Using a hair dryer to dry out meat before searing?

[torolover]

Anyone try using a hair dryer to dry out the surface of meat before searing?

After I Sous Vide a piece of meat, it's difficult to really dry up chicken or duck skin with paper towels before searing in a hot pan. Do you think using a hair dryer would do a good job to dry out the skin to get a good sear?

[slkinsey]

Leaving it on an open plate in the refrigerator for a few hours would be better. The reality is that crisping skin on SVed poultry doesn't work all that well regardless. This is why there are all those tricks for separating, cooking and re-bonding duck skin, or making chicken skin "chips." The best I've been able to do is with chicken that I've prepared cook-chill, where I've crisped the skin in the oven and re-thermed it using conventional means (i.e., under the broiler). All these methods have their problems, though. Perhaps the best way to do it might be to brown/crisp the chicken skin using a paint-stripper hairdryer.

[Paul Kierstead]

The reality is that crisping skin on SVed poultry doesn't work all that well regardless.

On chicken, I regularly use two methods that work well. For legs with thighs attached, deep-frying at 220 C for 4 minutes makes a beautiful skin (taken from MC). For chicken breasts, I place skin down in a medium-high pan for 4 minutes (taken from Keller). Also makes a lovely skin; the only downside is that you need to trim the breast so that all the skin makes contact. Breasts here are generally too large for sane single serving anyway, so I use the trimmings as snacks and lunches.

[prasantrin]

We used to use a hair dryer to dry duck skin whenever we made roast duck. Worked fine. Just used the cool air setting, though, never heat (don't know if it would have mattered, but that's what we did).

You can also use a fan. If you do use one, just make sure it's free of dust so you don't have dust/dirt flying around and sticking to your meat.

[HowardLi]

We used to use a hair dryer to dry duck skin whenever we made roast duck. Worked fine. Just used the cool air setting, though, never heat (don't know if it would have mattered, but that's what we did).

You can also use a fan. If you do use one, just make sure it's free of dust so you don't have dust/dirt flying around and sticking to your meat.

Better yet, use a box fan with a good HEPA filter taped to the intake side.

[HowardLi]

I wonder if anybody's tried a freeze dryer yet.

[OliverB]

would a kitchen torch work? That's probably what I'd try, but I never cooked skin on chicken SV. I did duck breast once and there I took the skin off and crisped it up in the oven between two baking sheets, that turned out great. I served the skin like a chip, was delicious!

[sahmd]

One more vote for crisping the skin in the oven between baking sheets.

It's like a chicken cracklin - delicious! (although I rarely get to eat much of it - my kids love it :-))