Sous Vide + Crispy Chicken Thighs

[TdeV]

Here is the photo of the chicken thigh recipe I followed but omitted (forgot) a few items.

 

I boned 8 chicken thighs, pressed flat but not pounded. Sealed in 3 SV bags and cooked @ 150F for 90 minutes. Iced for 20 minutes. Put 3 bags on baking sheet, topped with another baking sheet, in fridge for 24 hours with water filled pot (10 US quarts).

 

My large burner is 15K BTU (where halfway is mark 7). In cast iron pan, used 2 Tablespoons grapeseed oil and 2 T butter. I set to about 4 because I didn't want butter to burn. Sautéed for 10 minutes. Here is my result:

 

 

The thighs did not rest absolutely flat in the pan. The meat tasted fine but the chicken skin (where not browned) was flabby and unpleasant. As you can see, my thighs were nothing like the recipe photo.

 

My husband thinks I did not have the oil hot enough. And maybe needed a bacon press.

 

Is he right?

 

I still have 2 more SV packets of thighs. I'm thinking next to fry thighs in 1/4" oil.

 

[Anna N]

 I have made chicken this way many times and I have no difficulty getting a wonderfully crispy skin.

I wonder if you are drying the chicken properly before you attempt to crisp the skin.

I also wonder why you are using butter which is almost certain to burn in this situation.

I also wonder if you are afraid of heat.  You should be getting the pan hot before adding the oil and the chicken should make a wonderful sizzling noise when you add it to the hot pan.   Those are the thoughts that come to my mind.

 

edited to add

If you have difficulty determining when the oil is hot enough, get yourself a couple of wooden chopsticks. When you think the oil is good and hot hold the chopsticks upright in the pan so their tips are in the oil. If you see lots of little bubbles around the tips, your oil should be hot enough. 

 

Edited yet again to add this link to  Voltaggio's video.  The video is in three parts so be sure to watch all three. 

Edited March 1, 2017 by Anna N (log)

[daveb]

When I want chicken skin nice and crispy I'll leave it uncovered, on a rack, in a sheet pan overnight to dry as last step.      Agree with Anna above that butter will prob burn at the temp you need for crisping and using wooden chopsticks (or handle from any wooden tool) as temp gauge.

[Josh71]

Interesting recipe.

 

What would you serve this with?

 

I meant, what would be your choice of carbohydrat, souce and others (salad/vegies)?

[TdeV]

@Josh71, I had baked beans (mine are spicy and not as sweet as "usual") and crispy salad.

 

 

[btbyrd]

I'm with Anna. I think it's a heat issue, which was caused by a butter issue. Generally speaking, you don't want to use butter in high-heat applications, and crisping chicken skins is a high-heat application. Here, butter isn't doing anything for you except getting between you and crispy chicken. If your primary concern is keeping the milk solids in butter from browning up enough to burn, you can't also achieve the goal of browning chicken skin and melting the fat out of it. If you need to add butter for some reason (maybe you like the flavor), add it at the end of the process once the skin is pretty much where you want it. Or use ghee/clarified butter from the start. 

In short, use only oil and go at a much higher heat. You don't need to add a whole lot of oil to the pan, as the skin will render out a good amount of fat as it cooks (but you need to have your pan nice and hot for that to work).
Is the pan hot enough? There are a couple ways to tell. The most precise is to use an infrared thermometer. But that's fussy. So is using chopsticks or whatever wooden utensil you have... and that also requires you to add oil to the pan before you can measure the temperature. The simplest way is to add a few drops of water to the pan and see how it behaves. If it's not super-bubbly, the pan isn't hot enough. If starts boiling rapidly and vanishes, you're good to go. If it turns into a blob and starts skating around the pan instead of boiling off, the pan is too hot (and oil will burn immediately). 

 

2 hours ago, Josh71 said:

Interesting recipe.

 

What would you serve this with?

 

I meant, what would be your choice of carbohydrat, souce and others (salad/vegies)?

 

I mean, it's chicken. So you'd serve it with whatever you'd serve chicken with.

 

The ChefSteps chicken thigh recipe (which is also a commercial for Joule) serves them with pureed sweet potatoes and a kale salad, but... it's chicken, so you can kind of do whatever makes sense.

 

 

[TdeV]

I followed the instructions from @daveb and left the chicken on a rack in the fridge, but I didn't leave it long enough. I expected the jellied stuff to melt as the chickens came to temperature and they didn't. I had to push the gelatin away and dry the pieces,

 

 

The grapeseed oil was quite hot when I put these in. I have lost my fat-screen, so my kitchen is a mess today. These took about 8 minutes.

 

 

Much better results this time. Thanks for your help.

Edited March 4, 2017 by TdeV
Spelling (log)

[caroled]

That looks great!

[IndyRob]

I've used a technique from Jacques Pepin that worked out very well for me - but not so much when I tried to add sous vide to the mix....

 

First, make a cut halfway through the thigh on each side of the bone.  This helps the skin to lay flay completely flat.  Then place the thighs skin side down on a hot pan and cover.  No oil, no seasoning.  Nothing.

 

The fat from the skin will render and crisp up the skin perfectly while the steam cooks the rest of the thigh.  My first attempt was perfect, but subsequent attempts taught me that the heat management was non-trivial.  So I thought sous vide would be the answer.  But it altered both the moisture level and shape of the thigh.

 

I think I'm going to go back and try to perfect my use of his technique.