Personally, I leave the bird whole season it well with salt and pepper, and put aside.
in a medium stock pot; mirepoix, garlic, bay leaf, whole pepper corn, and bouquet garni with thyme, rosemary, a bit of sage and parsley.
Brown the garlic and mirepoix slightly, add the bird and let it get some color on its parts that touch the pan, don't monkey with it too much. De-glaze the pan with some white wine(cook with what you would drink), and cover the bird with just enough water to cover. Bring to a rolling boil, put a lid on it, kill ALL heat, and let it sit for 1 hour.
What this leaves you with is a wonderfully moist, not overcooked chicken to pull, a nice, aromatic stock of which to then base soups/sauces off off. Pull the chicken, and either add it back into the mix, and thicken with some slurry/roux, and cook it down by a third.
Also, if you were to take this same process, but instead of the bouquet garni, use 2 star anise, a chili pepper, cinnamon stick, clove, kafir lime leaf, and do carrots, onion, bell pepper, garlic and ginger, rough chopped lemon grass, and a bit of soy, a splash of mirin, you end up with a wonderful Asian style poached, almost Shanghai style Chicken, for chicken and rice. Cook the rice in the flavorful stock that is left over from doing the bird.
