Thursday, May 14, 2009

Sous Vide Chicken Breasts


As I mentioned early, I just sous vide two chicken breasts at 145 for a little over an hour. I cooked them with just salt, pepper and rosemary, but I could've added a hunk of butter, which is what a lot of chefs do.



After cooking I chilled the chicken breasts in an ice bath then refrigerated them. When I wanted a quick and delicious lunch, I just pulled a bag out, opened it, and cooked it over high heat for a few minutes to warm the chicken through and crisp the skin.


The chicken was extremely delicious. The crisp skin gave way to extreme moistness and tenderness, clearly due to the sous vide cooking. What's more, it was extremely convenient. I just left the bag in the fridge until I wanted some chicken then crisped it up for a few minutes. That my kind of fast food. Speaking of fast food....... TBC!

6 comments:

cookingat11 said...

Chicken sandwich maybe. Where do you get your chicken from??

e said...

What is TBC?!

Mandoline said...

To be continued, to be cooked, to be consumed?

TryIndy said...

Thinking about doing this myself. What do you use to seal the chicken off? I don't have a vacuum sealer and have heard it's not exactly the best idea to use Ziploc bags.

safecooking said...

I really hope you have a thermal immersion circulator and proper vaccumm sealer. You are risking botulism if you are cooking sous vide without the proper equipment.

JP said...

Impressive site, foodie@15. I found it while quick referencing some techniques a while ago, and (sadly) immediately dismissed it. But several subsequent searches left me back here. And I must admit, your site and your knowledge have been useful. Keep it up.

Also - to safecooking: If you think about it, lack of a proper vacuum sealer would make botulism less likely since it's an anaerobic bacteria(though spoilage and oxidation would be more likely). And there are numerous safe and effective substitutes for an immersion circulator.

There are several important factors to proper food safety while cooking sous vide. You did not hit on any of them. Is it too much to ask that the self-appointed food safety police of the world understood food safey at least as well as the people they criticize?

For anyone interested, here is a link to a guide to sous vide cooking. This author thoughtfully included pasteurization times and safety guidelines.
http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html