Our family loves experimenting with hot peppers. Habanero peppers are a favorite, but they can be overwhelming. This recipe calls for soaking the peppers in alcohol and cooking with the sous vide method. This sous vide habanero chicken is full of flavor but has a reasonable level of spice.

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The inspiration for this recipe came from an article in Bon Appetit magazine. This article described how you could tame hot peppers by soaking them in alcohol.

We experimented with this technique. With a few tweaks we learned that soaking for 1 hour is perfect. The chicken was spicy but not overwhelming. This also creates a full 1.5 liter of habanero vodka.

You can see our full experiment for making habanero vodka here. However, it is very simple:

Cut stems from 10 habaneros and carefully remove seeds
Put habaneros in a bowl and cover with vodka
Soak habaneros in vodka for an hour and remove for use
Pour vodka from bowl back into bottle for habanero vodka

Cole Cooks: Habanero Vodka

As our children have gotten older, they have come to appreciate spicy food. Habanero peppers have a great flavor but can be extremely hot. I learned a method for taming the heat of habanero peppers by soaking in alcohol. This recipe not only tames the peppers but it makes a habanero vodka. We have done […]

Once you have soaked the habanero peppers you can use them for a lot of recipes. Bon Appetit has a pork recipe. I developed this Sous Vide Habanero Chicken and it became a family favorite. My son in particular asks for it on a regular basis. The day after I first made it he wanted to go to a chicken wing restaurant to brave the habanero wings!

The sauce I created is pretty basic. I used fresh squeezed orange juice from our trees and just a little honey as a sweetener. Many habanero chicken recipes call for mango. I left this out because my daughter does not like mango. There is a great deal of room for experimenting with the sauce.

We use the Nutra Ninja to blend the sauce. As always with hot peppers you need to be careful not to touch the peppers. You also need to make sure to clean the Nutra Ninja or blender with soap and hot water, preferably in a dishwasher.

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I dip the chicken in the sauce (once again being careful not to get it on my hands). It then goes directly into our 2-gallon silicon sous vide bags.

Several recipes call for marinating the chicken for several hours. I find this is not really necessary. The chicken cooks for at least two hours and that is plenty of time for the sauce to soak in.

Sous vide is our preferred method for cooking chicken. We have a whole discussion on this topic, but we like to cook the chicken at 143 degrees. I cook chicken for at least 2 hours and sometimes up to 4. This is longer than necessary but makes me feel safe. The longer it cooks the less chance of bacteria. However, most tests say don’t go over 4 hours. Check out our sous vide guide for more information.

Sous Vide Cooking Guide

Sous vide is a cooking technique that has hit the mainstream in recent years. We love this technique because it allows you to perfectly cook meat. This is our guide to getting started with sous vide cooking. Overview The idea behind sous vide is that you heat food in a water bath to the exact […]

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When the chicken comes out it looks rubbery and somewhat unappetizing. It is perfectly cooked but for appearance almost all recipes call for browning the chicken.

You can brown the chicken on a grill or in a pan on the stovetop. One thing we learned is that when this habanero chicken is cooked on a grill, the habanero fumes can be quite toxic. We have learned to clean the sauce off the chicken and turn on the vents. Now when we finish off this chicken we do it outdoors on the grill.

Sous Vide Habanero Chicken

This recipe uses 10 habaneros that are soaked in vodka to lower the heat. The sous vide method delivers a perfectly cooked chicken with a heat level that is not overwhelming.

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 4

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 4

Ingredients

8-12 habanero peppers soaked in vodka
6 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoons cumin
2 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoon salt
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup orange juice
2 pounds boneless chicken breast

Instructions

Carefully remove stem and seeds from habanero peppers. Soak habaneros in vodka for 1 hour for spicy or 2 hours for medium.
In a blender combine all ingredients except chicken. Blend into a smooth sauce. Pour into a bowl.
Dip and coat chicken breasts in sauce. Place chicken in a sous vide bag. Pour remaining sauce into bag and seal.
Heat sous vide bath to 143 degrees. Place sealed chicken into bath for 2 to 4 hours.
After at least 2 hours, remove chicken from bath and place on a plate. Remove excess sauce from chicken. Heat a grill or saucepan and cook chicken until browned on both sides, about 3 minutes per side.

Notes

Soaking in vodka reduces the heat. We soak for 1 hour to get our level of desired spice. Two hours of soaking would deliver a mild to moderate heat level. This also makes a habanero flavored vodka. See our full guide at https://fundiegofamily.com/cooking/cole-cooks-habanero-vodka/

Be cautious in handling pepper. It is also best to finish the chicken outdoors if possible as the fumes can be strong.

Keyword Chicken, Habanero Hot Sauce recipe, Sous Vide, Sous Vide Chicken, Spicy Food

Check out some more recipes for cooking with hot peppers! This includes a habanero hot sauce and a variation that uses the world’s hottest pepper, the Carolina Reaper.

Cole Cooks: Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe

As I become a teenager, I am starting to like spicy food. At several restaurants, I have amazed people by eating habanero chicken wings (when I was 12). My dad made a hot sauce using Carolina reapers, the hottest pepper in the world. I asked him to help me develop this Habanero Hot Sauce recipe. […]

Cole Cooks: Crazy Hot Carolina Reaper Phall Chicken Recipe

We have been having fun (and some pain) experimenting with our homegrown Carolina Reaper peppers, the hottest chili on the planet according to the Guinness Book of World Records. We created our own hot sauce that actually proved tolerable and this recipe, inspired by the British based Chili Wizards, came out in the hot but […]

For more sous vide recipes go here.

Top 10 Sous Vide Recipes

Sous vide is a cooking technique that has hit the mainstream in recent years. We love this technique because it allows you to perfectly cook meat. This is our regularly updated list of our top sous vide recipes. Overview of Sous Vide For an overview of sous vide and the equipment you need be sure […]

Cole Cooks: Sous Vide Habanero Chicken

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