What was meh about it? Was it the flavor?
Try searing your chicken skin in a dry pan. You want heat without the smoke of burning oil. The fat of the chicken will render out and lubricate the pan. Both butter and olive oil have a low smoking point and will burn quickly. Clarified butter is a bit better.
Crispy skin requires the surface to be dry and kept dry. Other methods than pan frying are probably better for skin crispiness. Anything that offers a dry heat and air circulation would give better results.
Yeah, so it was just not as good as I had expected. A bit mushy seemingly. Also, I didnāt dry brine it, so that was likely a big mistake. Boneless skinless breasts are very ho-hum anyway. I think Iāll try a split breast with bone and skin next time along with dry brine and perhaps an herb and some EVOO in the bag.
Don, you wonāt find much flavour difference with the split breast, but definitely use the herbs and dry-brine. The EVOO serves no purpose. After cooking the cat chills the chicken, then scrapes the gelled juices off the chicken and pats them dry. Reserve the gel for a sauce.
Then season the chicken skin with a mixture of salt, pepper and a little baking powder and rub it into the skin. About a scant teaspoon of baking powder per pound of chicken breasts is all you need in the mix. Next, turn the chicken skin side down on dry paper towel and press down to flatten the chicken a little to improve contact with your pan. You want that skin as dry as possible. Then sear as usual to get a light golden-brown and crisp skin. I use very little clarified butter in the pan. I also press down on the chicken as it sears to improve contact.
Great suggestions. Iāll give it a try.
Iāve had my Anova for almost three months nowā¦and today is the first time that Iām cooking chicken! Up until now pretty much everything Iāve cooked āsous videā has turned out ābetterā than the same thing cooked with other conventional methods. Fingers crossed that I have the same kind of success with chicken.
Iāve bagged 6 bone in skin on chicken thighs with a little salt and rosemary sprigs and have them in the bath at 165F. Right now the plan is to season and sear them in the cast iron pan after a 2 1/2 hour cook.
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Results on chicken thighs at 165F for 2 1/2 hours - not bad at all. Texture was juicy and on a par with well timed oven cooked thighs.
The only real downside of this cook was that I do my searing outside on my deck - and it was 33F outside today and just on the edge of being a wind storm! 
That chill wind really sucks the heat away from the cast iron.
Anyway, chicken thighs were good. Next up - chicken breasts!
Made another attempt with bone in/skin on chicken breasts. They are frozen in their vacuum seal bags so I cut them out of the bags so that I could add some herbs (thyme and bay leaf). I placed them in ZipLoc bags and used the water displacement method for the cooking (2 hours at 145 F). When done cooking and drying, I dusted them with some searing flour (contains baking powder) and then seared them on a slightly oiled stainless steel pan for two minutes per side.
Results: The skin was browned but not really crispy. The meat was very juicy but not particularly flavorful. And there wasnāt any appreciable fond in the pan to encourage deglazing for making a sauce. So for me, future cooking of this chicken cut will be my old standby of searing first followed by baking the oven until an internal temp of 160. Remove the chicken pieces, deglaze, and return juices to a fat separator and then add to a roux topped off with a tablespoon of Madeira wine. I alternate among a variety of pan sauces (tarragon-sherry; tarragon-lemon; fennel-mustard; etc.)
My first go with SV chicken was using thighs. I always skin and bone my thighs so I can use those parts in making stock. On this occaision I was trying my hand for the first time with a Maharandesh curry. The curry came out fine. I was very happy with the chicken result but my guests felt that the meat was too soft. My personal take was that the chicken was the most tender I have ever had.
I cooked the thighs at 145 for one hour. The internal temp was exactly that when I took them out of the bag. The meat was just a touch on the pink side. That was also somewhat off putting to my guests. I would like to get the texture more ārightā without losing too much tenderness. Should I go higher temperature? Or should I simply go longer time?
nestorph, have you ever tried using that separated fat to make your roux? Why throw out good flavor when you have it? I also make roux using heavy cream, lard, bacon grease, and tallow. Different fats make for different flavors with roux.
By matching the fat with the food you can intensify that flavor. Iāve not yet tried vegetable oil roux, but Iāll bet it makes a difference for them too.
From what I can tell by your description/explanation youāre after a more traditional texture that what you achieved. To do that increase the temperature. 150F is a temperature that others use for cooking chicken thighs. Most work on the principle that the dark meat (drums and thighs) needs higher temperatures than the breast. I say āa temperature that others useā because Iām inclined to do all my chicken at 140F.
Nowā¦ With regard to your 145F for an hour, this was really not long enough when it comes to cooking chicken. While your chicken was technically cooked, in that you had reached temperature equilibrium (ie, same temperature within the core of the chicken as the bath temperature) it is suggested that chicken should be cooked to pasteurisation point. This requires that the chicken be held longer at temperature than it received. If your chicken is cooked to pasteurisation, you can happily tell your guests that the chicken is perfectly safe even though it is displaying some pink.
Pasteurisation tables for poultry are included in Baldwinās āPractical Guide to Sous Videā here:
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