I’ve been surprised, historically, at how few people I know eat boiled chicken. I know it doesn’t sound exciting, but anyone who has ever made chicken soup from scratch knows that it’s the very best way to pack flavor into chicken without it getting dry.
Some of my very best memories as a child were chicken soup memories, helping to separate meat from bones, sneaking the occasional juicy morsel when mom and grandma weren’t looking.
Boiled chicken doesn’t sound appetizing. Grilled chicken sounds awesome (even if it’s difficult to choke down), Fried Chicken is fantastic (never mind the breading that I can’t have- we will get to that later), but there’s something about boiled chicken that sounds distinctly unappealing even though it’s amazing.
Make no mistake- Boiled chicken is good all by itself with no help, but it also is a vehicle for something absolutely incredible.
The Essential Air Fryer
The process of boiling chicken makes a sauce as a by product. All you have to do is remove the chicken and cook down the stock until it thickens. So you boil the chicken until it’s starting to fall off of the bone, remove the chicken and keep cooking the liquid.
Then place your chicken in the air fryer. I highly recommend that you rough it up a bit. Tear the pieces open to expose more surface area. Baste these tasty bits and air fry on 400* in 5-minute intervals. At each interval, turn and baste the chicken until you LOVE the texture. How long it takes depends on how loaded you air fryer is, and your preference in texture.
Chicken Carcass
Officially in my home, we call this meal “Chicken Carcass” because the roughed-up bird looks pretty brutalized by the time it comes out. Sometimes, we remove the meat, and stick the bones back into the air fryer. “There’s still some meat on them bones!” and the flavor imparted by boiling, paired with the texture gifted us by the air fryer makes for an absolute family feast.
It all starts with the boiled chicken though
Ever feel like you’re always the scapegoat? You probably are.
In order to get to this outcome, there’s no way to bypass this phase that’s just kinda ucky. The color of boiled chicken is unappetizing. The meat is limp. There’s a greyish tan film at the top of the boiling water, which is really just boiled chicken blood, that is full of flavor, but boy howdy does it look challenging in the pot.
When looking at the boiling phase it’s truly difficult to believe that a wonder like Chicken Carcass will be the outcome. You have to just know it. You have to trust the process, and your participation in it.
Getting started is like boiling chicken
This lifestyle change is not easy, it’s necessary, and many of the beginning pieces feel out of place. My routine has changed. My food has changed. My priorities have had to shift. I’m still battling caffeine withdrawal (day 3), and I’m not seeing these life-changing results.
These first three days are very much like looking into a swirling pot of boiling chicken.
Operation **Reclaim** Loveland 
What do you think?