This is the best dish I’ve cooked to date! The chicken breast is really *poached* i.e. it’s cooked in ambient hot water with no direct heat for 20 minutes. I learned this technique in a MasterClass and it’s an exact replication of that dish.
The protein in this dish comes from the crown of chicken breast without the wishbone, which I cut from a whole chicken.
You will need:
- Two chicken breasts
- 1 large beetroot
- 1 nectarine
- Raw goat milk
- Nuts
- Rosemary
- Garlic scapes
It’s quite a simple dish but the trick to cooking it is the perfect poaching of the chicken. The way to do it is to season a pot of water with garlic scapes, rosemary and salt and let it boil.
I used garlic scapes (also known as garlic flower) to flavor the broth coz it tastes milder than garlic. It costs a lot more though at RM 19.90 / kg.
When the water has started boiling, take the pot off the flame/electric hob/heating element and slide in the crown of chicken breast. Set a timer for 20 minutes and put the lid back on. You do not need direct heat to cook this – just the residual heat from the boiled stock.
Meanwhile, I exchanged the vegetable puree that was in the original dish with a beetroot and nectarine puree. I also used raw goat milk while processing the puree. I felt that the colors look nice, and more importantly, it tasted awesome!
The sweetness of the nectarine balances out the beetroot and you get a nice red puree for plating.
The crown of chicken breast should be taken out right at the 20 minute point, skin removed, and sliced into the two breast meat that it contains. I further made three cuts to each chicken breast be faithful to the dish replication.
The last step is to grind up some nuts or cereal and scatter it on the top of the plated chicken. It looks beautiful (if I can say so myself) and best of all, it tastes great!
I’ve never tried indirect heat cooking and got it right at the first try. The beetroot and nectarine puree is smothered over the plate before the chicken breast is plated for the dish to pop (yes, you can roll your eyes right about now 
) but the sweet puree was so good we ate it in other dishes too, like the king grouper in fish pastry shells.
My dear better half finished her dish and it was good to be able to do a restaurant quality dish from just watching a show. Haha! I’m putting this into Best of sixthseal.com – a category which I put very few of my posts into. 😀
Yummy!
You certainly can cook darn well HB!
Thanks Eve! 🙂
I followed the MasterChef episode from the end of Season 5. Every 5th episode is a MasterClass where they teach you to cook and I thought it was a nice and well thought out dish so I made it.
Great recipe, a healthy one too!
Yeah, chicken without skin and it’s white meat to boot! 🙂
That certainly looks great. Going into the restaurant line by any chance?
I’m actually thinking about it! 🙂
I’m going to semi-retire if I do that though. I think it might be a possibility. A rather remote one, but it’s there. Haha!
Woohoo! This looks nice! Love all your cooking posts! I’ve been cooking a lot too . Just didn’t have time to make a blog comeback. Haha bt I will!. Quick update : left my lifeless job in KL to start something from scratch in Kuching. Starting a fitness (my first love) food company selling #eatclean food and dwelling into fitness clothing too. Will update you once it’s all up! 😀
Thanks Mel! 🙂
Wow, that sounds very promising! I’ll love to know more about your fitness food company.
We’ll drop by when we go to Kuching!
Looks great and healthy. Thumbs up!
Thanks mate! 🙂
Yeah, it looks good and it tastes great too! It’s not my recipe though, it’s from MasterChef Australia Season 5 – one of the last few MasterClass episodes.
should join masterchef leh!
I will if it’s not in Malaysia! 🙂
I have no interest in working with just a limited set of ingredients – a MasterChef should be able to do anything from pork to blood.
So that rules out MasterChef Israel too. Haha!
So the beetroot was raw? I couldn’t tell that you cooked it before making the purée, but I wanted to ask!
Yup the beetroot was raw! 🙂
I didn’t cook it, it’s just processed to a puree in the food processor with some nectarine to provide a sweet note.
You don’t need to cook the beetroot for this, although you can if you want (haven’t tried it though, but I know some people don’t like raw beetroot). All the best Mari!
okay.. i totally dig this! looks really healthy and yummy too! i was introduced to indirect cooking recently, where slow cooking chicken breast (vacuum-packed) at about 60 degree for like 2 hours. the meat texture tasted like drumstick, not dried at all, berry smooth and super tender! nom!
Thanks Constance! 🙂
It’s quite easy to make too, it’s just the puree that’s time consuming coz you end up with a food processor to wash, plus a couple of blades and a blender to boot. Haha!
Wow! Sous vide! I haven’t found a machine but I’ll like to try it!
I’ll love to make a 50 degree egg too!
OMG! I must show this to my dad!
He’s looking for new ways to cook the dishes XD
Yeah, this is very time efficient! 🙂
I say that coz when you’re waiting for the chicken to poach (20 minutes for a regular bird) you’ll have that time to do the puree and wash up too if you’re fast. Haha!
All the best Charmaine!
Yum! My husband was just talking about getting a sous vide!
How did you keep the water at a constant temperature on the stove?
I want to get a sous vide machine too! 🙂
My better half vetoed the idea due to price though, we can’t get them at an affordable price over here especially since you need a vacuum packer to boot (and not just a regular heat sealer).
I didn’t keep the water temperature constant – I removed it from the heat source and put it on a cold surface after the water has boiled and used the cooling stock to poach the chicken breasts. I learned that in a MasterClass episode.
Applause! I like how you included beetroot in this recipe, cos it’s a cool twist to the dish! 😀
Thanks Sean! 🙂
I love beetroot, some people don’t but it’s something I ate a lot of while I was in Christchurch. I was only 15 then so I needed to stay in a homestay until I was 16 years before it’s legal for me to move out with a guardian above 21.
The homestay owner was a lady staying on her own (with us 6 boarders) and she loves making:
1. Chicken stew (we’ll eat this probably 5 days out of 6)
2. Coleslaw
3. Beetroot
wei wei wei…now turning into a cooking blog already leh. The two of you planning to open restaurant is it. Make sure invite me for the grand opening ya 🙂
Haha! I know right, need to blog about something else! 🙂
I love cooking with my dear though. I still have heaps of travel posts dating back to my first backpacking trip to Europe that I haven’t written about – gotta get around to that soon.
Of course you’re on the invite list Kathy!
Indeed this is one of your best dishes, dear! It’s beautiful and delicious =P. I think is a real healthy dish too **hugs** <3
Thanks dear! 🙂
Yup, I also think it’s my best dish to date. Haha! I wish I used Pulse with the grinder so the nuts won’t all be pulverized and it’ll be nice to get some pine nuts too!
White meat with no skin is always healthy but I still like the drumsticks that you cook dear! <3
Voila! i could smell that it tasted good! What a nice name – Poached chicken breast with beetroot and nectarine puree! You invented the name? What a clever idea to sprinkle some crushed cereals to make it tastier. I am learning!
So you are opening a restaurant soon!!! Say so lah!!!! Please invite me!
Yeah, I wanted to do the same dish that I saw in an episode of MasterClass Australia! 🙂
It turned out really well – no bones in the chicken, breast meat without skin, with a balanced puree and crunchy nuts to top off the dish!
I’m thinking about opening a restaurant or cafe but not confirmed yet. Haha!
beetroots give such beautiful colour!!
Yeah, it’s just so vivid! 🙂
Perfect for plating, me thinks. I love the taste too.
I like the presentation of your food!~
Thanks! 🙂
I learned it from MasterClass. Haha!