Sous vide a whole chicken : temp/time?
I have a butterflied chicken in the fridge that is marinating in a mojo mix.
I have read many times to SV it at 148f. But what about time? I would like the bird to be uniformly cooked and the meat to be juicy but not stringy.
What do you think would work best?
Best Answer
This is a very crude estimate:
If you have a 1kg chicken cooked straight out of the fridge at 2C to 65C, and assume that the chicken has thermal properties of water (near enough given that it is 70% water give or take), you need roughly 265kJ.
Heat transfer is limited by surface area and thickness of the chicken. If we approximate the chicken as a cylinder with say 150cm length and 10cm diameter, with a total surface area of 628 sq-cm, the average heat transfer rate for the temperature range is around 24W. So, it would take 11,141 seconds (or 186 min or just over 3 hours) to move 265kJ from the water into the chicken to bring it up to 65C.
If the chicken were fully immersed in water without a bag, heat transfer would be much quicker since the cavity will also be filled with hot water and the path length is roughly 1/4 of the bagged chicken. So, expect cooking time to roughly fall by 3/4.
thermal properties assumed: Cp 4.2 J/g/K, conductivity 0.6 J/s/m/K
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How long does it take to cook chicken in sous vide?
I recommend cooking your boneless skinless chicken breasts sous vide for 1 hour. Some prefer to cook their chicken breasts for 75 minutes, but I find 1 hour is absolutely enough time for this sous vide chicken breast recipe, it gets those perfectly tender chicken breasts to my plate even sooner!What temperature do you cook chicken in sous vide?
Chicken Breast Cooked Sous Vide using the Sous Vide Supreme It appears the best temperature range to cook chicken breasts sous vide is in the 140-147F range. Cooking times will vary depending on the thickness of the breast being cooked and the degree of safety desired.How do you sous vide a whole chicken?
Add chicken to a large sous vide bag, keeping it flat so it cooks evenly in the sous vide bath. Add the sprig of rosemary to the bag and vacuum seal it. Sous vide chicken at 148 degrees \xbaF for 6 hours. When done, remove chicken from the hot water and shock the bag in an ice bath for 5-10 minutes.How long can you leave chicken in sous vide?
Because they are already tender, sous vide chicken breasts do not benefit from the very long cooking times that sous vide allows. After about 4 or 5 hours the meat begins to get too tender and takes on a slightly mushy texture.How To Sous Vide A Whole Chicken - Step By Step Guide
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Answer 2
Given your situation, and your question ("What would work best?"), I would use the grill or the oven. Sous vide is not the correct tool for this job. Cooking a whole chicken sous vide will basically result in a poached chicken. You are probably going to need about 4 hours. I would also go with a higher temp, dark meat at 148F (64.4C) will be safe, but will probably feel under cooked. 150 - 155F (65.5 - 68.3C) would give you a better result. If that is the result you want, sous vide will get you there. However, given the description you provided the oven or grill will be much faster, and likely result in a more desirable outcome. Sous vide chicken can work well, but white meat and dark meat are generally preferred when they are cooked at significantly different temperatures.
Answer 3
@Choubix himself might have found the answer. Sous vide the white and dark meat at different temperatures to get the " juicy and non stringy breasts. Tender dark meat." that he asked for.
That was how I found out too.
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