Will It Be Sous Vide? Whole, Tiny Birds
Hello everyone, and welcome back to yet another piece of Will It Sous Vide? , a weekly column where I do whatever you want with my immersion circulator.
After much deliberation (and star counting) during this week’s comment-gathering session, I decided to go with “little, whole birds” and headed to the overpriced hippie grocery store looking for one (well, more than one). The only tiny bird they had was a lovely chicken from Cornwall, so I grabbed three of them. I only ate Cornish game a few times – half of them were in the Medieval Times – so I was very excited to see how the plump bird would live in our immersion bath.
Chicken of Cornwall are composed mainly of white meat, so I set for your Anova temperature of 150 ℉ according to this handy temperature gauge . The chickens were sealed in a plastic vacuum bag, so I dropped one directly into the tub without further processing. To see if the extra added fat could lead us to tastier places, I unwrapped the second bird and sealed it again in a vacuum bag with a couple tablespoons of duck fat and a whole bunch of fresh chopped herbs.
I then left the birds in their bath, taking out one every fifteen minutes or so to check the temperature. After two hours of hot bathing, we finally reached the target temperature of 150 ℉.
I pulled the birds out of the water, took them out of the plastic dungeons, and patted them dry with paper towels. Then I approached skins using two different tactics. I bet you can guess what those things were. (We light and fry, just in case, if you don’t guess.)
The torch showed a blistered bird that was burnt in places, which was not necessarily what I was looking for.
However, the meat was quite cuddly.
Both the breast and the legs were juicy, plump and juicy. I sprinkled some crunchy Maldon salt and ate it with pleasure. The second bird (the one with the duck fat) was placed under a roasting pan to get crispy, which gave the best results in terms of skin, although the legs never got enough color for my taste.
However, the flesh of this bird was a little repulsive. I didn’t think there was a scenario where adding a whole bunch of duck fat would be the wrong decision, but here we are. The meat was too elastic, too moist and – although the thickest part of the breast, recorded at 154 ℉ after frying, felt almost soggy to the touch. However, I liked the way the herbs and salt poured into the bird.
Having finished Chicken 1 and Chicken 2, I went to bed with big plans to spit out a third bird. The next morning I jumped unsteadily out of bed and muttered over and over again, “Don’t chop the chicken upside down.” What happened next will shock you.
As you can probably figure out from the photo above, I accidentally removed the sternum first. I don’t know if this is really the biggest deal, but it upset me so much that I flew out of the kitchen into the den – stark vision of blue hair and bird scissors – screaming “GUESS WHAT I DID?” in my poor vegetarian guest. I then vacuumed two random chicken halves without adding duck fat, but sprinkling with a few wholesome pinches of salt and herbs.
After two hours at 150, I removed the chicken, checked the temperature, which showed exactly 150 ℉, and blotted the meat with a whole bunch of paper towels. Then I rubbed the skin with a lot of oil (it turns brown faster than duck fat) and put it all under the roast for five minutes.
The skin on this was by far the nicest, but the meat was scarce. Although the legs were great, the chest was dry and wiry. Given that this bird mainly has breasts, this is unacceptable. This result is likely due to the fact that it is a rather small bird, so chopping it up for faster and more even cooking doesn’t do us any good.
So none of the chickens looked particularly mind-blowing, and the best was the one that was placed right in its package, without added fat or seasonings. This brings us to our favorite question: Will Cornish chickens be sous vide?
Answer? Yes, and you can get a pretty decent bird that way. For best results, I recommend cooking whole poultry without excess fat and seasoning generously with salt and herbs. After two hours at 150 ℉, pat, rub with butter and place under the brazier for five minutes.
However, while chicken cooked this way will be delicious and juicy, I can’t say it will be mind-blowing. Unlike turkey, where the difference between sous viding and roasting is striking, there was not much difference in texture or taste between this little bird and other chicken that was roasted or grilled. (It was better than the chicken I ate in Medieval, though, if that means anything to you.)