I often use boiled chicken for my chicken salad. Then you end up with a pot of delicious chicken soup and a chicken's worth of chicken for chicken salad.
Trick is not to overcook the chicken. Use a whole chicken, cut-up, bring to a boil, skim the top, reduce to low/simmer, add celery, carrots and pepper corns, (lemon grass if you like) and cook for an hour. The chicken will not be dried out, the soup will be delicious.
Place the pot of soup in the fridge and skim off the fat which will end up a pancake of fat on the top.
You can use zip lock sandwich bags to freeze the soup in useable portions. You can add lemon grass, crazy hot thai peppers, and coconut milk or coconut cream. Do not overcook the coconut milk/cream or it will taste soapy.
Saute some of the chicken with garlic, fresh ginger, curry powder or yellow curry paste if you have and a bit of soy sauce, ladle some of the soup and chicken over rice, garnish with fresh basil, mint and cilantro, and enjoy.
