How to Sous Vide Chicken

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• Chicken Times and Temperatures
• Detailed Sous Vide Chicken
• Benefits of Sous Vide for Chicken
• Can You Cook a Whole Chicken
• Getting Cripsy Skin

Chicken is one of the easiest types of food to overcook... and dry, bland chicken breast is such a waste of food. Using sous vide allows you to safely cook it at a much lower temperature than you can through traditional means and the moist, tender result is one of my favorite sous vide meals.

Sous Vide Chicken Details

My preferred sous vide chicken temperature is 140°F (60.0°C) for white meat and 148°F (64°C) for dark meat like sous vide chicken thighs. Some people prefer their white meat as low as 135°F (57°C) or as high as 150°F (65.6°C).

Regardless of which time of meat you cook, it is usually best to pasteurize your chicken. I cook most dark meat for 4 to 6 hours, which more than pasteurizes it, but for sous vide chicken breasts I just cook it for the minimum pasteurization time.

A major concern with cooking chicken and poultry is ensuring that it is safe to eat. Traditionally, this meant cooking most chicken to at least 150°F or 165°F (65.5°C to 73.8°C). As we discussed in the lesson on Is Sous Vide Safe, you can achieve the same safety levels through extended cooking at lower temperatures. This allows you to enjoy much juicier poultry than you normally would.

Once Heated, chicken and other poultry are pasteurized by cooking it at:

• 140°F (60.0°C) for 30 minutes
• 145°F (62.8°C) for 12 minutes
• 150°F (65.6°C) for 4 minutes

Benefits of Sous Vide Chicken

Overcooked, bland, and dried out chicken is a common cooking stereotype for a reason. With practice it is possible to cook chicken perfectly using traditional methods but it is always a fine line between perfect and overcooked. Using sous vide always results in uniformly tender chicken that is very moist.

Unlike some other ingredients where sous vide can radically change the ingredient, cooking chicken meat sous vide is mainly an act of convenience and consistency. The exception to this are sous vide chicken eggs, which can achieve textures not possible to get with traditional methods.

I often use sous vide chicken as a basis for other dishes such as sous vide chicken marsala, sous vide chicken parmigiana, fried chicken, and other chicken dishes with a coating.

First fully cooking the chicken sous vide, then applying and cooking the coating removes the guess work of trying to ensure the chicken is cooked through at the exact moment the coating turns nice and crispy. This also works great with sous vide chicken wings.

Can You Sous Vide Whole Chickens

I'm not a big fan of doing this, but there are ways you can sous vide a whole chicken. Cooking at the top range of moist white meat and the bottom of the dark meat range, around 148ºF will result in a uniformly tender and moist bird.

It is also better a butterflied or spatchcocked chicken instead of a whole one. This is because the cavity in a whole chicken will trap air and heat much slower. If you do use a whole chicken, it is worthwhile to increase the cooking time by an hour or two to compensate.

How to Get Crisp Sous Vide Skin

Due to the moisture present in sous vide cooking chicken skin that was in the pouch can not really be made as crispy as when it is cooked in the oven. The best solution to this is to take it off of the bird before cooking the meat sous vide.

As you get close to serving time, you can manually crispy the chicken skin. There are many methods that work, using a hot skillet with a little oil is normally quick. You can also brown it on a baking sheet in the oven set to 375ºF but make sure you use one with raised edges.

I go into a lot more details in my article on how to get crispy skin with sous vide.

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Sous Vide Chicken Temperatures and Times

Overcooked, bland, and dried out chicken is a common cooking stereotype for a reason. With practice it is possible to cook chicken perfectly using traditional methods but it is always a fine line between perfect and overcooked. Using sous vide always results in uniformly tender chicken that is incredibly moist and tender.. Below are more sous vide time and temperatures for many of the specific items.

Sous Vide Chicken Breast

I love a sous vide chicken breast, they are so tender and juicy. I cook them at 140°F(60°C) until pasteurized, but they are safe as low as 136°F (57.8°C), and some people go as high as 150°F(65.5°C).

