The art of Sous Vide

The perfect egg

A few months ago I purchased the immersion circulator made by Polyscience - for the purpose of Sous Vide cooking.  I had seen it used on Iron Chef, and had a number of Sous Vide dishes in restaurants - so I wanted to work with this.

Well - it has been love since I purchased it. I have used the Sous Vide method of cooking more than my oven, and probably nearly as much as my stove top.

Start with the simple things-- eggs. I love the perfect egg-- have spent years perfecting the way I make an egg to where I have the pan, the amount of butter, the right amount of flame- everything. Then I was reading about Sous Vide eggs - oh my.  Place an egg into the water oven at 149 degrees and let it sit for about 79 minutes.  The result? See above -not only a perfectly creamy egg white- but a yoke that makes me slobber on my keyboard just thinking about it.

What about chicken? Chicken is a dish that most of us love - for me chicken with mozzarella and a nice sauce is almost heaven. The problem with chicken is that to cook it-- often the chicken gets over cooked.  In fact, my patients who have the lap-band - if they cannot figure out how to cook chicken, or what restaurant cooks chicken well- simply never eat chicken.

So what about Sous Vide? Off to my favorite market where I picked up a great breast.  Seasoned simply with salt and pepper I then placed the breast into the bag for sealing.  I added some duck fat and a cachet of thyme.

Into the water bath (water oven) they went- and after 40 minutes they were ready to take out.

Keeping the water at a stable temp of 147 is perfect for chicken breasts

Of course as I lay the freshly pulled mozzarella I have to check for quality. My number one quality inspector Dr. Lucky is standing by should I need his assistance

This chicken is cooked perfectly- but we want more than chicken

Nothing like a fine knife to slice the cheese

Tongs make it easy to remove the chicken from the sealed bag

After a few minutes in the oven - just enough to barely melt the cheese -  you have it!

Having made fresh mozzarella and some sauce- I added the sauce to the top of the chicken, along with some of the fresh cheese- and while I was at it grated some aged Parmesan cheese.  Into a 400 degree oven for a few minutes-- just until the cheese began to melt  -- and the perfect dish.  The chicken was already cooked - so all I needed was a bit of finish.

Oh my- I can see why Chefs have fallen in love with this cooking tool.

To see how I did a Thanksgiving turkey you can go to my YouTube site called  Your Doctors Orders, or go to yourdoctorsorders.com