Recipe: Shredded Chicken

Getting ready
Getting ready

In an earlier recipe, I mentioned my plans toĀ write a cookbook, exclusive to recipes using shredded chicken as the key ingredient. This post isĀ chapter 1: “Preparing your key ingredient“. As simple as it sounds, boiling chicken is an art. The trickĀ is to cook the chicken without leavingĀ it too dry. And here is how:

Procedure:

    • Take enough water in a large vessel to fit the chicken pieces and bring it to boil – WITHOUT the chicken
    • Cut the chicken breasts (or other pieces) into sizable chunks
    • Once the water is boiling, reduce the flame & dropĀ the chicken pieces into the vessel
    • While the chicken boils, keep skimming the foamy protein that floats on the top (as shown below)

Skimming off the Albumin
Skimming off the Albumin
  • Only 2 minutes later, turn off the flame & cover with a lid
  • 15 minutes later, the chicken is ready to shred
Ready for use!
Ready for use!

The pieces are no longer hard enough to be cut, so you can either shred with your fingers, or pull with a fork. Depending on what you’re cooking, you can decide how fine to shred. I leave slightly larger chunks for pizzas, sandwiches, etc and prefer a finer version for soups, nachos, etc. Excess chicken can be stored in the deep freezer for a couple of weeks, but except some degradation each time you thaw it.

If you’re a real chicken fan, you wouldn’t waste theĀ stock that’s left behind. When you follow the above method, the stock is not concentrated enough for consumption. So I add half of aĀ Maggi Magic cubeĀ and use the stock for further cooking or just add pepper and have it as clear soup. I’m clearly a chicken fan šŸ˜‰