Top Sous Vide Chicken Breast Recipes

Sous vide chicken breast recipes are easy to find. There are recipes a plenty on all the regular sous vide cooking websites, blogs and YouTube channels. Check out a range of those recipes here on our curated recipe library of 200+ sous vide recipes.

Now you would have thought that cooking sous vide chicken breast would be an easy task right? Surprisingly enough there is some contention in the sous vider community about whether sous vide chicken breast is really the best cut of chicken to use for your sous vide cooking. In the experience of many sous viders, frozen chicken breast is particularly tricky to cook well. In fact, the majority of people strongly suggest that you do not sous vide chicken breast from frozen. Fresh is best.

Start your sous vide cook with frozen or fresh chicken breast?

Many sous viders have had failed cooks when they have tried to cook chicken breast from frozen. Even the ever successful Sous Vide Everything channel show a failed sous vide cook when they cooked sous vide chicken breast from frozen. The overwhelming feedback suggests that cooking chicken breast sous vide is best done with fresh meat and not frozen meat. If your chicken breast is frozen, we recommend you defrost it before starting your sous vide cook.

Cooking temp and times tips from sous viders who have given sous vide chicken breast recipes a whirl

Here are a range of temperatures that people swear by when cooking sous vide chicken breast. As you know the temperature you cook at for sous vide will depend on the thickness of the chicken breast. In that sense, it is really difficult to follow any of the suggestions below without knowing which sous vide immersion circulator they are using and the thickness of your chicken breast. You may need to “adjust to taste” or experiment a little in the beginning:

“I do chicken breast at 141…I usually use chicken breasts that haven’t been frozen. The Anova Culinary recipe for chicken with lemon, garlic and rosemary is quite simple, but quite tasty particularly when you sear the lemon as well as the chicken.”

“I use never-frozen organic chicken and it comes out brilliantly sous vide! I season with salt/pepper/whatever herbs I want and maybe a bit of olive oil and cook for 90 min at 60C.”

“Liberally salt and pepper [the chicken breast], and put them in a Ziploc bag, not vacuum sealed. Get the air out of the bag by the submersion technique and let it cool at 58 C/137 F for two hours. Take them out. Don’t towel dry or sear, just cut it up. Best and most juicy chicken breasts ever!”

“Cook at 149 for 1 hour. Consider cooking for less time if your chicken breasts are very thin.”

“140 degrees makes the chicken super supple, works well for chicken salad I think. I never go higher than 147 for skinless chicken breasts and always 1- 1.5 cook time.”

“Cook at 146 for 1 hour. If [the chicken breasts] are skinless, don’t try to crisp them.They are super moist and the texture of the meat is very firm but plump, great for salad.”

Credit – Mary’s Making. Full recipe in our curated recipes library

Don’t make these classic sous vide chicken breast recipe mistakes

We’ve rounded up some mistakes to avoid when following a sous vide chicken breast recipe:

Don’t add citrus to your chicken breast prior to your sous vide as it changes the texture of the chicken
Make sure that the temperature you cook at is not too high. It will alter the texture of your chicken
Don’t cook your sous vide chicken breast for too long. This can make the chicken breast break down too much
Don’t cook your chicken breast from frozen. Results have been decidedly awful where people have cooked from frozen
Go light on the butter. It pulls out the fat soluble flavor into the liquid melted butter

The best sous vide chicken breast marinades and sauces

Obviously if you are following a specific sous vide chicken breast recipe you will be offered marinade and sauce inspiration within the recipe itself. But if you are looking to mix it up a bit, here are a few delicious alternatives, recommended by real life sous viders:

Marinade your chicken breast in soy, brown sugar, garlic, and ginger
Consider sous vide chicken legs rather than chicken breast. They are delicious with duck fat, garlic and thyme
Use the left over juices from your sous vide food pouch to make a sauce. Thickened it with a little butter
Create a brine (salt water is the simplest, but there are many recipes for different brines) and let the chicken sit in the brine for about an hour to an hour and a half. Afterwards, season the chicken breast with whatever seasoning you want and cook it accordingly with the sous vide method
Use a brine the night before your sous vide cook of 1 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp sugar to 1 cup of water for 2 pieces of chicken in a zip lock bag. Refrigerate, don’t freeze. When ready to cook, rinse the pieces, dry and place in vacuum bags

Credit: Jeanette’s Healthy Living Full recipe in our curated recipe library

The best way to finish off your sous vide chicken breast dish

As always there is plenty of feedback from sous viders about the best way to finish off their sous vide chicken breast meals. Here are just a few of their suggestions you might like to consider:

Instead of using a kitchen torch, sear the chicken in a really hot cast iron in a mixture of oil or butter
Consider using clarified butter as the smoke point is high. It gives it a nice flavor
Toss your sous vide chicken breast in a searing hot cast iron pan for a nice medium chicken breast. Brown it in a little oil in a skillet.
Before your sous vide cook, lightly flour and sear your chicken breast in a hot pan with oil. Don’t put butter in the bag. Just salt, pepper, and maybe a bit of oil. And finally consider tenderizing the chicken before cooking. If you do it correctly, the chicken will be juicy and very flavorful without being chewy or rubbery
For a more consistent result, consider defrosting your chicken breast first so it comes to room temperature. Then add it to your water bath and start your sous vide cook

Is sous vide chicken breast the right cut of chicken for a delicious meal?

The sous vider jury is out on whether chicken breast is the best cut of chicken for sous vide cooking. So if chicken breast is not the best cut of chicken for a sous vide cook, what cut of chicken is better?

For the best sous vide meal results, many sous viders recommend cooking chicken with the bone included. So dark meat could be the way to go including chicken thighs and chicken legs. You could even consider still cooking chicken breast. but with the bone and the skin attached.

Conclusion

If you are a passionate sous vider, you should try cooking sous vide chicken breast at least once. That way, you can form your own opinion about whether sous vide chicken breast lives up to sous vide’s deliciousness standards for you. Once you have done that, you will have a better sense for whether you want to consider other darker cuts of chicken such as thighs and legs.