Poaching is a crime. If it's not yours, don't swipe it. And if it is yours, and it's a plump chicken breast, and you're craving the clean flavor and moist bite you attribute to a boiling bath, please: Consider the consequences.
Dropped in hot water, the egg turns tender. But poaching leaves chicken bouncy and bad. See? Crime doesn't pay.
Try a dry braise, a crime against logic (braise calls for liquid, dry does not), but a rewarding technique. Settle the chicken in a heavy pot alongside carrot, celery and garlic; cover and slide into a hot oven. The vegetables release enough moisture to steam the meat moist and flavor it savory.
Slice over scape pesto, and you've got an escape from bland _ one that's well within the limits of the law.
