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I think sous vide ruins the texture of most proteins, especially chicken thighs
Look, I know everyone and their brother swears by sous vide these days. But I spent 5 years in a busy kitchen in Austin and we tried it for a while. Chicken thighs came out with this weird spongy, almost bouncy texture that just felt wrong. Like a chicken hot dog or something. My head chef at the time argued with me about it for 3 months before we ran a side by side test with our regular oven roasting method. 8 out of 10 line cooks said the oven thighs were better. They had actual crispy skin and a natural bite. The sous vide ones? Perfectly cooked but somehow lifeless. Has anyone else noticed this, or is my palate just broken?
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the_phoenix7d agoMost Upvoted
Right, because nothing says "dinner" quite like a piece of meat that tastes like it was steamed inside a science experiment. You hit the nail on the head about the texture, it's like the chicken gave up on life before it ever hit your plate. Guess we'll all just have to keep our "broken" palates and our crispy oven skin to ourselves.
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kelly_coleman616d ago
The chicken gave up on life" is exactly right. That's the best way I've heard it put. I had the same problem when I tried sous vide chicken thighs a few years back. What finally worked for me was just using it for the final cook after I got a hard sear and some color on the skin in a cast iron pan first. That way you still get the texture you want, not that weird, spongy feel you're talking about. Just my two cents from messing around in my own kitchen at home.
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