All should be pasteurized by thickness

• Medium-Well: 149ºF for Pasteurized by Thickness (65.0ºC)
• Medium-Rare: 137ºF for Pasteurized by Thickness (58.3ºC)
• Ideal: 141ºF for Pasteurized by Thickness (60.6ºC)
• How to sous vide chicken breast

Sous Vide Chicken Drumstick

There is something about eating a juicy, saucy chicken drumstick that brings me back to my childhood! I usually sous vide them at 148ºF (64.4°C) for 4 to 6 hours and they turn out perfectly.

• Medium: 141ºF for 4 to 6 Hours (60.6ºC)
• Ideal: 148ºF for 4 to 6 Hours (64.4ºC)
• Shreddable: 165ºF for 8 to 12 Hours (73.9ºC)
• How to sous vide chicken drumstick

Sous Vide Chicken Egg Bites

I cook sous vide egg bites at 170°F (76.6°C) for 1 hour and they turn out great. You can make them in any glass container but the 1/4 pint or 1/2 pint work really well. I've also made them in ramekins.

• Standard: 170°F for 1 Hour (76.7ºC)
• How to sous vide chicken egg bites

Sous Vide Chicken Eggs

A whole book could be written on the nuances of sous vide eggs but in general they range from 140°F (60.0°C) for barely poached, up to 165°F (73.9°C) for basically hard-boiled. They are usually cooked for 40 to 60 minutes.

• Semi-Hard Boiled: 150ºF for 40 to 60 Minutes (65.6ºC)
• Poached / Soft Boiled: 140ºF - 145ºF for 40 to 60 Minutes (60.0ºC)
• 13 Minute Egg - Poached: 167ºF for 13 Minutes (75.0ºC)
• Hard Boiled: 165ºF for 40 to 60 Minutes (73.9ºC)
• Pasteurized: 131ºF for 75 to 90 Minutes (55.0ºC)
• How to sous vide chicken eggs

Sous Vide Chicken Leg

For tender chicken legs the temperature used is normally 141°F up to 156°F (60.6°C to 68.9°C) and I personally like 148°F (64.4°C) the best. The time is typically 4 to 6 hours.

• Medium: 141ºF for 4 to 6 Hours (60.6ºC)
• Ideal: 148ºF for 4 to 6 Hours (64.4ºC)
• Shreddable: 165ºF for 8 to 12 Hours (73.9ºC)
• How to sous vide chicken leg

Sous Vide Chicken Thigh

I love a perfectly cooked chicken thigh! My recommendation for a normal chicken thigh or leg is 148ºF (64.4°C) for 4 to 6 hours, or you can go up to 176°F (80°C) if you prefer a shreddable one.

• Medium: 141ºF for 4 to 6 Hours (60.6ºC)
• Ideal: 148ºF for 4 to 6 Hours (64.4ºC)
• For Shredding: 165ºF for 8 to 12 Hours (73.9ºC)
• How to sous vide chicken thigh

Sous Vide Chicken Whole

I generally don't recommend trying to cook an entire chicken but if you do try to spatchcock it to remove the air pocket or it could harbor bacteria during the cooking process. You should cook it long enough to pasteurize it

Not recommended, but if you do try to spatchcock it to remove the air pocket or it could harbor bacteria during the cooking process. For all temperatures it should be pasteurized by thickness.

• Medium: 141ºF for Pasteurized by Thickness (60.6ºC)
• Medium-Well: 149ºF for Pasteurized by Thickness (65.0ºC)
• How to sous vide chicken whole

Sous Vide Chicken Wings

Chicken wings are generally an easy food to cook, and they are pretty hard to screw up. If I want some bite, then I'll do 140°F (60°C) and for fall-apart wings 165°F (73.9°C), either for at least 1-2 hours.

• Tender: 140°F for 1 to 2 hours (60.0ºC)
• Braise-Like
• Tender Braise: 150°F for 1 to 2 Hours (65.6ºC)
• Firm but Tenderized: 156°F for 1 to 2 Hours (68.9ºC)
• More Fall Apart: 165°F for 1 to 2 Hours (73.9ºC)
• Really Fall Apart: 176°F for 1 to 2 Hours (80.0ºC)
• How to sous vide chicken wings