This article is a part of my FREE Sous Vide Quick Start On-Demand Class. If you want to consistently create amazing food with sous vide, then my class is exactly what you're looking for.

How to Cook a Simple Sous Vide Chicken Breast

Welcome to lesson two of the free Sous Vide Quick Start Course! Today we are going to be diving into cooking a simple sous vide chicken breast so you can get your feet wet with a successful sous vide cook!

People are always curious about what should you sous vide first. There are several things I recommend trying as you get started, but chicken breast is always one of my favorites.

Sous vide chicken breast is the first thing that opened my eyes to exactly what sous vide can do to a normal meal. It was the most moist and tender chicken I had ever had, and it took so little effort to make it.

We all have experience eating chicken that is dry, bland, and overcooked. And most of us are guilty of overcooking it ourselves, especially when we are cooking for other people and are scared of undercooking it. I know I am!

So seeing how perfect the sous vide chicken was, and how stress-free it was knowing it was safely cooked, was a real eye opener to me.

I always recommend it as one of the first cooks for people because it really does showcase just how easy sous vide can be, and how the food it produces is amazing.

As one reader, Kathy Glomb, said:

A lot of the recipes in my sous vide books and on my website have flavorful sauces, tasty sides, and other fun components, but to get you started I want to focus on just how simple sous vide can be.

So this recipe just focuses on the chicken by itself. I highly recommend serving it with a favorite sauce of yours (if you want a recommendation I love this Romesco Sauce or Chimichurri Sauce), with some roasted vegetables or other sides, or even cut up on a salad.

You can take this basic chicken breast and use it in a thousand different meals.

Your chicken can be boneless, or still have the skin and bones, it won't affect the cooking time in a significant way. As always with sous vide, try to use a decent chicken breast. Even though sous vide can work miracles, it can't turn a freezer-burned, cheap piece of meat into something flavorful!

For your first recipe, I've tried to greatly simplify the sous vide process and make it as streamlined as possible. Over the rest of the course you'll learn more about some of the other options you have during sous vide.

Sous Vide Chicken Recipe

For the Sous Vide Chicken

Preheat a water bath to 143°F (61.7°C). And don't worry, the next lesson talks about is sous vide safe and why this is just as safe as cooking them traditionally to 165°F (73.9°C)

Take two chicken breasts and salt them on each side.

Take a Ziploc-brand Freezer Bag, or a sous vide vacuum bag, and place the chicken breasts in the bag in a single layer. Seal the bag, using the Ziploc water displacement method, or a vacuum sealer. More on how to use ziploc bags for sous vide if you want detailed directions.

Place the bag in the water bath, making sure it is fully submerged.

Now you can go read a book, binge watch some TV, or hang out with your family! The chicken will be done after 3 hours but it will still taste "perfect" after another hour or two, so you don't have to rush to take it out!

Once it is cooked, remove it from the water bath and take the chicken out of the bag. Dry the chicken off really well with paper towels.

Heat some oil in a pan. If you have a high-smoke point oil like avocado, peanut oil, extra-light olive oil or sunflower oil that is best, but canola oil or vegetable oil can also work for your first time.

As soon as the oil begins to smoke, add the chicken breasts. Let them cook for about 60 seconds then flip them. After another 60 seconds remove them from the pan. They are now ready to be eaten and don't even need to be rested!

I've kept this recipe super simple, but in future lessons we will get into many of the nuances of sous vide and how to tweak the process to meet your own tastes. You can also view all my favorite sous vide chicken breast recipes.

Your Homework

Before you dive into your chicken, why don't you take a few pictures and share them with my Exploring Sous Vide Facebook group or post them on Instagram and tag me @afmeasy and #SousVideQuickStart?

Also I'd love to know what best describes why you cook? Are you a professional chef or caterer? Do you mainly cook regular meals for your family or do you usually do parties or special occasions? Let me know in the comments comments!

Thanks, and happy cooking!

Jason

This article is a part of my FREE Sous Vide Quick Start On-Demand Class. If you want to consistently create amazing food with sous vide, then my class is exactly what you're looking for.

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