Poached Chicken & Bone Broth

Buying frozen chicken makes it more affordable to buy high quality, regeneratively raised birds that lived happy lives outdoors. But frozen chicken can be a pain to cook with. By poaching chicken from frozen you can have tender meat and amazing bone broth with little work (but a lot of time).

You can see in the photo how rich the colour is. Some of that is due to keeping the onion skin on, which colours the broth, but the majority is from the long and slow cooking process.

While “Boiled Chicken” has a reputation of being tough and rubbery, this is gently poached chicken. The trick is keeping the temperature very low, with barely any bubbles, and removing the chicken at the right temperature. The reward is tender, flavourful chicken cooked in an hour from frozen.

Ingredients

• 1 whole frozen chicken

• 1 onion

• 2 carrots

• 3 celery stalks

• 1 head of garlic

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 tbsp dried thyme or rosemary

• Salt to taste

Method

Place your whole, frozen chicken into a large stock pot

Fill the stock pot with water, enough to cover the chicken

Bring it up to a boil and skim the foam – this is protein and removing it helps create a clear broth

Once the foaming slows down, reduce to a gentle simmer

Add an onion (cut in half, peel on – the peel will help deepen the colour of the broth), 2 carrots cut in half (washed, peel on), 3 celery stalks, a head of garlic sliced in half across the equator (peel on), a bay leaf, 1 tbsp dried thyme or rosemary, crack black pepper, and a generous pinch of salt

Simmer for 60–90 minutes, it will depend on the size of your chicken.

If you have a digital thermometer, check the temperature and remove it around 160F in the thickest part of the leg and in the breast. It will get up to 165 through carry-over cooking. If you don’t have a thermometer, remove when the meat is white/opaque and the juices run clear. Do not overcook.

Remove the chicken to a plate and allow it to cool for 20-minutes

Remove the skin from the chicken and return the skin to the pot

Remove the meat from the bones and return the bones to the pot – when you cook chicken from frozen, regardless of how cooked it is, there may be some red marks that look like blood around the bones and joints. This isn’t blood, it’s a pigment from inside the bone and its natural in frozen chicken.

Now you have two poached chicken breasts, which should be very moist and flavourful. You can slice these up for salads, sandwiches, and more. I then shred the dark meat to save for soup.

Continue to cook the broth for another 3 hours, up to 8 hours. Collagen breaks down after 4 hours of cooking time, which will give you a very thick, glossy stock that’s deep in flavour. When it cools it will be thick like jello.

Allow the broth to cool fully. The fastest and safest way to do this is to fill your sink with ice and place the stock pot inside. You can also leave it to cool, covered, overnight on the stove.

After the broth is cool you can store it in the fridge for up to 5 days, or in the freezer in vacuum sealed bags for up to a year.