Skinless, boneless, chicken breast: it’s what’s for dinner.
True several times a week in this Cheung household. Sadly, whoever’s had the (mis)fortune of trying to swallow bite after bite of dry, stringy chicken breast knows this clean protein can be hard on the palate.
Not to fear: we’re here with another easy no-fail recipe which promises to deliver the most succulent and healthy chicken breast you’ll ever have.
Skinless chicken breast that’s juicy, tender and flavourful – that’s the goal. How, pray tell, do we execute such sorcery?
You guessed it: another sous vide cooking win!
Why This Method Will Change Your Life
Skinless Chicken Breast = Healthy Protein Choice
Skinless, boneless chicken breast is nutrient dense and filling. Though I love my beef, I wouldn’t recommend eating red meat as often as I do chicken breast.
Amazing Taste and Texture
Eating healthy food doesn’t have to be nasty to your tastebuds. With zero added fat yet keeping all the flavour, skinless chicken breast is truly a showcase meal for sous vide supremacy.
Versatile
Sous vide skinless chicken breast is not only succulent and satisfying, it’s also versatile. Throw it in soups, sandwiches or salads. Add salsa or gravy or throw it in wraps or tacos. The options are endless and flavours only bound by your imagination.
Batch Cook and have ready-to-eat Meat for Weeks
True story: at any given time of year you’ll find bags of pre-cooked frozen chicken breast in our freezer chest. We’re all busy people. So whenever there’s an opportunity to pre-cook food without compromising quality[1], I’m all in. With sous vide cooking we can cook up as much chicken breast as our sous vide machine can handle. We fridge or freeze family-portion bags that will keep for weeks or years.
Bonus: When you’re ready to eat there’s no need to re-cook: you can pull it out of the fridge and eat it cold in salad or sandwiches, or re-heat to serving temp via a sous vide bath (or really really hot tap water), stir fry, microwave or soup on the stove.
Save Money
If your Asian, I’m glad I now have your attention. We never pay full price on skinless chicken breast. When it goes on sale, we buy en mass and batch cook it all to maximize our savings and minimize our meal-making stress.
Though it’s not my first choice to serve skinless chicken breast to guests[2], this healthy protein is a great staple perfect for everyday meals.
Lazy Cook Win
Whether I’m shooting a wedding or behind a computer retouching images, I like to find (or create) efficiencies. Our skinless chicken breast recipe skips the pre-cook seasoning to get you from grocery store to cooked chicken without fuss and fast.
Another lazy cook win: because there’s no skin, there’s no benefit to searing. Your meal is literally ready straight out of the bag. Just open, season and serve 🙂
The usual Sous Vide Advantages
Perfect, repeatable results that maximize tenderness yadayadayada. If you’ve seen our other articles on how to cook the best prime rib roast or our recommended sous vide tools you already know the scoop on the hottest wave to come to home cooking since the toaster.
THE BEST SOUS VIDE SKINLESS CHICKEN BREAST RECIPE
Prep Time:
- 10min
Cook Time:
- 2–4 hours (non-active)
Ingredients:
- Skinless, boneless chicken breast: from one to the maximum capacity of your sous vide setup
- 1/2 tsp Salt + 1/2 tsp Pepper per breast
Tools:
DIRECTIONS
Bag & Cook Sous Vide:
- Set your sous vide water bath temperature to 135°F
- Vacuum seal meal-sized portions of skinless, boneless chicken breast
- Place bags in water bath and cook for calculated time to reduce all pathogens to core[3] (typically 2–4 hours[4]).
Post-Sous Vide Cooking Option 1 – Quick Chill and Freeze for Later:
- After cooking, submerge bags in equal parts water and ice to chill for one (1) hour.
- Place in fridge for up to 2 weeks or freezer for up to 2 years.
- When ready to eat, you can eat cold from fridge or re-heat to serving temperature as desired. No need to re-cook.
Post-Sous Vide Cooking Option 2 – Season & Serve:
- Remove chicken breasts from bag, being careful to save the jus released in the bag.
- Season each skinless, boneless chicken breast with salt and pepper to taste (approximately 1/2 tsp each).
- Optional: pour jus from bag onto sliced/diced/shredded chicken breast for added moisture.
- Fresh vs reheated from Frozen (sous vide): Fresh is still best – when cooked fresh there’s less chicken jus in the bag meaning that moisture stays in the meat. But after batch cooking hundreds of chicken breast and quick chilling them in the freezer, the convenience of having pre-cooked protein in the freezer that can quickly be re-heated to serving temps easily compensates for the slight loss in tenderness and extracted juices. Besides: you can add that lost moisture by pouring the jus on after slicing/dicing/shredding and seasoning. ↩
- For guests, I prefer to serve sous vide chicken breast with the skin on, seared with a handheld torch. The added fat and flavour are sure crowd pleasers. ↩
- To easily calculate cook times, use Polyscience’s Sous Vide Toolbox iPhone app. ↩
- Though sous vide cook times are flexible, don’t cook chicken breast for more than 6 hours … Or prepare to suffer the rubber-ducky consequences. ↩