Simple boiled (poached) chicken breast.

I always thought of boneless skinless chicken breast as a borderline afront to the idea of what food should be. For so long, I required a moist explosion of flavor in my mouth, savory or sweet carried across my tongue by plump molecules of fat.

There was even a short time period that I intentionally made my food bland and dry, some self-flagellation, some idea of deprivation and suffering being the worthwhile pursuit of health.

What about MODERATION?!
Can there be a middle ground?!
The answer is a resounding YES!

I had first heard about Singaporean chicken rice on an episode of No Reservations. To my horror, Bourdain looked to be joyously eating sauceless boneless skinless chicken breast. What’s worse, he talked about it as though it was one of the finest dishes on earth, so simple and delicate, unpretentious, and common, yet so refined and sophisticated.

I was truly flummoxed and decided for some time that he must’ve been paid off by the government or had a relative just off camera with a gun to their head.

A year or so later and I heard through some underground foodie that a gal from Singapore was coming through LA and would be doing chicken rice for two nights out of a building in downtown.
The last thing my wife is interested in doing is eating out of some random building in downtown, but I convinced her of the scientific necessity of us trying this mythical dish and she eventually agreed.

We were served boneless/skinless chicken breast over rice, on paper plates with plastic utensils in some old random warehouse in downtown Los Angeles, and it was truly magical.

There was no flavor explosion that was carried across my tongue by plump fat molecules, there wasn’t much of a new flavor at all. What it was, was a perfectly seasoned, somehow moist, bite of chicken.

I’d really had no idea at all that this was possible.
The secret it turned out, was in poaching.

There is something quite magical about a poached chicken breast, if only that it becomes something up to that point that was completely foreign to what I’d known a chicken breast to be.

• Bring a pot of water to boil
  

• Add boneless/skinless chicken breast(s), cover and immediately remove from heat
  

• Allow to sit for 20 minutes
  

• You now have immaculately poached chicken breasts.

The other spectacular thing about this is how easy it is to season them, by simply adding some lemongrass and a knob of ginger to the water you have something distinctly different from if you add a few dashes of Italian seasoning.

My favorite way to flavor poached chicken breasts is with Marion Kay Chicken Seasoning (sodium free).

Diet food that’s delicious!