This Sous Vide Boneless Chicken Breasts recipe makes super juicy and tender chicken that’s impossible to achieve with traditional method! Forget dry chicken breasts with sous vide technique, which allows you to control the temperature precisely and produces the perfect chicken that’s full of flavor!
This no-fail recipe uses skinless and boneless chicken breasts. No brining or marinating needed. An easy 3-step method guarantees the success EVERY TIME and you can customize with your favorite seasonings!
Why sous vide chicken breast is the BEST?
For years I tried different techniques to cook chicken breast. With the low-fat content, chicken breast is ridiculously easy to overcook with traditional methods. When cooked just a few minutes too long, it turns out dry, chewy, and tasteless.
Enter sous vide cooking! It’s a water bath cooking method by sealing food in a bag, then cooking to a very precise temperature in a water. It means “under vacuum” in French.
Our recipe is foolproof as you can control the temperature precisely, so you’ll achieve the meat with unparalleled juiciness and NEVER overcook or undercook your chicken breast!
As a result, it’s low-stress cooking by eliminating short windows of time for perfect doneness, and your chicken will be evenly cooked edge to edge. Totally a game changer!
Sous vide boneless chicken breasts ingredients
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts: You can use either fresh or frozen chicken breasts. This recipe also works for bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts.
- Olive oil: Use regular olive oil and avoid extra virgin oil which has a low smoke point.
- Seasonings: I use my favorite seasoning for this one: paprika (mild or smoky), garlic powder, salt and black pepper. It’s Keto and goes with almost everything. But you can substitute other seasonings or dry rub that you like.
How to sous vide cook boneless chicken breasts
This low-carb chicken recipe is incredibly easy, and you simple need to follow this 3S method: Season, Sous Vide and Sear!
Step 1: Season
First you want to season the chicken breast. This could be as simple as salt and pepper, though I love to give it some extra flavor. My favorite seasoning includes paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
Step 2: Sous vide
This is the most important part of this recipe, and you might have a few questions: what temperature do you sous vide chicken breast? And how long to sous vide cook chicken? Do you have to cook it above 165°F as USDA says that’s the safe temperature for cooked chicken? Can you vacuum seal a bag without a vacuum sealer?
I have tested out different temperatures, and now I can firmly tell you that 149°F (65°C) is absolutely my favorite temp to sous vide chicken breast. When it’s above 150°F, the meat starts to get slightly dry and stringy. When it’s below 145°F, the meat tastes slightly raw to me.
Even though it’s not cooked to the recommend temp of 165°F by USDA, sous vide chicken is safe to eat. The USDA temp guide is for the traditional cooking methods, but pasteurization is based on both the temp and time at that temp, therefore as long as you sous vide cook the chicken for more than 1 hour, it’s safe to eat. Your chicken breast is ready after 1 hour, but you can leave it in the water bath for as long as 4 hours (it can get mushy if you leave it longer than that.)
To sous vide chicken breast, you need to vacuum seal the chicken first. If you don’t have a vacuum sealer, you can place the seasoned chicken into a zip-lock bag, and vacuum seal the bag using the water displacement technique: just seal all but one corner of the bag, and then slowly place it into a large pot of water. Make sure everything below the zip-line is covered by water, then seal the rest of the bag. If you use large-size chicken breasts, I recommend placing two pieces of meat into one zip-lock bag to ensure the meat is completely submerged in the water during cooking.
Step 3: Sear
After sous vide cooking, your chicken is fully cooked. It’s ok to serve right away, but I like to finish with a quick sear to add some beautiful color and crispy crust to the chicken. Heat a skillet on the stove over medium-high heat with oil. When it’s very hot, add the chicken (presentation side down) and sear for 2 minutes until the chicken turns nice and brown, and then flip and cook the other side for 30 seconds.
Other seasoning ideas
If you’d like to try other seasonings, here are some popular ideas:
- Taco seasoning
- Fajita seasoning
- Italian seasoning
- Lemon pepper seasoning
How to use sous vide chicken breasts?
The easiest way is to serve these sous vide chicken breasts with potatoes, mashed potatoes, rice or cauliflower rice (for a low-carb meal) together with a vegetable side dish such as:
You can also cut or shred leftover chicken breast and use in another recipe. Here are some ideas:
- Chicken Noodle Soup
- Chicken Salad
- Chicken Casserole
How to store sous vide chicken breasts?
Store cooked chicken breast in an airtight container in the refrigerator and it can last 3-4 days. They’re great for meal prep. Alternatively, you can freeze if for up to 3 months.
Juicy Sous Vide Boneless Chicken Breasts
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (fresh or frozen*) You can also use bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
- 2 tablespoons olive oil (divided)
- 1 teaspoon paprika (or smoked paprika)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Fill a large container or pot with water. Attach the sous vide precision cooker and set the temperature to 149°F (65°C)**.
- Place the chicken breasts in a single layer on a plate. Rub 1 tablespoon of olive oil on all sides.
- In a small bowl, whisk together paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper until combined. Then rub the seasoning evenly over the chicken on all sides.
- Place them to zip-lock bags and arrange in a single layer. I use two bags with each bag having two pieces in it.
- Seal the bags using the “water displacement” technique: seal all but one corner of the bag, and slowly place it in the water bath. Make sure everything below the zip-line is covered by water. Then seal the rest of the bag. (Feel free to use a vacuum sealer if you have one.)
- Leave the bags in the warm water bath and cook for 1 hour. (Make sure the meat is fully submerged while the seams of the bag are above water. You can add heavy kitchen items to weigh the bag down if necessary.)
- When the timer goes off, remove the chicken from the bag and pat dry with paper towels.
- Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add the rest of oil. When it gets smoking hot, add the chicken breasts presentation-side down, cook for about 2 minutes until nicely seared. Flip and cook the other side for 30 seconds.
- Remove the chicken from the skillet and let it rest for a few minutes before serving.
Notes
- *If you use frozen chicken breasts, add 30 more minutes of cooking time in the sous vide water bath.
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** I recommend cooking the chicken breast to 149°F / 65°C, but if you’d like to try other doneness, below are the guidelines:
- 140°F / 60°C: cook for 1.5-4 hours; the texture is very soft, tender and juicy
- 150°F / 66°C: 1-4 hours; soft and juicy
- 165°F / 74°C: 1-4 hours; traditional tender and slightly stringy
Recipe Tools:
Cathy McCoy says
I agree with your temperature recommendations, Another recipe I tried @ 145* wasn’t quite “done” tasting to me, whereas the the 149* was spot on and melt in your mouth.
izzycooking says
Hi Cathy, glad you like the recipe. I also prefer a more traditional texture. Izzy
Desi says
How thick of chicken breasts do you tend to use for this recipe?
Izzy says
Hi Desi, you can use any thickness. Sous vide cooking is less sensitive to thickness than the traditional method. Izzy