tinkering with perfection

First, a disclaimer. I live in Australia where, for some reason, buying chicken breasts with their skin on is a feat I've yet to manage. Particularly as I like my chicken free-range, and preferably from Lilydale {Food tosser? Moi? Oui!} I could buy a whole chicken from my butcher and ask him to chop it up for me, but then I'd have to think of a recipe to use the rest of the chook - and frankly, I can't be bothered today.

So, anywho, tonight we've got friends coming for dinner {stop reading right now if that's you - I like to surprise my guests!} and, as one of said friends is a chicken breast fan I needed to find a recipe to use them. In the past, I haven't had much success with chicken breast, I tend to find it dry and lacking in flavour, but that's probably the way I've cooked it. Friends have cooked it for me and it's been scrummy, maybe it's just me...

Oh, and to the point of this post... I'm making a dish that the reknowned Ina Garten came up with, and as she has plenty of devotees I was prepared to almost follow her recipe slavishly, until she asked me to bake the chicken breasts. See, her chicken breasts were covered in skin, and had the bone on, so I'm pretty sure they'd taste moist and delish, but my skin-less, bone-less wonders... not so. Instead, I've poached them in chicken stock, with extra pepper, onion, carrot, celery AND a bouquet garni. So far, so moist.

I'll let you know how they turn out once they're added to a rich sauce and in the finished dish. Surely there's no such thing as too much flavour!