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Sous Vide Chicken with Pesto

January 20, 2011 by Jennifer Che 3 Comments

Chicken pesto
We were curious. Very very curious.

We’d heard amazing, almost fantastically amazing things about sous-vide chicken. All over the internet, people raved about its unique, velvety, almost “melt-in-your-mouth” tenderness. They said it was nothing like normal chicken. “You’ll never be able to eat normal chicken again.”

This miraculous chicken was supposed to be juicy, succulent, flavorful, and moist.

Really? We were skeptical, yet intrigued at the same time.

Admittedly, the sous vide machine had already done wonders for scallops, not to mention the perfectly cooked steak, delicious custard-like eggs, and duck confit. Even the sous vide salmon I had made from a hacked water bath system had really incredible texture.

But chicken breast? Which is inherently bland, tasteless, and boring?

SousvideChicken
Just a tiny bit of background – cooking food sous vide is essentially cooking food in a vacuum sealed plastic bag in a precisely temperature-controlled water bath. If you want gory details (e.g., some history & science), visit this post, where I cook a multi-course meal, complete with Thomas Keller (French Laundry) and David Chang (Momofuku) recipes, completely using the sous vide technique.

Although the official instruction manual tells you to cook the sous-vide chicken at 146 ° F, I was pretty convinced (after poking around the internet a bit) that 140 ° F was the way to go if I wanted a juicier, softer result.

140 ° F is right on the edge of the danger zone (between 40 ° F and 140 ° F). Typically, if you cook at temperatures below 140 ° F, you run the risk of bacteria growth. This is why any meat cooked in that “danger zone” should not be cooked for more than 4 hours.

Making this chicken was really really simple. I basically vacuum sealed the chicken (after seasoning with a bit of salt & pepper), and dropped it in the machine for one hour. After it’s done, remove from the bag, slice, and serve with your favorite sauce.

Verdict?
Sous vide chicken is definitely different from traditionally cooked chicken. It’s much more plump, soft, and juicy. Because the water bath is held at a constant temperature, you can’t really overcook the meat that easily.

However, I would hardly call it a transcendent experience.

Bryan’s reaction?

“It’s good, but not as amazing as people make it seem.”

“Just tastes like really good poached chicken.”

True. At the end of the day, it’s still tastes like chicken. Sure, it’s much juicier, and much more evenly cooked. It’s definitely got better texture than traditionally grilled chicken, though some (like Bryan!) would argue that a good poached chicken tastes equally juicy and soft.

With the sous vide technique, however, there are some advantages.  I do like how you don’t have to worry about it while it’s cooking. If you leave the meat in the water bath for a little longer, it won’t really overcook. It’s best for dinner parties where you don’t know exactly when the guests you will arrive, but you want the food to be perfectly cooked right after they arrive. Furthermore, unlike poached chicken, all of that chicken-y goodness stays right in the bag. The flavors won’t dissolve into the water bath during the cooking process.

Chicken pesto
Sous Vide Chicken with Pesto
1 boneless chicken breast
salt and pepper
homemade basil pesto

Season the chicken breast with salt and pepper. Seal in a foodsaver bag and cook sous vide at 140 ° F for at least an hour. If using skinless breast, just slice and serve or brown the breast briefly (mostly for color). If there is skin, brown the skin in a hot pan with a little bit of oil for about 1-2 minutes until browned.

Top with homemade pesto and/or serve over pesto pasta.

For more general background of sous-vide as a cooking technique, please refer to this post.

Enjoy!

Related Sous-vide Posts
Bacon Wrapped Scallops – sous vide
Momofuku 48-hour Braised Short Ribs
Duck Leg Confit
Spaghetti Carbonara with Sous Vide Egg
Duck Fat Fried Potatoes
Sous Vide Salmon
Sous Vide Steak

©2009-2014 Tiny Urban Kitchen
All Rights Reserved

Filed Under: Meat, poultry, Recipe, Sous vide Tagged With: Chicken

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Comments

  1. Andrea says

    February 16, 2013 at 11:02 am

    If you’re cooking chicken at 140F / 60C (which is the optimal temperature to get the perfect chicken), you actually need to cook it for a minimum of two hours (up to four hours if you want) to ‘pasteurise’ it and kill off harmful pathogens (i.e. avoid food poisoning). This will not affect the texture of the chicken, and it will still be moist and tender. This might be good advice to include for anyone else thinking of cooking sous vide chicken. Also, if you brine the chicken first, it will be even more tender when you’ve cooked it (e.g. 1oz salt to 1 litre water, for 4 hours in the fridge), but DON’T season before you put in the vacuum bag, and rinse and pat it dry first. After cooking sous vide, remove from bag, pat dry, season with salt (pepper burns in a hot pan) and quickly sear (only one side is necessary, but do both if you want – just don’t ruin your perfectly cooked chicken!) in a VERY hot pan for a few seconds until just browned, to get a real chicken-y taste (maillard reaction). Then add freshly ground pepper. Perfect chicken 🙂

    Reply
  2. Jennifer Che says

    February 17, 2013 at 10:17 pm

    Wow! Thanks so much for the awesome details tips

    Reply
  3. Sebastian says

    July 18, 2014 at 8:35 pm

    I just bought the $199 Sansaire at Sur La Table today – anything in the store is 20% off through Sunday so got it for $160 and it is supposed to be an AWESOME Sous Vide at home immersion heater.

    Reply

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Welcome to Tiny Urban Kitchen!

JenChe

Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am a Boston to Hong Kong transplant, born and raised in Ohio with parents from Taiwan. Feel free to head on over to the About page if you want to learn more about me, or just explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!
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