Photo by Hannah Giardina
When you are swamped with homework, but desiring a home cooked meal, boil a chicken. By the time you have your twenty pages of reading done or paper written, the chicken will be cooked and ready to eat. Pair it with vegetables, smother in BBQ sauce, shred and make a taco or add to a salad. Dinner is ready. Because you have boiled the chicken, you are also left with a pot of healthy homemade chicken broth that you can use to make chicken soup or use in place of water to make rice, gravy or stuffing. Boiling a chicken gives you many options of meals from both the chicken and broth with little to no work.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Servings: 3-4
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
Salt
Pepper
Poultry seasoning
Water
Directions:
1. Put whole chicken in a large pot and fill with water.
Photo by Hannah Giardina
*Tip: The water should just cover the top of the chicken. Also, make sure to remove the gizzard bag from inside of the chicken.
2. Add salt, pepper and poultry seasonings to form a seasoning layer on top of the water and chicken.
3. Turn the burner on high heat and bring the pot to a boil.
Photo by Hannah Giardina
4. Once the water is boiling, lower the temperature to medium heat to simmer.
5. Set a timer for one hour, thirty minutes.
Photo by Hannah Giardina
6. Work on homework, watch Netflix or clean your room. The chicken does not need all of your attention, but occasionally check to make sure the chicken is still covered in water and the seasonings are not stuck to the side of the pot.
7. When the timer rings, check the internal temperature of the chicken with a meat thermometer. It should read 165°F. If you do not have a meat thermometer, make sure there is zero pink colored meat.
8. Remove chicken from the pot and let cool.
Photo by Hannah Giardina
9. Remove skin.
Photo by Hannah Giardina
10. Cut and shred chicken off of the bones. The meat should fall off of the bones easily.
Photo by Hannah Giardina
11. Pour broth into a container to store.
Photo by Hannah Giardina
*Tip: Watch out for small bones that may have fallen off of the chicken. Bon appétit!