♨️ What is “Sous Vide”?
Sous vide, meaning “under vacuum” in French, is a method where food is precision-cooked in a vacuum-sealed pouch that’s submerged in a heat-regulated water bath.The water bath keeps the food (in this case, chicken breasts) at a consistent temperature for longer periods of time than other cooking methods. This ensures the food is cooked evenly all the way through to the center, without the risk of overcooking the outer edges at the same time.
🐔 What Makes This Recipe So Good
I. Love. Sous vide cooking. The method is just so easy – and SO foolproof. Drop the food in a water bath, come back later to perfectly cooked proteins or sides. It’s pretty much impossible to mess up. It’s also pretty much impossible to overcook the chicken breast this way, which can’t always be said for other methods. Another really great thing about a sous vide chicken breast recipe is that it’s super versatile. I used a simple salt-and-pepper seasoning with olive oil, garlic, and an infusion of fresh herbs, but you can season your chicken literally any way you like it. BBQ, garlic herb butter, lemon pepper, Cajun seasoning… anything goes! The sous vide method works for a frozen chicken breast, too. Trust me, you’ll be thrilled to have this option when you suddenly realize you forgot to defrost the chicken for dinner tonight. Just follow the recipe instructions as they’re written below, but add at least 30 minutes to the initial cook time. That gives the chicken extra time to thaw and then cook completely.
👩🏼🍳 Chef’s Tips
As with any sous vide recipe, it’s absolutely crucial that the food is fully submerged in the water bath for the entire cook time. If it’s not completely submerged, it won’t cook evenly, so you might end up with undercooked sections or spots that are tough or dry. Basically the exact opposite of what we want here. If your chicken breasts just will NOT stay underwater, you can weigh them down by adding pie weights to the bag, taping silverware to the outside of the bag, or by using sous vide weights specifically for this purpose. You can actually sous vide chicken breasts ahead of time and finish them with a quick sear just before it’s time to eat. To do that, fill a medium bowl with ice water, then transfer the bag of cooked chicken from the sous vide to the ice bath at the end of the cook time. Let the bag chill in the ice bath for 20 minutes or so. After that, refrigerate the chicken (still in the bag) until you’re ready to sear them. Make sure to heat them through completely in the skillet or you’ll end up with both hot and cold bites. Do you have to finish off a sous vide chicken breast on the stovetop? Not technically, no. If you plan to use it in another recipe, like a shredded chicken salad or chicken tacos, you don’t really need that crisp outer layer. If you’re serving the chicken as-is, though, with just a side or two, I definitely recommend searing it first. There’s no browning or caramelization (a.k.a. the Maillard reaction) with the sous vide process. Because of that, sous vide recipes are typically finished in a skillet with a bit of fat to go that extra mile.
🌡️ How Is This Chicken Safe to Eat?
While the general food-safe temperature for chicken breast is 165° Fahrenheit, that’s actually an oversimplified standard.What really matters is that pasteurization occurs, killing the salmonella bacteria – and that process depends on both temperature AND time.165°F is the general guideline because at that temperature, pasteurization occurs instantly. Hit that number and boom, no more salmonella.At 145°F, pasteurization takes around 9-10 minutes. That means the chicken has to reach 145°F all the way through and then be kept at that temperature for about 10 minutes. It takes a little while for the chicken breasts to reach 145°F, though, which is why this recipe has a minimum 1-hour cook time.
🥘 Other Easy & Delicious Recipes You’ll Love
Egg Roll in a Bowl Sous Vide Eggs Dreamy Instant Pot Chicken and Rice Crockpot Wings Instant Pot Carnitas Matcha Green Tea Latte How to Cook Acorn Squash Easy Sheet Pan Chicken Sausage Shredded Chicken Tacos
