Cole Cooks: Sous Vide Chicken Pesto Recipe

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Sous vide is a cooking technique that allows you to perfectly cook meat.  Chicken breast is perfect for sous vide because you can make sure it is properly cooked but still moist and tender.  This is our recipe for Sous Vide Chicken Pesto.

Sous Vide Chicken Pesto

Dave Cole

This recipe uses sous vide to cook a perfectly moist chicken breast that is served with pesto sauce and pasta

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

• 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ cup of pesto sauce see recipe
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

 

• Preheat sous vide bath to 145 degrees. Coat chicken breast with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Season with garlic, salt and pepper.
• Place chicken breast in sealed sous vide bag and cook in bath. Cook in bath for 1.5 to 4 hours. Remove and let cool.
• Heat remaining table of olive oil in skillet. Add chicken breast and sear until golden brown on all side, about 3 to 5 minutes.
• Top chicken with pesto sauce and serve.

Keyword Chicken, Chicken Pesto, Italian Recipe, pasta, Sous Vide, Sous Vide Chicken

Pesto Sauce

This is a classic pine nut based pesto sauce

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Italian

Servings 8

Ingredients

  

• 4 cups basil leaves
• ½ cup pine nuts
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan Romano or Pecorino cheese
• 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

 

• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place pine nuts on baking sheet and toast until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes.
• Add pine nuts, cheese, basil, garlic, salt and pepper to food processor and blend.
• With the food processor on low slowly add the olive oil until fully blended.
• To freeze, place in freezer proof container and top with a layer of olive oil. When using thaw and incorporate olive oil.

Keyword Italian Recipe, Pesto, Pesto Sauce, Sauce

The first thing to note about cooking meat like chicken using sous vide is that you go to a lower temperature than what is normally recommended as safe.

Under USDA guidelines it is recommended to cook poultry to 165 degrees.  Using sous vide you can cook a chicken breast to as low as 140 degrees.  The key is that it needs to stay at that 140 degree temperature for at least half an hour to become fully pasteurized.

Sous vide holds meat at a set temperature for the time necessary to kill any harmful bacteria.  Science Direct has a very detailed article on the science of sous vide.  The main point is that most meat can be pasteurized, and bacteria is killed by holding it at a certain temperature for a certain period of time.

At first, we were afraid of cooking chicken breast below 150 degrees.  However, now we are comfortable at 145 degrees as long as we keep it in the bath for at least an hour and a half.  Usually we go two hours just to be safe.

One issue with sous vide cooking is that the meat comes out looking ugly.  This is especially true with chicken.  Luckily searing the chicken to a golden brown on the stove top is easy and quick.

Be sure and check out our full guide to sous vide cooking for more details.

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 […]

This technique actually works for all kinds of chicken dishes.  However, our son insisted on us presenting this dish because he loves pesto.  He insists that it is served with bow tie pasta which is also topped with pesto sauce.

We make our pesto sauce in batches and freeze it in small containers.  Before freezing we top the pesto with a layer of olive oil.  As you thaw the pesto the olive oil is incorporated into the mix.  It does fine served at room temperature or you can heat slightly.

For a vegetable we served this with our roasted broccoli.

Cole Cooks: Roasted Broccoli Recipe

Everyone needs to eat their veggies.  Unfortunately, vegetables can often be bland and boring.  Broccoli is one of those veggies that varies greatly based on how it is prepared.  This roasted broccoli recipe is both simple and delicious. This is a simple and delicious recipe for roasted broccoli There are many ways to cook broccoli.  […]

For more sous vide recipes see our full list

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 […]

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