Late Night Cooking: Poached Chicken with Spinach and Pearl Onions

Last night when I got back from a happy hour fundraiser, I was absolutely famished. So I did what anyone would do and spent an hour cooking.

3 Skinned and Boned Chicken Breasts; brined in 2 quarts water, 1 cup sea salt, .5 cup sugar, 2 bay leaves, 1 Japanese chile. (You can adjust the salt to taste, but be sure to raise the sugar appropriately to make sure that you're not cutting it out of the flavor.) Brine for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
1 "bushel" Spinach; I have no idea what in the world to call the amount of spinach, past it's in its usual grocery store form of being clumped together with a band around the middle. Use the whole thing. It's ~1lb.
6 pearl onions.

Skin and halve the onions, coat lightly in olive oil, salt, and pepper (to taste), and set aside.

In a stock pot, pour in enough water to leave at least an inch of breathing room between the surface of the chicken breasts and the surface of the water. I believe I put in approximately 3 quarts. Take the water to a brisk boil, then turn it down to approximately low/mid heat. I watched the water with my thermometer until it was 160 degrees. Drop the chicken breasts in, and cook for 15-20 minutes, holding at that temperature. If they aren't done, check your water temps to see how far the breasts brought down the temps, and add on 5-10 mins and keep checking. Poaching, if done correctly, will not leech flavor. But, if the water gets too hot, it's game over. So check those temperatures!

While the chicken is cooking, coat the bottom of a saute pan in olive oil. Cut the stems from the spinach (you can leave a half an inch on; if you like the stalk, leave a bit more). Put the spinach in, coat with salt, pepper, 2 tsp garlic, 1 tsp sage, and 1/2 tsp ginger. Watch the spinach. You want the spinach to become bright green, with only minor darkening on the edges and parts of the stalks. Once it becomes bright green and sauteed (but not dark, wilted, and mushy; be aware of this), turn off the heat, cover the pan but allow for a sliver of ventilation, and set aside.

Once the chicken is poached, remove from the water, dry off, and immediately throw it in a sauce pan with a tblspoon of olive oil. Coat with salt, pepper, ginger, and garlic (all in pinches), and keep tossing. The key to this is even coating; skinless chicken breasts become stringy incredibly quickly. Coating the skin evenly and with minor bursts of heat help to give you that sauteed flavor without the stringiness on the surface. Once browned slightly, toss the spinach in, give a few tosses, cover, and set aside.

In the pan that had the spinach, place the onions, halved side down, put on medium/high heat, and cover. Let the surface caramelize. When you see the skin turning translucent, remove. You should have a nicely browned halve and a slightly translucent onion.

For presentation, slice each breast into thirds, and arrange it in the center of a dish with 1 piece being on the bottom and two pieces leaning on that piece (it looks somewhat like a triangle). Divide the spinach by three, and put one portion on top of the chicken and "drag it out" so that it goes towards the edge of the plate. One halve onion should be placed at the "4 corners," with one onion on the trail of spinach (4 halves per person, or 2 whole onions each). Finish with a very thin shaving of ginger on top of the chicken/spinach.

Pictures will be up when I make it again.