3 ways with... poached chicken

I love chicken, and would eat it at least 3-4 times a week. Often for breakfast as well as for lunch and dinner {well, ok, maybe not THAT often for breakfast}.

Having a couple of poached chicken breasts in the fridge makes it super easy when it comes to throwing together a quick meal for dinner or to pack for lunch. And it's a LOT healthier than rushing to the nearest supermarket to buy a BBQ chicken {although they do taste good!}.

Poaching chicken (and fish) used to seriously scare me. Until the first time I tried. WOW! How easy was it! Made me feel a bit foolish for not trying sooner!

All you do is this:

Almost fill a skillet or fry pan with water and bring it to the boil {leave about 2cm for the water to rise once the chicken is added}.

I generally only poach in water, but you can poach in most cooking liquids including stock and coconut milk. You can also add herbs and spices such as ginger, star anise, peppercorns, fresh herbs, wine, vinegars, fruit juice or anything else to flavour the chicken.

Once the water is boiling, add the chicken breasts so they are fully submerged in the water {or at least 90%}.

These are  not quite submerged, but I turned them over about 15 minutes into cooking.

Once the water is boiling again, turn off the stove, put the lid on the pan and leave it!

Allow the chicken to cook in the hot water for about 20 minutes, turn it, then give it another 20 minutes. Depending on the thickness of the chicken breast, it should be cooked. If you're not sure, give it another 10-15 minutes. As it's sitting in water it won't dry out. Once it's cooked, remove from the water and put the chicken on a plate to cool.

For food safety reasons, don't leave the cooling chicken out of the fridge for more than an hour or so

Once it's cooled, put it apart along the grain, tearing the chicken into shreds with your fingers {if it hasn't cooled that's OK, but you'll burn your fingers!}.

3 chicken breasts are a lot of shredded chicken! This container is larger than it looks.

Store the shredded chicken in the fridge in an airtight container until you're ready to cook with it - it should keep for 3 days.

NOTE - you can poach fish the same way {I love poached salmon} but it only takes about 10-15 minutes in total, and a bit less if you're poaching salmon and you like it quite rare.

One the chicken is poached, there are SO MANY RECIPES you can use it for!

Some of my favourites are:

1.  On a sandwich or bread roll with lots of whole egg mayo, lettuce and a bit of salt and pepper

2.  In a simple salad with sliced or chopped cucumber, tomato, red pepper, red onion, baby spinach leaves, splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Those with eagle eyes will notice this is not shredded chicken! It's actually leftover BBQ chicken, but just imagine it's shredded... 

3. In a toasted wrap with basil pesto, grated parmesan cheese, tomato, mushrooms

I used a lavosh style bread for this, but a tortilla works well too. Just wrap and toast in a toasted sandwich maker 

Deceptively filling!

4. In a simple - and speedy - pasta sauce with sauteed mushroom, red onion, tomato, red pepper, basil pesto, grated parmesan on top - the slowest part of this meal is waiting for the pasta to cook

This is possibly one of THE ugliest photos I've ever taken, but this meal was sensational! 

What's your favourite way to eat leftover chicken (whether it's poached, grilled or BBQ)?

AND the winners are... {SPONSORED POST}

WOW! Thank you so much to all of you who entered my first ever blog comp! And a big thank you to Finish Quantum for sponsoring it.

And of course thank you to my guest judge for helping me choose a winner. It was HARD! I could relate to so many of your answers:

• Claire @ Claire K Creations - I haven't  had cheesecake issues but when you use a spring-form pan, MAKE SURE THE CAKE IS COOKED before you pop the spring. Especially when you pop it in front of a dinner table full of guest {it was messy...}
• Redpene - I had a chilli incident but with a burning lip and burning hands. OUCH!
• Naisargi - I love tumeric, hate the yellow. A quick tip is to spray your plastic containers with a quick burst of oil before you add the leftovers - the coat of oil will prevent staining {this also works for preventing tomato stains}
• Kirsty Wallett - boiling oil terrifies me too - does anyone remember the old TV ad where a woman screams out "oh my God the chips!!" as her kitchen goes up in flames? Well, let's just say we had a similar family incident. I will hasten to add that I was not involved. I was overseas. And on the phone to the family member who screamed that out, dropped the phone and ran! And it was in the days when it cost about $5 a minute to call anywhere overseas...  
• Jane of Australia - I love garlic too. When I worked in retail many years ago a customer {a very cute, young male customer} stood a bit too close and said "pheewwweee I guess you ate a lot of garlic for dinner last night!" I was mortified...
• Kylie C - I had your experience but with spag bol made with kangaroo mince. I was NOT expecting such a strong smell or taste! 

