Sous Vide Tarragon Chicken

Readers of this blog will know I've recently been experimenting with The SousVide Supreme water oven. Starter Courses, Party Food and now Everyday Dinners all cooked Sous Vide.

Cooking in the SousVide Supreme keeps vegetables vibrant and meat and poultry succulent, juicy and totally delicious.

What exactly is Sous Vide?

Sous vide (pronounced soo-veed) means “under vacuum” in French, and sous vide cooking is a gourmet culinary technique long used by chefs worldwide.

Instead of good cooking relying on perfect timing to cook, sous vide relies on precise temperature control, but once you've set the temperature on the machine you don't have to fuss about it anymore - just leave your food to cook.

Thanks to The SousVide Supreme you can now have one of these amazing machines in your own home as their range is specially designed for home kitchens.

The Sous Vide method takes the guesswork out of cooking, so anyone can create for example the perfect medium-rare steak just as you'd find in a top restaurant - at home.

Food to be cooked is first sealed in a special pouch and sealed with the vacuum sealer that's included in the SousVide Supreme Promo pack.

How to cook Carrots and Asparagus in the Sous Vide water oven:

Having experimented loads with cooking different kinds of vegetables in the water oven I've found that carrots and asparagus cook better at a higher temperature and for less time than stated in the recommended temperature guide. 

That said I did immediately cool the vegetables straight after cooking in ice-cold water. Then I heated them in the microwave (remove from the pouch first) for a few seconds. Why? Because chicken cooks at a much lower temperature to vegetables.

For both Carrots and Asparagus - fill the water oven and heat to 88C Carrots: 

Peel the carrots and slice in half lengthways. Pop them into a pouch and drizzle with a little olive oil. I like to season them after cooking. Vacuum seal and cook for about 15 minutes.

Yield: 2-4Author: Jan Bennett

Tarragon Chicken with Sous Vide Vegetables

Sous Vide Vegetables keep their vibrant colour and once cooked they're ready when you are.

ingredients:

olive oil

1 x Knorr chicken stock cube

4 skinless chicken fillets - sliced lengthways

For the sauce:

olive oil 

a handful of mushrooms - sliced

1 banana shallot - chopped into small dice 

150ml dry white wine

280ml chicken stock made 1 x Knorr stock cube

120ml double cream

salt and black pepper to season

fresh tarragon - leaves only picked and chopped - about 2 tablespoons

plus a sprig of tarragon

instructions

Heat up a little oil in a large frying pan and add the sliced mushrooms.
Cook over a medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. Now add in the chopped shallots and cook whilst stirring until they are softened but not browned.

Pour in the wine and cook until it has reduced to just a couple of tablespoons.

Add the chicken stock and cook until reduced by half. Now stir in the cream - be sure to use double cream as single cream may split. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Turn off the heat until your chicken is done.

Once the chicken has cooked (for a minimum of 1 hour) bring the tarragon sauce back up to the boil then turn down the heat whilst you carefully remove the chicken from the pouch and pop it onto your serving plates and pour over the tarragon sauce.

For both Carrots and Asparagus - fill the water oven and heat to 88C Carrots:

Peel the carrots and slice in half lengthways. Pop them into a pouch and drizzle with a little olive oil. I like to season them after cooking.

Vacuum seal and cook for about 15 minutes. To test if they are cooked just remove the bag (taking care as it will be hot) and see if the carrots bend. If they do they're done and if not, of course, pop them back in for another 5 minutes or so.

Once they are done either serve straight away seasoning with sea salt, or cool quickly whilst still sealed in the pouch in ice-cold water. You can then refrigerate the cooked vegetables and reheat the next day - fantastic for Christmas day vegetables or dinner parties etc.

To reheat your vegetables simply remove from the pouch pop into separate dishes and into the microwave for about 30 seconds to a minute depending on the power of your microwave.

Created using The Recipes Generator

To test if they are cooked just remove the bag (taking care as it will be hot) and see if the carrots bend. If they do they're done and if not, of course, pop them back in for another 5 minutes or so.

Asparagus:
I like to peel the knobbly part off of the tips with a speed peeler, I just think it looks better presentation-wise. Pop them into a pouch and drizzle with nothing but a little olive oil.

Vacuum seal and cook for just 5 minutes before testing to see if they bend and again if they do they're done if not pop them back for a couple of minutes more.

Perfectly cooked, vibrant tasty vegetables cooked Sous Vide.

Once they are done either serve straight away seasoning with sea salt, or cool quickly whilst still sealed in the pouch in ice cold water. You can then refrigerate the cooked vegetables and reheat the next day. Fantastic for Christmas day vegetables or dinner parties etc.

To reheat your vegetables simply remove from the pouch pop into separate dishes and into the microwave for about 30 seconds to a minute depending on the power of your microwave.

You can find more Sous Vide recipes by clicking on 'SousVide' in the tag cloud in the sidebar of this blog.

Disclaimer: I was sent a SousVide Supreme Promo Pack which consists of:  a SousVide Supreme water oven, Vacuum sealer which includes 10 pouches.  2 boxes of vacuum seal cooking pouches, and the Easy Sous Vide cookbook.  RRP: £506:98 (£422.48 excluding VAT) it is mine to keep in return for blog posts and a total of twelve recipes.