Sous Vide Beginner 100 min

Sous-Vide Chicken Breast

Chicken breast vacuum sealed and cooked for 90 minutes at 63°C — evenly cooked, juicy, no risk of drying out.

Sous-Vide Chicken Breast illustration

Steps

  1. 01

    Pat the chicken breasts dry. Season both sides with salt.

  2. 02

    Place each breast in a vacuum bag with olive oil, a crushed garlic clove, and thyme sprigs. Seal using a vacuum sealer or the water displacement method.

  3. 03

    Set the circulator to 63°C (145°F). Submerge the sealed bags and cook for 90 minutes. Clip bags to the container to keep them submerged.

  4. 04

    Remove the chicken from the bags. Pat dry with paper towels. For a golden crust, sear in a hot pan with a drizzle of olive oil for 30–45 seconds per side — optional but adds colour and flavour.

  5. 05

    Slice and serve with a squeeze of lemon. The interior will be uniformly pale pink and extremely juicy — this is correct at 63°C.

Why it works

Is sous-vide chicken at 60°C actually safe to eat?

Yes, if held long enough. Pasteurization is a function of time multiplied by temperature, not temperature alone. At 60°C, holding chicken for 12 minutes achieves the same 5-log Salmonella reduction as the instant-kill method at 74°C. Lower temperature plus longer hold time equals the same food safety result.

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Why does 2 degrees make such a big difference in sous-vide?

Different proteins in meat set at different temperatures. Myosin — which keeps meat juicy — sets at 50–54°C. Actin — which makes meat dry and chewy — sets above 65°C. A 2°C difference can mean crossing one of these thresholds entirely. You're not just 'more cooked,' you're triggering a different texture.

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Why do you still need to sear food after sous-vide?

The Maillard reaction — the browning that creates flavor — requires two conditions: a dry surface and temperatures above 140°C. A water bath provides neither. The food surface is wet and the maximum bath temperature is 85°C. Searing after sous-vide isn't optional; it's a separate cooking step the bath cannot perform.

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What happens to shrimp protein when it cooks?

When shrimp cooks, heat causes its proteins to unfold from their folded 3D shapes — a process called denaturation. The unfolding releases a bound pigment (astaxanthin), turning the flesh pink, and causes the proteins to bond into a tighter network, making the flesh firm and opaque. This happens fast, which is why shrimp overcooks so easily.

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Sous Vide Temperature Guide →

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01

Pat the chicken breasts dry. Season both sides with salt.

Chicken breast 500 g
Salt 4 ml