Poached chicken, spring vegetables, salsa verde
This light and nourishing chicken dish from Anna Tobias shows just how wonderful the often-forgotten technique of poaching is. Here, it effortlessly produces silky and tender chicken, with a potful of incredible broth to boot. Anna sourced her chicken and anchovies, alongside lots of other store cupboard ingredients, from Wylde Market, the online farmers' market.
Ingredients
Poached chicken
- 1 chicken , about 1.5–2kg
- 2 carrots , roughly chopped
- 1 onion , roughly chopped
- 1 leek , roughly chopped
- 3 celery sticks , roughly chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 garlic cloves
- 8 peppercorns
- 1 clove
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- salt
Poached vegetables
- 4 carrots , or 8 small carrots
- 8 baby turnips , or 4 larger ones
- 400g of fresh broad beans
Salsa verde
- 1 small garlic clove , peeled
- 4 anchovy fillets
- 1 tbsp of capers
- 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp of Dijon mustard
- 1 bunch of parsley
- 75ml of olive oil
Method
As an optional extra step, make a 2% brine for the chicken. That’s to say, add 20g salt per 1 litre of water, and leave the chicken to soak in this overnight
Place all the poached chicken ingredients in a heavy pot. Cover with water by about 3 cm. If you have not brined your chicken, add a tablespoon of salt to the pot
- 1 chicken , about 1.5–2kg
- 2 carrots , roughly chopped
- 1 onion , roughly chopped
- 1 leek , roughly chopped
- 3 celery sticks , roughly chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 garlic cloves
- 8 peppercorns
- 1 clove
- 2 sprigs of thyme
Bring the pot to the boil on a medium heat – it’s important that the heat isn’t too high. Once a rolling boil is reached, turn the heat off, put a lid on and leave for at least an hour and a half. Probe the chicken to check it’s fully cooked – it should be 75°C at the thickest part of the breast and thigh when done. The flesh should be tender and not stringy
Remove the chicken and strain the stock. Taste the broth – if it’s slightly bland and insipid then reduce it, continuing to taste until there is a good depth of flavour
Peel the carrots but leave them whole – they always look very beautiful this way. If you are using smaller turnips then wash them and leave whole. If using larger ones, then peel and halve them
- 4 carrots , or 8 small carrots
- 8 baby turnips , or 4 larger ones
Add the spring veg to the simmering broth in order of what will take the longest to cook, so: carrots first, then turnips, followed by the broad beans. However, if your broad beans aren't young and tender, then you may wish to blanche them separately and then double pod them, so that you discard the tough outer skin. In this case, add the podded beans to the broth at the last minute just to warm them through
- 400g of fresh broad beans
To make the salsa verde, crush the garlic with the back of a knife. Place the anchovies and capers on top and finely chop until they resemble a mush. Place into a bowl and mix with the vinegar and Dijon mustard. Finely chop the parsley and add to the bowl along with the olive oil. Stir well
- 1 small garlic clove , peeled
- 4 anchovy fillets
- 1 tbsp of capers
- 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp of Dijon mustard
- 1 bunch of parsley
- 75ml of olive oil
To serve, joint the chicken (it should still be hot), and add some to each bowl along with some broth and vegetables. Finish with a generous dollop of salsa verde on top
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Poached chicken, spring vegetables, salsa verde
