Sous vide marinated Chicken breast
Tender and juicy full of flavor chicken breast that will melt in your mouth
Sous vide chicken breast - so easy so good
When cooking sous vide to medium (no need to go lower than medium to medium-well for chicken), set your immersion cooker to 65°C / 140°F for about 2 hours. I use the Anova immersion cooker but any will do. The nice thing about the Anova is that it heats the water pretty fast — in about 20 minutes the water is ready for your chicken breast. Chicken breast is one part of the chicken that needs special attention since it has no fat at all. That disadvantage becomes a great advantage when cooked sous vide, because the meat comes out so tender and juicy — with no fat at all. The nutritional values of this cooking method are a key factor in this recipe, and you'll actually see that there's no need to compromise taste for healthy cooking.What's the game plan?
First thing — just ask your butcher for a full chicken breast, with the bones and skin. You can divide it into 2 parts yourself or ask your butcher to do it for you. It's important to keep the bones and skin since they're a big flavor enhancer. We'll remove them only at the last stage, right before serving.
*** Don't discard the juices from the bag — they're full of flavor and we'll use them later for the sauce.
Once the sous vide chicken is out of the water, pat it dry, let it rest, then give it a quick sear in the pan. Removing the bones is easy — just run your knife along the bone line and the meat will come right off. Enjoy this sous vide chicken breast. It's really the best way to cook it.Method
- 1
mix marinade· 5 min
Mix all marinade ingredients in a bowl, add the 2 chicken breasts and rub the marinade into the chicken. Let chicken rest in marinade a few hours in the fridge, preferably overnight to absorb all the flavors.
- 2
setting the grounds· 25 min
Set a Sous vide Precision Cooker to 140°F/ 65°c. It usually takes 20-25 min for water to reach 140°F/ 65°c. While the precision cooker warms up the water place each chicken breast in a plastic bag with a few branches of the thyme, a piece of the pickled lemon and some of the marinade juices. don't throw away the extra marinade, we will use it later for the sauce.
- 3
Cooking sous vide· 1 hr 50 min
When water reaches 140°F/ 65°c drop the chicken breast into the water and cook for 1 hr and 50 minutes. When the timer goes off, remove the bag from the water bath. Pull the chicken from the bag and let cool for 5 minutes, don't Discard cooking liquid, pour them into the marinated juices we used.
- 4
Finish on the Pan· 3 minutes
Heat the 2 tbsp oil in a heavy cast iron or stainless steel skillet over medium-high heat until smoking hot. Add the chicken, skin side down and cook for 30 seconds, flip the chicken on the other side and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove from the pan and let rest for 2 minutes. Take off the bones and cut into 2cm/ 1 inch slices.
- 5
prepare the sauce· 2 min
On the same pan, add all the marinade liquids and reduce to 1/4 cup (if you are short on liquid you may add 2 tbsp of water). Pour 2 tbsp of the sauce on the sliced chicken breast and serve hot.
Jaron Kimhi
Jaron Kimhi — self-taught home cook from Tel Aviv, writing and cooking every recipe on this site himself. 20+ years of tinkering in the kitchen, leaning toward slow cooking, classic technique, and honest ingredients.
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