My Sous Vide Sweet & Sticky Chicken, with five-spice, sweet soy sauce, ginger and garlic delivers an easy and unforgettable midweek meal.
This easy mid-week meal built around Sous Vide Sweet & Sticky Chicken is made even easier by preparing the chicken and some of the sides ahead of time.
It's yet another reason we love cooking sous vide - make ahead and batch cooking - because life is complicated enough. Sunday is usually the day the Dude and I cram into the kitchen fire up our immersion cookers and prepare a bunch of meals for the work week.
Chicken Temperatures & Times
Chicken breasts have always been my trickiest cut of poultry meat to cook just right, even sous vide - we'll get to that in another post. Here I want to share some guidelines for cooking tougher poultry cuts, like legs, wings and thighs.
A great deal of what I learned about cooking sous vide comes from my copies of Modernist Cuisine and Under Pressure - indispensable resources for techniques and inspiration. Of course, there are also free reputable resources like Serious Eats, ChefSteps and Anova Culinary, to name a few.
The times and temperatures below for chicken are adapted from Modernist Cuisine:
| Chicken | Braised Texture | Tender & Juicy |
| Leg/drumstick/thigh | 3 hrs at 68ºC/154ºF | 1.5 hrs at 65ºC/149ºF |
| Wings | 12 hrs at 62ºC/144ºF | 1 hr at 65ºC/149ºF |
I tend to use the 68ºC for 3-4 hours combo, but have also gone as high as 70/75º for 2 hours for these particular cuts. Followed by a few minutes on the grill for that desirable char and crisp on the chicken skin. You can play around with different times and temps, always keeping food safety in mind, to get the texture/doneness that is right for you.
Sweet Soy Sauce (Ketcap/Kejap Manis)
Sweet soy sauce is an Indonesian condiment I started using a couple years ago, after I grabbed the wrong bottle on a hurried grocery run. One of the stores I frequent, has aisles dedicated to just about every cuisine around the world. Someone must have inadvertently placed this bottle in the wrong aisle and created the addiction I developed to this dark, delicious gem.
Kecap/Ketjap, Malay for condiment, sounds like ketchup, but isn't. The colour of soy sauce, with the consistency of maple syrup and a flavour made complex with a few simple ingredients. The bottle I have lists palm sugar, anise and lemongrass among the short list of ingredients, so, of course, I had to try and make my own version.
It's great as a marinade or glaze/sauce and works well with poultry, fish/seafood, pork, beef and vegetables. For my Sous Vide Sweet & Sticky Chicken, I used it both as a marinade and glaze.
What's your favourite time/temperature combo and chicken recipe? Have you ever tried kecap manis. Tell me in the comments below!
Ingredients
For the marinade/glaze:
- 2 kilograms chicken drumsticks
- 3-2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice seasoning
- thumb-sized piece fresh ginger grated
- 4-6 cloves fresh garlic grated
- salt and pepper to taste
- 250 milliliters sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
- 1-2 green onions to garnish
- toasted sesame seeds to garnish
Instructions
- Clean and wash the chicken and place in a large bowl. Slit the drumsticks on each side to allow the seasoning to penetrate. Rub in the seasoning and half the sweet soy sauce to coat the chicken. Separate the chicken among two resealable bags, remove excess air and refrigerate overnight. (If in a rush, you can cook right away)
- Prepare a water bath and heat to 68º - 70ºC. Add the bagged chicken to the heated water and cook for 2 - 3hrs, but not over 4hrs.
- When ready, remove from bag and place on a rack over a sheet pan to drip dry. Add some colour and crisp the skin in a heated over set to broiler, on a grill, or using a torch. Brush with the remaining sweet soy sauce and top with sesame seeds and green onions. Serve with your choice of sides - we paired them with grilled bok choy, corn on the cob and a broccoli and mushroom warm salad.
- Make ahead:At step 3, remove the bagged chicken from the water bath when cooked and add to an ice bath (cold water and ice). Allow the chicken to cool down for about 20 minutes, then refrigerate or freeze. When ready to use, you can use the sous vide to reheat.
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