How to Boil Chicken

Chicken is a budget-friendly food option to almost any household. Besides being often cheaper than pork or beef, it’s easy to cook chicken. In fact, just boil chicken and it ends up being a tasty soup that others say cures flu and fever. Put in some vegetables like cabbage, carrots, and onion leaves and it becomes a special stew. Here’s how to boil chicken the easy way.

Things Needed

How to boil chicken is easy. Just prepare a huge pot for boiling, clean water, fork or knife, and chopping board and knife, A water strainer is optional—if the boiled chicken needs to be drained of soup.

Ingredients

Of course, chicken pieces are needed, some whole pepper, salt, a chopped onion, and some crunched garlic for basic flavoring. When dealing on how to boil chicken, adding more enhancing flavors should be considered. Other vegetables may later be added.

Dress It

Of course, chicken has got to be dressed first before doing anything to it. It is best to buy dressed chicken, though buying it live assures of freshness and more flavor. To dress it, just pour boiling water on the feathers to make them easy to pull off. Wash in running water, cut in half and pull out the innards, then wash again. For beginners, keep the meat and bones, liver, and heart and throw the rest away. Novices should learn first how to boil chicken flesh, liver, and heart. In Asia, to cook chicken, even the head, bladder, and intestines are included. But that’s for advanced lessons.

Chop it

It takes a shorter period to tenderize chicken if it is chopped in pieces than when it is boiled as a whole. So separate the two legs and wings from the body, and cut the body in two or three. Include the neck area. Chop off the feet and throw away. Chopping should be a one-hit stroke. Otherwise, the meat and bones would be messed up because bits of bones would stick to the meat or scatter in the stew. This is basic knowledge on how to boil chicken.

Boiling It

After cleaning, washing, chopping, and washing it again, it is ready for boiling. Put it in a pot big enough for holding the chicken pieces and water. The water level should be just enough to cover the meat pieces—about an inch or two higher than them. Put in all the vegetable spices. Boil on high heat, and then decrease to medium-low heat till tender.

Testing for Tenderness

Check the meat now and then for tenderness by piercing with a fork or knife. If it easily bores into the flesh, the chicken is ready. Boil on low heat for a few minutes more and add other vegetables. This is how to cook chicken and make sure it is boiled perfectly.