sous vide chicken breast

In too many places on the internet and the instructions I received from the maker of my sous vide cooker, Instant Pot, the temperature for cooking chicken breast to juicy and soft is 145 F/63 C. I've been using the Celsius scale lately because of I can dial in the temperature much more precisely 0.1 degrees, than the 1.0 degrees on the Fahrenheit mode.

When I first got the cooker, 63 degrees seemed like it cook the chicken breast to juicy and soft, but lately, the chicken seemed more firm than soft. Before I even Googled "sous vide chicken breast", I cooked a breast at 62 C for an hour. I didn't see much difference. Google results showed 60 C for 1.5 hours for soft, juicy. Yes, 60 C @ 1.5 hours was better, but today, 59.5 C for 1.5 hr was really good.

Wow. Should I push the envelope? 59? Gotta check Google to see if anyone has done 59.
Peace
Out

Chinese Egg Custard

This Chinese egg custard is my all-time #2 dish. (I'd never say #1, because for a different time and event something's always better) 

It is amazingly simple to make, with only two ingredients for the star of the show. The toppings are only oil, soy sauce and cilantro (green onions, for those who dislike cilantro)

,

As for the equipment needed, I use a glass pie dish, a wok large enough for the dish to fit inside, a cover for the wok and a metal stand to raise the dish within the wok. If you don't have a stand, you can stack enough small plates on the bottom of the pan to keep the pie plate above the inch of water that you'll have in the pan. The cover for the wok needs to fit well enough to keep steam inside the pan. Link for a stand sold at Amazon. (doesn't open a new window--I don't get any bling) 

Placing a plate onto a stand over boiling water or removing it from the same can be tricky without a lifter.  Click on this sentence to link to an Amazon list of lifters.

For this dish, I break four or five eggs into a large measuring cup, noting the volume and add the same volume of water to the cup. Stir briskly and pour into the pie plate. Put an inch of water into the cooking pot. The stand/stack of plates goes into the water. Cover the pot and heat the water to boiling. When the water begins to boil. lower heat to medium and lower the plate onto the stand. Cover and set a timer for 9 minutes. At the end of that time, lift the lid and check the custard to see whether it has reached the consistency you want.  If still a liquid, cover and continue to cook another minute, opening and checking again. Repeat until you like what you see.  If it's overcooked, the custard will have holes and be stiff, which isn't the goal for most.

Lift the plate out. Pour a thin layer of olive oil (sesame oil if you're into that). Spritz lightly with soy sauce. Garnish with the greens of your choice and love your food. 

Addendum:  you can do this with smaller vessels, but you'll have to work out the details of how long to cook, as I haven't.