whine & dine

As you can probably tell, I’m still mildly obsessed with my new toy. It’s still early times yet, though, so I’d like to think I’m allowed. The past few months have been a little crazy in terms of work and travel schedules for the bunny and I, and I haven’t been able to spend as much time in the kitchen as I’d have liked, so it’s been really nice to have another excuse to dive back into cooking.

I’m not sure how many of you know, but I love chicken breast. I know, I know, it’s got a pretty nasty reputation for being dry and stringy, with little flavour, relegated to the diet-conscious and gastronomically unadventurous for the most part. And it’s true – chicken breast can be all those unappetizing things if you’re not careful with how you cook it. The thing is, the mild flavour and versatility is one of the things that I love about chicken breast, and, if done right, it most certainly won’t be dry.

And, now that I have a method of cooking it at precisely 62°C, it means I’ll never suffer another dry, overbooked chicken breast again. The only down side to this method is that you won’t have a little puddle of juices at the bottom of your roasting pan that can be turned into a quick pan-gravy while your meat rests, but that’s really not much of a problem at all, since my chicken – vac-packed with a little knob of butter and seasoned with salt and pepper – was so juicy and oozing with that delicious buttery flavour, it tasted as though I was eating a piece of meat that had been injected with gravy while it was cooked.

Simple Sous Vide Chicken Supremes
2 chicken supremes, skin on (the breast, with the drumlet bone left attached, and frenched)
10g unsalted butter
salt & pepper
1 tbsp canola oil
*optional: a sprinkling of fresh thyme leaves, and/or some finely grated lemon zest

Cut off any large pieces of excess fat (small pieces can be left on), and trim the chicken skin so that you have enough to neatly encase the breast. The skin will shrink a little during cooking, so ensure that you leave about an extra 1cm border or so. Lay the chicken breasts skin side down on a cutting board and season the meat well with sea salt and a few turns of black pepper. If using the thyme and/or lemon zest, sprinkle it evenly over the flesh-side too. Season the skin with a little salt.

Place the breasts in a single layer in a bag, and pop in the butter. Vacuum and seal the bag, then cook for 1 hour at 62ºC. (It can probably be held for a few more hours, but I haven’t tested out how long it takes for the proteins to take on an undesirable texture.) Once cooked, remove from the bags and pat dry.

Heat a sauté or cast iron pan with a thin film of canola oil, and sear the chicken, skin-side down, for about 45 seconds until the skin is crisp and golden brown. Remove from the pan, let it rest for a couple of minutes on a warmed plate, covered, then tuck into the juiciest chicken breast you’ve ever had in your life. :)

Note: I opted to go two degrees higher than the temperature where the proteins coagulate without squeezing the liquid out of the fibres (60ºC) since I’ve read that the texture of chicken at 60°C can be a little strange/take some getting used to. This probably means that you can’t hold it at this temperature indefinitely (well, you wouldn’t be able to anyway since after a few hours the meat would take on the texture of overcooked meat even if it was still really juicy), but it tasted pretty darn good to me, as is. Just note that I am still experimenting with temperatures and cooking times, and will try it out at 60ºC next time round for comparison.