More success...

I admit that I was a bit nervous about tackling the first poaching method, but it turned out so beautifully.  That encourages me to move on to the next one.

This one was what I am calling Inside Out Poached Chicken.

I will say that I have come to long for a small lidded skillet.  You know, a pan for the single person.  However, using my medium sauteuse pan worked well.  This is the chicken after I was finally allowed to lift the lid.  I did cook the first side a shade too long and didn't realize that I was to cook one side on medium, flip, lower the heat, and cover with the lid.  I cooked both sides on medium and then lowered the heat.  So, the chicken has a bit of color to it you wouldn't normally see.  However, realizing what I had just done, I adjusted how long I cooked it on the lowered heat and hoped for the best.  Gosh, waiting those 10 minutes off the stove still in the pan and 5 minutes resting on the plate was so nerve-wracking!

I found the chicken to be tasty.  I keep thinking that I should taste the aromatics and I am not sure that I taste anything.  Except that the chicken is flavorful.  It is nothing like boiled chicken or the like.  The aromatics is what I added to the recipe.  You see, the other two poaching methods both use aromatics.  I thought this one should, too.

Yes, I have aromatics on the brain.

I had read that cold will set the flesh, so I was worried refrigerating it would change the outcome.  I used half the breast on my salad and put the other half in the refrigerator, dripping the juices from the plate onto the remaining chicken pieces and putting them into the refrigerator whilst still warm so there would be some condensation in the container.  When I ate the leftovers later, they were incredibly moist.  I was well-pleased with this method.  More so on the second eating that the first even!  A part of me says, Why bother with the other methods?  But I do like learning.

Take last night.  I watched a show about making stuffed tomatoes.  I do not eat tomatoes.  Ever.  However, I was fascinated with learning why it was that most folk fail at stuffed tomatoes and how to counteract the problem of too much liquid since they are tomatoes that you are stuffing.  America's Test Kitchen really is interesting in its scientific method approach to cooking.

If you do like stuffed tomatoes, definitely go look for the episode.  In sum, scoop out the innards and run through a sieve, smashing them to get the liquid.  Then salt & sugar the insides of the tomatoes and turn them upside down in a dish.  Leave them for 30 minutes.  Toast some panko bread crumbs with a tad bit of olive oil.  Set aside.  Sauté some onions and then garlic and then add fresh spinach.  Add coucous and use the tomato juice from the smashed innards to cook the coucous.  That's your stuffing.  Mix some grated gruyere with the sautéed panko bread crumbs and then top the stuffed tomatoes.  Roast in the oven.

I loved learning how to sweat the tomatoes.  I don't know what I would ever eat that needed sweating, but I think that I should definitely sweat something.

I ate the poached chicken on a salad for lunch.  For dinner, I ate the leftover cold with some more sweet potato roti.

I thawed out two chicken breasts, so I plan to try the second poaching method on the morrow.  First, I have to run out and make copies of the revised damage claim for the floor register that The Maids broke when they came to my house.  What ever happened to:  "I am sorry I broke that.  Let me make it right?"  I am very much afraid I will end up on court having them replace it.  The money is too much to just write off.  SIGH.