YOU can sous vide chicken without removing it from the packaging, if you buy chicken from Costco.
I buy bone in thighs from Costco that are vacuum sealed in a "six-pack" , each pack contains 3-4 chicken thighs.
A friend that manufactures product (bagging materials) for Foodsaver, indicated to me that the bags have to meet a certain safety standard that falls well within sous vide temps.
I cook these bagged chicken thighs at 150 degrees overnite when i go to bed. In the morning, i pop them into the fridge.
When de-bagged, they are covered in gelatin/juice hence called jus). I reserve this, peel off the skin, and pat the thighs dry. I season like usual (salt, pepper, "secret rub"), set aside.
I render the chicken fat from the skin, and make cracklings out of the skin. I then sear/brown the chicken thighs in the chicken fat. Put the chicken jus in deep container, add the crackling, salt, pepper, pat of butter, sliver of garlic, squeeze of lemon, dash of heavy cream, and WONDRA flour. Hit the mixture with a blitz stick to blend, stick in microwave until it thickens....GRAVY in under 60 seconds that is fabulous.
advantages
Buy bulk chicken, no need to portion and vacuum bag (already done for you!)
cook over nite (multi-tasking! sleeping and cooking)
every single piece of the chicken (except the bones) gets used up.
killer gravy
moist, fall off the bone chicken.
Alternatives, use jus in cooking rice, cracklings are good straight up.
I've also just tossed the season chicken thighs on the barbecue grill for quick perfectly cooked grilled chicken.
pick the chicken off the bones (easy after cooking) season and turn into chicken salad
