Spare Spoons Kitchen
Sous Vide Chicken Breast
The Weeknight Kitchen · walk away · hands-free

Sous Vide Chicken Breast

The easiest way to cook chicken breast — season it, seal it in a zip-lock bag, drop it in 145°F water, and walk away for an hour and a half. It can't overcook, it can't dry out, and it comes out so juicy it redefines what chicken breast can be. Slice it and spoon over pesto, a pan sauce, or the cherry sauce — dinner.

5 min hands-on 1½–2 hrs in the water bath
Spoon cost
Effort ●○○○○ Time ●●●○○ Some Doing
Instant PotGluten-Free
Servings1 breast per serving; amounts scale
2
Units

Ingredients

145°F for 1 hour — that's the whole recipe. The USDA's updated guidance: chicken held at 145°F (63°C) for just under 9 minutes is pasteurized. Sous vide at 145°F for an hour delivers that time many times over — so every piece is food-safe, perfectly cooked, and at peak juiciness. The water bath holds temperature steady in a way an oven or pan never can, which is why it's physically impossible to overcook the chicken.

Easier, if you like

  • Skip the sear — the chicken comes out beautifully pale and perfectly cooked; the sear is for presentation only. On a low-spoons day, don't bother.
  • Season ahead: bag the seasoned chicken and refrigerate up to 24 hours before cooking — the salt works in and the flavor deepens.

Method

    Cook's notes

    Which Instant Pot has sous vide? The Instant Pot Pro (8-in-1) and Instant Pot Pro Crisp (10-in-1) both include a sous vide mode. The standard Duo, Duo Plus, and Lux do not. An Anova Precision Cooker or Joule immersion circulator works in any large pot and is the dedicated-tool option.

    No vacuum sealer needed. The water-displacement method gets close enough. Sous vide tolerates some residual air in the bag — what you can't have is the bag floating free instead of staying submerged.

    The hold window is generous. Once the chicken hits temperature, it can stay in the bath (still running at 145°F) for up to 3–4 hours without degrading — dinner waits for you, not the other way around.

    More sous vide recipes: pork tenderloin (140°F, 1½ hrs → orange pan sauce), salmon (125°F, 40 min → lemon or pesto), shrimp (135°F, 25 min → cocktail sauce). Same technique, different temps.

    Thighs are even more forgiving: boneless thighs at 165°F (74°C) for 1–2 hours come out juicier than any other method. The higher temp renders the extra fat.

    Gluten-free and dairy-free as written

    Gluten-free: it already is. Check that any sauce you pair it with is GF.

    Dairy-free: skip the butter option in the bag.

    Not really a vegan swap available — this is a chicken technique. Thick tofu slabs can be sous-vide'd at 145°F for 45 minutes for a different but interesting result.