Scrape into a large bowl. In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the sesame seeds, stirringly nearly constantly, until golden, about 5 minutes. Scrape half of them in with the tomatillos. Reserve the remainder for sprinkling on the chicken.
• Brown other mole ingredients: Turn on an exhaust fan or open a kitchen door or window. In a very large soup pot (I typically use a 12-quart stainless steel stock pot), heat the lard or oil over medium. When quite hot, fry the chiles, three or four pieces at a time, flipping them nearly constantly with tongs until their interior side has changed to a lighter color, about 20 or 30 seconds total frying time. Don't toast them so darkly that they begin to smoke-that would make the mole bitter. As they're done, remove them to a large bowl, being careful to drain as much fat as possible back into the pot. Cover the toasted chiles with hot tap water and let rehydrate 30 minutes, stirring frequently to insure even soaking.
• Remove any stray chile seeds left in the fat. With the pot still over medium heat, fry the garlic and almonds, stirring regularly, until browned (the garlic should be soft), about 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove to the tomatillo bowl, draining as much fat as possible back into the pot.
• Add the raisins to the hot pot. Stir for 20 or 30 seconds, until they've puffed and browned slightly. Scoop them out, draining as much fat as possible back into the pot, and add to the tomatillos. Set the pan aside off the heat.
• To the tomatillo mixture, add the cinnamon, black pepper, anise, cloves, bread and chocolate. Add 2 cups water and stir to combine.
• Blend, strain, cook: Into a large measuring cup, tip off the chiles' soaking liquid. Taste the liquid: if it's not bitter, discard all abut 6 cups of the liquid. (if you're short, add water to make up the shortfall). If bitter, pour it out and measure 6 cups water. Scoop half of the chiles into a blender jar, pour in half of the soaking liquid (or water) and blend to a smooth puree. Press through a medium-mesh strainer into a large bowl; discard the bits of skin and seeds that don't pass through the strainer. Repeat with the remaining chiles.
• Return the soup pot to medium heat. When quite hot, pour in the chile puree-it should sizzle sharply and, if the pan is sufficiently hot, the mixture should never stop boiling. Stir every couple of minutes until the chile puree has darkened and reduced to the consistency of tomato paste, about a half hour. (I find it useful to cover the pot with an inexpensive spatter screen to catch any spattering chile.).
• In two batches, blend the tomatillo mixture as smoothly as possible (you may need an extra 1/2 cup water to keep everything moving through the blades), then strain it in to the large bowl that contained the chiles. When the chile paste has reduced, add the tomatillo mixture to the pot and cook, stirring every few minutes until considerably darker and thicker, 15 to 20 minutes. (Again, a spatter screen saves a lot of cleanup.).
• Simmer: Add the broth to the pot and briskly simmer the mixture over medium to medium-low heat for about 2 hours for all the flavors to come together and mellow. If the mole has thickened beyond the consistency of a cream soup, stir in a little water. Taste and season with salt (usually about 4 teaspoons) and the sugar.
• You're now ready to make Lacquered Chicken or you can cool, cover and refrigerate until you're ready to use. When you're ready to proceed, rewarm the mole.
• Make the chicken: Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
• In a small (2-quart) saucepan, mix together 1 cup of the mole with the agave nectar or corn syrup. Simmer over medium heat until glossy and reduced to 1 cup, about a half hour. On rimmed baking sheets, lay out the chicken in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 45 minutes (the chicken should be tender to the bone at this point-leg-and-thigh portions should register 165 degrees at the thickest part on an instant-read thermometer).
• Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Tip off the juices that have collected around the chicken, then brush the pieces liberally with the glossy mole mixture. Sprinkle with the reserved sesame seeds. Bake for 10 minutes to set the glaze.
• Remove from the oven, let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes, then slide into a very low oven to keep warm until serving time-preferably no longer than 30 minutes.
• Serve each portion of chicken with about 1/2 cup of warm mole, decorated with watercress or flat-leaf parsley and sprinkled with any left over sesame seeds.