But there can only be two winners. 

First prize is awarded to Redpene: "Fresh chilli. Love eating it, but cooking with it's a serious PITA, especially making sure none of the chilli juices make contact with skin. Let me tell you, attempting to remove a contact lens from your eye after you've been cooking with the hot stuff isn't that much fun."

Second prize goes to Kirsty Wallett: "Large amounts of boiling oil! I wanted to fry calamari, I didn't have a fryer, so used a pan. Got busy prepping & heard a ‘whoosh’ sound behind me (like a nuclear mushroom I imagine) & turned around to find my oil & pot on fire! The pot never recovered."

Thank you again to everyone who entered. 

Competition sponsored by Finish Quantum {SPONSORED}

I'm so excited to announce my first blog competition!

This competition is sponsored by Finish Quantum - they develop dishwashing products so of course I LOVE them as I HATE doing dishes {as anyone who knows me knows!}.

The Finish Quantum product is the most premium product in the Finish dishwasher range - and designed with the latest technology that cleans even the yukkiest muck of dirty dishes. I especially love that it cleans off the remains of my scrambled egg that I cook in a bowl in the microwave {I can't believe I just admitted I cook scrambled egg in the microwave...}.  My hubby loves that too (he used to be the one who scrubbed it off!

Thanks to Finish Quantum I have been given $250 worth of prizes. What do you have to do to enter?? It's simple.

Tell me, in 50 words or less {in the comments section below}, what ingredient you are too scared or intimidated to cook with and why.

The two answers I think are the best will win:

1st prize - a $150 gift voucher for your choice of Wheel & Barrow, Robins Kitchen or Taste for the Love of Cooking

2nd prize - a $100 gift voucher for your choice of Wheel & Barrow, Robins Kitchen or Taste for the Love of Cooking.

The competition closes at 5pm, AEST Sunday 23 January 2011. Winners will be notified by email and announced on this blog on Monday 24 January 2011.

One entry per person, Australian residents only {sorry readers overseas}.

Full terms and conditions can be viewed here.

Good luck!!!

Baked Relief - ADOPT A FAMILY

My life has changed this week. As have the lives of many of my friends and loved ones. And it's been changed thanks to Baked Relief (or #bakedrelief if you are on twitter!).

What is it? It's a revolution that has come about to feed the survivors of the Brisbane floods. It was initiated by my friend Danielle Crismani (@digellabakes on twitter) who needed to do SOMETHING to take her mind of her boys being stranded in the Lockyer Valley (with her mum, whose property was affected by flooding - they are all safe). She came up with the idea of baking some relief for the State Emergency Services volunteers who were sandbagging around Brisbane.

Word quickly spread - via her blog Digella Emporium and via twitter - and now it is bigger than Ben Hur!

Baking with friends - in 4 hours we made 1 veggie slice, 1 veggie and bacon slice , 24 carrot muffins, 2 date and walnut loaves, 2 gf chocolate cakes, 3 banana cakes, 3 loaves of sandwiches, 1 huge ANZAC slice

Egg and dairy free date loaves, gluten free carrot muffins, veggie and bacon slice

My first baked relief - 120 pork sausage rolls

How can you help?

I'm now starting to coordinate stage 2: ADOPT A FAMILY {I'm calling it stage 2, but it's probably stage 4, 5 or 6...}.

This involves matching families in need with people who are prepared to feed them a meal a week - possibly for up to a year. Ideally this will include a meal for the host family where applicable.

If you want to be involved please email me mel@melkettle.com.au with #bakedrelief in the subject line.

If you want to cook for a family I need to know:

• your name, email, mobile phone number
• suburbs you are prepared to travel to with meals
• how many people you are prepared to feed in a family
• what days you can provide meals

If you would like to register for a weekly meal I need to know:

• your name, email, mobile phone number, address where you are staying
• how many people need to be fed (and this should include your host family - they will need a break too!), broken down into adults and children
• any dietary requirements
• any other information I might need to know (access, preferred days, etc)

I'm hoping to be able to start matching families the week of 31 January 2011. 

