Sous Vide Breast of Chicken | Recipe by sousvidetools.com
Sous Vide Breast of Chicken with Potato Gnocchi, Courgette Ribbons and a Tomato and Olive Sauce

- COOK TIME: 2 hours
- PREP TIME: 1 hour
- DIFFICULTY: Medium
- SERVES: 4
Ingredients
Chicken
- 6 chicken breasts, skin-on
- 6 slices of garlic
- 7 sprigs of thyme
- 10g of butter, plus extra to finish cooking the chicken
Gnocchi
- 600g of Maris Piper potatoes
- 100g of pasta flour
- 50g of semolina, fine
- 10g of flaky sea salt, finely ground
- 20g of egg yolk
Sauce
- 1 banana shallot, sliced
- 1 garlic clove, sliced
- 150ml of Noilly Prat vermouth
- 75g of passata
- 6 Queen olives, 3 crushed, 3 diced
- 1l brown chicken stock
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- cornflour, to thicken
Courgette Ribbons
- 3 courgettes
- olive oil
- chilli, chopped
- garlic, chopped
- sea salt
- black pepper
Method
Recipe courtesy of Russell Brown from www.greatbritishchefs.com
METHOD
- Preheat the water bath to 60°C.
- Start by making the aromatics. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil to blanch the sprigs of thyme, and then refresh using iced water. Place the six garlic slices at intervals along a sheet of cling film, topping each slice with a thyme sprig.
- Roll the garlic and thyme in the cling film and cut into six sachets. These sachets prevent ‘hot spots’ of flavour forming on the meat during the cooking process.
- Take the tenders off the chicken breasts and place them in the opposite direction on the breasts to make the thickness more uniform. Season and place the sachet onto the skin. Wrap the meat in cling film, rolling into a tight cylinder and leaving the ends untied.
- The cling film should be trimmed to remove any excess and the cylinders placed into separate vacuum bags along with 10g of butter. Seal the bags and place in the water bath and cook for 30 minutes.
- To make the gnocchi, steam potatoes until tender. While warm, peel the potatoes before passing through a ricer.
- Place 400g of the riced potato on to a work bench.
- Combine the flour and salt and sift. Take half of this mixture and scatter over the potato. Add the egg yolk and scatter over the rest of the flour mixture.
- Chop together with a meal dough scraper, turning and chopping the mixture repeatedly. Once thoroughly combined, use your hands to bring the mixture together and knead quickly. Cut the dough into four equal pieces and place a layer of cling film over the top.
- Take one of the pieces of dough and roll to make a 1.5cm sausage. Slice into 1cm sized pieces and roll each of these pieces into small balls. Create the signature gnocchi ridges using a gnocchi paddle or the back of a fork.
- Repeat this process with the remaining pieces of dough. Dust a tray with semolina and place the individual pieces of gnocchi on top as they are finished.
- Add salted water to large saucepan and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down so it simmers gently. Take half the gnocchi and add to the pan, being careful not to overfill the pan. Give the water a gentle stir. Once the gnocchi have floated to the surface leave to cook for a further minute and then plunge into iced water.
- Drain the blanched gnocchi, drizzle with olive oil and toss so they are evenly coated.
- For the sauce, sweat down the shallots and garlic in a little olive oil until they just start to brown. Pour in the Noilly Prat vermouth and reduce down to a syrup. Pour in the stock followed by the passata and crushed olives. Leave to reduce down again to give 300ml of sauce.
- Add the tomatoes to a saucepan of boiling water and blanch. Place in iced water to refresh. Remove the skins, chop into quarters and scoop out the seeds. Chop the tomatoes to a concasse and set aside.
- Dry the chicken on some kitchen paper and sear in a hot frying pan with a small amount of olive oil. Melt in a knob of butter in the frying pan with a sprig of thyme and baste the chicken.
- Once the chicken skin has crisped up and turned a light golden colour it should have reached a core temperature of 70°C.
- Cut the courgette into four long strips, cut out the seeds and use a peeler to form long ribbons. Add the ribbons to a frying pan and fry with a dash of olive oil. Finish off with a little chilli and garlic and season well with sea salt and black pepper.
- Give the gnocchi a crisp, golden finish by frying them in a little olive oil.
- If the sauce needs additional seasoning add in a little olive brine and transfer to a clean pan. Use cornflour to thicken the sauce if too thin. Just before you are ready to serve, incorporate in the chopped parsley, olives and concasse tomato.
- To plate, arrange the courgette ribbons into neat piles in the centre of each dish and top with slices of chicken. Dot 6 or 7 gnocchi around the dish and finish with a drizzle of the sauce.