This video demonstrates how we prepare and cook our sous vide chicken breast that we're currently serving with sauted spring vegetables and a reduced shallot jus.
The chicken breast is first brined for 24 hours in a 5% brine and then rinsed. Next, the chicken breast is vacuum packed individually and cooked sous vide in 60ºC/140ºF water bath for 4 hours. On "the pickup," the chicken breast is cut out of the sous vide package and the skin is pressed into rice flour and then pan fried in chicken fat.
What makes this sous vide chicken breast great, is normally, chicken is cooked to an internal temperature of 165ºF, which makes it safe to eat but will also dry out the meat. But salmonella and other food born illness can also be killed at 140ºF if held at that temperature for the proper amount of time.
To pasteurize the chicken breast at this temperature, you'll need to wait until the breast reaches an internal temperature of 140ºF and then hold it there for 20 minutes. The breast can also be pasteurize at a "medium rare" internal temp of 136ºF if held there for 30 minutes. Although with an internal temp of 136ºF, the breast meat is still slightly pink which will most likely get the chicken sent back in a restaurant. At an internal temp of 140ºF, the breast is white all the way through but still extremely moist and tender.
The 4 hour cooking time in the circulating bath will ensure that the breast has spent a prolonged period of time at pasteurization temperature, making the breast safe to consume.