We moved last year and I called the moving company and told them I had a strange request. The lovely woman told me that they had moved everything and anything and could probably help me out. I told them I had a full freezer I wanted to take with me. She replied, well that's a first, uh, no we don't do that. My real-estate agent suggested we have a barbecue. I explained what was IN the freezer. His response- I don't know what to tell you. So rather than empty out the freezer like a sane human being, I packed two massive coolers and drove 1000 miles in one day rather than give up what was inside that deep freeze. As well as frozen red meat, poultry and various heritage grains, I have five pounds of goose fat, ten pounds of rendered mangalista lard, duck fat and several tubs of chicken fat that I was not going to give away under any circumstances.
Cooking sous vide with fat turns an ordinary dish into an extraordinary one. Anyone who has ever had a potato roasted in duck fat knows this. Chicken breasts are pretty boring (I always go for the thigh myself) but when deboned breasts meet lemon, thyme, salt, pepper and schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) and are cooked sous vide? HEAVEN. Here is what I am cooking for Sunday dinner tonight.
Breasts from two chickens, deboned, skin on (skin is optional)
Fresh Thyme
Meyer Lemon- sliced
Salt and Pepper
Rendered chicken fat. (can be found online) option to use butter or olive oil.
Set Anova to 60.5 degrees Celsius
Salt and Pepper breasts
Place half of thyme and lemon in bag and add couple of tablespoons of fat, place chicken breasts on top and then add the rest of thyme lemon and fat on top.
Seal using vacuum or displacement method.
Cook for at least one hour and 40 minutes- up to 4 hours.
Remove from bag and sear in a cast iron skillet to crisp skin. Flip to get the Maillard reaction on other side.
Let rest- then slice on the bias and enjoy the most tender flavorful chicken breast EVER.
i can understand why you didnt wanna throw it away! especially the duck fat 