Sous Vide Whole Chicken
Sous vide cooking is the perfect way to get a moist, tender, and juicy chicken every time. You don't even have to worry about overcooking or undercooking your chicken – it's impossible to mess up!
Ingredients
- 3-4 lb fryer chicken
- 2" sprig fresh rosemary
- 2" sprig fresh thyme
- 2" sprig fresh sage
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Prepare it:
- Preheat sous vide water bath to 150f.
- Place chicken on a cutting board, breast side down. Using sharp poultry shears, spatchcock the chicken. Cut along both the left and right sides of the spine to remove it from the chicken. Turn the chicken over and press down firmly to crack the breast bone and flatten the bird, if necessary.
- Transfer spatchcocked chicken to vacuum seal bag.
- Flatten the chicken by extending the legs below the torso, tucking in the wings.
Seal it:
- Add a 2" sprig of rosemary, a sprig of thyme and a few sage leaves to the vacuum seal bag. If you're concerned about the color of the skin, place the herbs in the back of the bag, as the herbs can discolor the skin.
- Using your vacuum sealer, seal the bag.
Sous vide it:
- Place the prepared and vacuum-sealed whole chicken into preheated water bath.
- Cook the chicken at 150f for 6 hours.
Roast it:
- Remove the chicken from the water bath and cut open a corner of the vacuum bag to pour off the bag juices.
- Take the chicken out of the bag and place it on a wire mesh rack placed inside a baking sheet. Preheat oven to 450f. Allow the chicken to sit at room temperature on the rack while the oven preheats.
- Once the oven is preheated, gently brush the entire surface of the chicken with olive oil, season with salt and pepper to taste, and place in the oven to roast for 20 minutes, or until skin is golden brown and crispy.
- Remove chicken from the oven and rest, uncovered for 5 minutes before carving and serving.
Notes
Batch:
This recipe makes one 3 - 4 pound chicken, which is enough for a dinner for my family of 4 with a good amount of leftovers. If desired and your water bath is large enough, you can certainly cook more than one chicken! Just ensure that each chicken is in it's own bag, and there is room for water to circulate between and around each sous vide bag.Storage:
variations + substitutions
There are so many ways to make this recipe your own! I love it exactly as written but here are a couple of ways to tweak it just a bit!- Don't like rosemary, thyme, or sage? Sub those herbs out for ones you like!
- No fresh herbs at home? Try a quick sprinkle of kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and a bay leaf in the bag.
- Feel like some char on that chicken? Crisp the skin on your grill!
- Air fryer junkie? You can brown your chicken in the air fryer too! Just keep an eye on it because it can burn quickly.
time + temp
Here are a couple of great temperature options for your sous vide chicken: 150f: Juicy, tender, but slightly stringy breast. This temperature is great for chicken that will be served cold as well as hot. You may notice some pink/red coloring around the bones, but the chicken is fully cooked. 150f is my preferred temperature for sous vide whole chicken.
160f: Less juicy, but still tender. The chicken breast cooked at this temperature results in a stringy texture very similar to traditionally cooked chicken. This chicken is great for shredded or pulled chicken. I recommend newcomers to sous vide chicken start here as it's the most familiar in texture and appearance to traditionally cooked chicken.
Recommended Equipment + Ingredients
Nutrition
Serving: 1gCalories: 560kcalCarbohydrates: 0.2gProtein: 43gFat: 42gSaturated Fat: 11gPolyunsaturated Fat: 8gMonounsaturated Fat: 20gTrans Fat: 0.2gCholesterol: 174mgSodium: 162mgPotassium: 442mgFiber: 0.1gVitamin A: 349IUVitamin C: 5mgCalcium: 29mgIron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!