Sous Vide Chicken Breast

I won’t lie to you, I wouldn’t have bought myself a sous vide machine on my own. I’ve got so many kitchen gadgets on my countertops that I’m afraid DH will freak. Except he tends to buy me some of them just cuz he likes my experimentation – most of the time, anyway 🙂 .

What is sous vide you may ask? It literally means under vacuum but it means putting the food you are cooking in a vacuum sealed bag (or ziploc) and cooking it at a controlled temperature with a special sous vide cooker, which resembles a stick like object.

My kids, for my 60th birthday, bought as my gift a sous vide machine, since they know cooking is my passion and especially my SIL Yechiel pushed the sous vide. He bought himself one and told me I don’t know what a chicken breast tastes like till I’ve eaten it cooked this way. So I have the Anova brand

and it’s ridiculously simple to use. Simply take a pot (even a large and deep plastic container will work if it’s thick) and fill it up with water, hot water if you want to cut waiting time, and turn on the machine letting it reach the desired temp. The trick here is that it cooks at low and steady temps thereby leaving your food moist and amazingly succulent. Some foods I feel aren’t worth the effort, like eggs cooked for an hour, just no, but the chicken breast literally tastes like a totally different food when cooked this way.

I will probably expand this method of cooking soon enough but suffice it to say, this was so amazing, I had to share it with you.

First take whole skinless chicken breasts, nice and large.

These are two whole chicken breasts, it’s worth doing 2 at a time and then you have another fab meal to hand. Take a ziploc bag and put a nice sauce combo into it. I used a combo of teriyaki, sweet chili and barbecue sauces, ready made since this was like a test case for me and I wanted flavors that were tried and true.

Then, put the washed and dried chicken breasts into the bag and massage the sauce into the chicken.

Place into prepared sous vide bath, slowly lowering the not yet zipped bag in, letting the water push out the air and then zipping it when air is pushed out.

Then you clip it to the side of the pot or container you’re using to make sure that it stays put. Now I played around with the temp because I wanted to see how the best way to cook it would be, so I tried it on lower heat and higher heat. I found that cooking it for an hour on 65 degrees Celsius) which is 150 Fahrenheit produces the texture of dark meat chicken with a slightly pink interior (not scary pink, as lower temps produced) and it was simply awesome, like pargiot (skinless, boneless, dark meat chicken thighs) and you’re using breast meat.

This was a big win for me since I love pargiot – but chicken breast, not so much. Kinda meh in fact since it dries out so easily. However, this chicken, even heated up for Shabbat stayed juicy! So I confess, I’m a fan.

You can serve this sliced on a platter, with parsley for garnish or plated. It’s taste and texture is divine and succulent. So now as a proud sous vide owner, yeah it’s worth it!

Sous Vide Chicken Breast

2 whole skinned and boned chicken breasts, washed and patted dry

2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce

2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce

2 tablespoons rich barbecue sauce

One ziploc bag, big enough to hold the chicken breasts

One pot

Hot water

Directions:

Take a pot with enough space to both hold the chicken breasts and water to come up to the middle of the sous vide machine (it must cover it at least halfway up the machine or it won’t work). Pour in hot water and set the temp of the sous vide machine to 150 Fahrenheit or 65 degrees Celsius. Let the sous vide come to temperature and in the meantime, take your ziploc bag and put in the teriyaki, chili sauce and barbecue sauce.

Take the washed and dried chicken breasts and place in bag. Mush the sauce about into the chicken making sure to coat well. Gently put the unclosed bag slowly into the ready water (the machine should beep when ready but just check the temp) and the water will push out the air. Help it along and zip the bag shut. Leave in water and take a big clip (or clothespin) and clamp to the side of the pot so it doesn’t float away.

Set the timer for one hour (and make sure to listen for it or time it elsewhere as well) and remove from pot. Let cool a bit and remove from bag. Slice into elegant slices and serve either on a garnished platter or plated. It will taste like dark meat chicken – succulent and juicy.