Devastation at Fig Tree Pocket - day 3 post-flood. These friends will be lucky to be back within a year. 

Friend's kitchen. It was one of the most beautiful and practical kitchen's I've ever seen. 

UPDATE: Wednesday 19 January

THANK YOU to everyone who has registered to Adopt a Family. We are compiling a database and will match with families once we have been advised who needs support. As we need to work with official channels for this, it may take a couple of weeks. Please be patient. We hope to update everyone who has registered during the week of 31 January. 

UPDATE: Tuesday 22 February 

Thanks very much for your interest in the Adopt a Family program.  At this stage we have put the project on hold. We have had a lot of people register interest, but have had difficulty in finding families who need to be adopted. Should this situation change, we'll be in touch. 

However there are many other ways you can support the flood relief, including:

1. Register to cook for families with organisations such as www.floodaid.com.au and www.volunteeringqld.org.au
2. Check back with www.bakedrelief.org to see what is happening
3. Donate foods that are needed - in particular non-perishable food such as rice, pasta, tinned fruit/veg/tuna/beans/salmon, coffee, tea, milo, UHT milk, bottled drinks
4. Donate other goods that are needed - including toiletries for men, women and children (razors, shaving foam, shampoo, conditioner, soap, new nappies etc), and cleaning products (washing powder, sponges, bathroom cleaner etc)
5. Talk to your employer and see if they can help
6. Support our local farmers eg Lockyer Valley by buying local produce. You can do this through supporting organisations such as Food Connect (www.foodconnect.com.au). This can be an ongoing commitment.
7. Don’t let this fade from view.

A new year dawns.

This post was originally going to be about my food goals for 2011. But as I sit here typing this, floods are ravaging Queensland, many of my friends and loved ones are frantically packing away precious possessions and Brisbane is preparing for flooding, the likes of which have never been seen before.

It's quite surreal given that barely 2 years ago the dams that provided Brisbane with water were down to 16% capacity.

Today Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine Dams are releasing water from storage as they are significantly over 100% capacity. In fact, Wivenhoe is at 140% 160% 175% capacity {I personally didn't even know that was possible!}.

The point of this is that we need to all spare a thought for our farmers. I lamented earlier today that my poor garden has drowned. It only supplies me with a few herbs and veggies to save me a few pennies. Our farmers are far, far worse off. Their livelihoods and their futures are at stake.

My soggy veggies. The front was zucchini and cucumber. The chilli and lemongrass are thriving! Everything else is weeds or mint or a few other very drowned herbs!

But Queensland {and all other Australian} farmers are a hardy bunch. In the last 10 years alone they have survived crippling drought, cyclones, dust storms, locust plagues, and now severe flooding. They will come back from this latest challenge. But they will need our help.

These are my ideas as to how we can help, other than making a financial donation to the Queensland Flood Relief Appeal:

• buy from local farmers at farmer's markets - and yes, some of the produce will look a bit odd - it might be marked, it might be a funny shape, it might be a bit bruised, it might have the odd bit of extra protein {!}. But it will still taste good!
• buy from organisations that support local farmers - such as your local CSA {I buy from Food Connect in Brisbane}
• eat at cafes and restaurants that support local producers and growers
• find out about farm tours and farm stays and do one {Food Connect organise regular Farm Tours for farms around Brisbane}
• encourage your kids to eat more fruit and veg and teach them where it comes from - encourage schools to invite farmers along to talk to them and teach them.

What's a CSA? CSA stands for Community Shared Agriculture. It's when local communities buy directly from local farmers and other local producers to support locally grown seasonal produce. The benefits are many, but include reducing carbon emissions due to the food travelling fewer "food miles" and keeping money within your local community, thus benefitting the local economy and helping it become or remain sustainable. 

Being part of a CSA also allows city-folk to become more aware of where their food comes from so they can become more educated consumers. 

So how do you find out who supports local producers? Well, the easiest way is to ask. Talk to your local greengrocer, butcher and other retailers and ask them where they source their produce. If they don't support local then ask them why not. 

My biggest food goal for 2011 is going to be to better support my local farmers. Because without farmers we WILL starve. What will yours be?