sous vide tandoori experiment, Wow!

Canugghead

Have heard how good chicken is in sous vide buy never tried it, so I saved a piece when I did a large batch on the egg last week.

1.5 hour ...

Brushed with ghee and seared with super heated CI pan, not enough grill marks due to convex shape of the leg...

The texture and flavour profile is simply Wow! Have mostly done tandoori with bone-in skinless legs. Gonna try using boneless breasts and not have to worry about it being 'dry'; may even try some with skin on!

rustypotts

I did a couple of recipes sous vide this weekend and they were both outstanding.  If you havent already.....check out: http://svkitchen.com/.  I did the "Dockside Chicken" and the "Pork Chops in Port Chili Sauce" and both were delicious.  I'm finding that this is a great addition to the Egg.

rustypotts

canugghead......What Tandori recipe did you use?

billyray

Canugghead Skin on breasts don't work very well, your better off taking the skin off and crisping it by itself on the egg or in the oven. I've done it before with the skin on and it's real rubbery. IMO

Canugghead

@rustypotts ... your dockside chicken looks great, bookmarked the whole svkitchen site. my convoluted recipe is buried in this thread http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/comment/1275879/#Comment_1275879

@billyray ... never done tandoori with skin, guess I shouldn't bother, thanks for sharing your experience.

caliking

That chicken looks fabulous. 

I second the vote against skin-on for tandoori chicken. I think skin-on is good for Western/BBQ type recipes because the chicken is relatively dry i.e. not sauced so the skin has a chance to get crispy. But for tandoori chicken I think the wetness of the thick marinade doesn't let that happen. That maybe why tandoori chicken is never done with the skin-on (just speculating).

Aviator

Not sure about SV and Tandoori chicken. The very idea of Tandoori/Punjabi style cooking is the high heat of the Tandoor. Essentially, you very quickly sear the outside of a super marinated chicken which locks in the moisture and is very fast. SV?? And its never done skin on.

Little Steven

Nice one Gary!

Canugghead

What inspired me to try it sous vide style is this Forbes of India article:

http://forbesindia.com/printcontent/24752

As the title says, it's just an 'experiment' to think/tinker outside the tandoor  It's a bonus that it also tastes good/different.

caliking

Hope you didn't misunderstand me - I'm a big fan of experimenting and tinkering!... Sometimes my purist streak does show through though

And thanks for the link to the article.

Z_Eggineer

Isn't it a cultural reason they don't eat the skin in India?

Aviator

@Cannugg, thanks for the article. The intention was not to take away from your presentation but to bring about a discussion. Sorry, if it came across as any different.

Canugghead

@LS, you gotta try it, I would sear it in the egg though.

@caliking and @Aviator, it's all good, my apology if I came across as defensive

@Z_Eggineer, not sure about the skin, now I'm wondering if KFC in India is skinless!  India is multi-culture, multi-religion, multi-ethnic, ... for example, you buy beef from Muslim butchers, pork from Hindu butchers. 

Little Steven

Z_Eggineer said:

Isn't it a cultural reason they don't eat the skin in India?

They use skin on chicken in gravies. I think it's just not used in tandoors cause of the heat.