Sous Vide Chicken Breast
The most tender and juicy chicken breast you've ever cooked. It's also the simplest method of cooking a whole chicken breast. This recipe will show you how to cook sous vide chicken breasts so that they're moist and tender every time!
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breast
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 sprigs rosemary thyme, or parsley, etc
- salt and pepper to taste
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
Instructions
- Prepare your water bath, and set the temperature to your desired texture. 145f = soft, juicy with no stringiness, 150f = juicy, tender, and slightly stringy texture, 160f = less juicy, but still tender, traditional stringy texture.
- Prepare 2 chicken breast by brushing with 2 tablespoons olive oil, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste, and adding desired fresh herbs (2 sprigs rosemary)
- Place chicken breast into vacuum sealer bags, and seal. If you don't have a vac sealer, see below for alternatives.
- Add sealed chicken breast to the sous vide water bath and cook for 2 hours.
- Near the end of the cook time, preheat a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add ¼ cup unsalted butter. Once fully heated, remove the chicken from the bag and blot dry with a paper towel. Add the chicken breast to the pan, and toss the herbs into the butter. Sear for 45 - 60 seconds on each side, spooning the heated butter over the top while searing.
- Serve immediately, optionally, drizzle with the herbed butter from the skillet.
Notes
sous vide chicken breast from frozen
This sous vide recipe can easily be adapted to frozen chicken breast. Here's the trick: add 1 hour to the cook time!
no vacuum sealer? no problem!
Ziplock bags: To cook chicken breast in ziplock style bags, use heavy duty freezer bags. Once the chicken, olive oil, and desired seasonings have been added to the bag, use the water displacement method; slowly lower the open bag into the water, allowing the water pressure to squeeze out the air. Close the bag once you've removed as much air as possible.
Silicone bags: To cook chicken breast in reusable silicone bags, lay them into a single layer in the bag, add the oil and seasonings, then manually remove as much air as possible then seal the bag.
Batch:
As written, this recipe cooks two chicken breast, which is enough for my family of 4 as a meal. It can easily be doubled, quadrupled, or halved, based on your available chicken and space in the sous vide. If extending the recipe, ensure that no more than two chicken breast are sealed per bag. This helps to ensure even heating throughout.
Make ahead/ meal prep:
If you eat a lot of chicken breast through the week, this is a wonderful meal prep recipe - simply portion out the chicken breasts, one or two per bag with desired seasonings, and cook as directed. When cooking for meal prep, I like to seal my breasts one per bag with different seasoning for each bag.
Remove the bags from the sous vide water bath after cooking and chill in an ice bath for 10 or so minutes before placing them in the fridge for later use.
Storage:
Store your sous vide chicken breast in the fridge for up to 5 days. This goes for both opened and sealed vacuum bags.
You can also freeze your cooked chicken by either tossing the sealed bags into the freezer, or preparing them, as in shredding, chopping, or slicing, before sealing and placing in the freezer. This makes a quick and easy cooked protein on uninspired nights!
