poaching chicken

Dave W.

I pick up pieces and squeeze them. When they've lost their jelly-like feel, they're done. Takes about 10 minutes to do boneless thighs, or a bit more if you load up the poaching liquid. But you're not simmering them for a protracted time. You're bringing the flesh up to about 160¡F so it's just cooked. If squeezing isn't what you want to do, pull out a piece, lay it on a plate and cut a slice into it to see what the center of the meat looks like. It should be moist and shiny with the tiniest bit of pinkness in the liquid. Residual heat will finish cooking it.

Some amount of fat will come out of the chicken, and, if you do 36 or 40 pieces at a time, some small amount of gelatin will also be rendered; enough to add a little body to the broth.

You're making it too complicated. Bring a fluid to a simmer (about 190¡F) drop pieces of chicken in and stir once every two minutes of so. Test after about 8 minutes to see how far along you've come. The amount of liquid is irrelevant. 10 or 12 minutes in 1000 gallons of simmering water will give you the same finished result with the chicken.

Pastorio