Name: Sous Vide Lemon-Thyme Poached Chicken
Total time: 3 h 25 min
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon pepper; ½ teaspoon garlic powder; ½ teaspoon minced fresh thyme; 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest; 4 8-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts , trimmed; ¼ cup vegetable oil

Why This Recipe Works

Poached chicken gets a bad rap for being tough, dry, and a little squeaky between your teeth, but that's probably because poaching is a relatively imprecise cooking method. There are a lot of variables when poaching chicken. Thankfully, cooking sous vide eliminates most of them. For foolproof poached chicken, we cook chicken breasts at a moderate temperature for about an hour, which results in a juicy, tender texture that's just firm enough that it doesn't fall apart. While this recipe is finished in an hour, you can hold the chicken in the bath for up to 3 hours before the texture starts to change—giving you some flexibility.

Before You Begin

This perfectly poached chicken is great on its own, sliced over salad, or used in chicken salad. This method is a great starting point for experimentation and variation, so feel free to add spices, herbs, or boldly flavored marinades to the bag (just don't add fresh garlic; it is particularly susceptible to botulism). For more about sous vide cooking, refer to our sous vide guide.

Instructions

Using sous vide circulator, bring water to 150°F/65.5°C in 7-quart container.

Combine salt, pepper, garlic powder, thyme, and lemon zest in bowl. Sprinkle chicken with salt mixture. Place chicken and oil in 1-gallon zipper-lock freezer bag and toss to coat. Seal bag, pressing out as much air as possible. Gently lower bag into prepared water bath until chicken is fully submerged, and then clip top corner of bag to side of water bath container, allowing remaining air bubbles to rise to top of bag. Reopen 1 corner of zipper, release remaining air bubbles, and reseal bag. Cover and cook for at least 1 hour or up to 3 hours.

Transfer chicken to paper towel–lined plate and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve.To Make Ahead Chicken can be rapidly chilled in ice bath and then refrigerated in zipper-lock bag after step 2 for up to 5 days. To reheat, return sealed bag to water bath set to 150°F/65.5°C for 20 minutes and then proceed with step 3.