I recently sous vide’d chicken halves (150 degrees for 2 hours) followed by searing over charcoal. Although I feel comfortable the reddish tint to the dark meat adjacent to the bone was OK. Others might become a little squeamish about the appearance. So should I separate the breasts from the thighs and cook the thighs at a higher temperature, or simply increase the time of cooking?
jnelsonmdla
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The structure of the breast and thigh muscles are different and will be better treated differently. The thigh and drumstick are interlaced with connective tissue and surrounded by fat, as such they are better done hotter and longer than the breast to allow for those tissues to break down.
Pink around the bone is not unusual on thighs, although they are fully cooked. The pink is caused by myoglobin.
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Thank you, Ember. Can you define hotter and longer for chicken dark meat? 150 degrees for two hours works very well for white meat (breasts).
I tend to use 60-62.5C for breast meat usually for up to 2 hours and typically 73.9C for 90 mins to 4 hours for thighs.