Sous-Vide Chicken Parmesan

SoCalWJS

Always looking to try something different.

Background: My previous attempts at Chicken Parmesan have been "OK", but nothing great. After trying various things "sous-vide" and then having Chicken Parmesan a few times afterwards at restaurants, thoughts began circulating in the back of my brain and I'm planning on giving them a try this evening. Thought I'd run it by in here first to see if I'm missing something.

If I cook the chicken in the bath with seasoning (thinking 2-3 hours at 145 or so), then removing it, clean most of the seasoning off and allow to cool. After cooling completely, apply breading (flour, egg wash, bread crumbs) and quickly deep fry to get good crust. Remove and pat dry. Cover with hot marinara and slice of Mozzarella and place under broiler to melt cheese. Serve.

This would take the guess work out of leaving the chicken in the fryer long enough to be cooked (tends to over cook the breading). I've had several occasions where I've been unimpressed with the chicken itself in my Parm in the past.

.....or am I over thinking this?

Raymont

Hey, sounds like a great plan. Go for it and report back! 

nolaegghead

I would suggest throwing the bag in ice water before breading if overcooking in the fryer was an issue.  Also, fry hotter and shorter.

Z_Eggineer

It sounds cool, but I don't see the value.  Chicken cooks pretty evenly in the fryer IMO, especially if thin/flat.  By cooking before frying, I think you are at greater risk for overcooking, unless you go super low/long in SV, they get exterior REALLY cold, then fry hot/fast.  For flavor or moisture retention, could marinate/brine before.

For chicken parm, only need flavorful meat, crispy crust, decent sauce and real mozz.  SV would add time, but not necessarily anything else.  But I have been completely wrong multiple times, so eager to hear about it!

Canugghead

SoCalWJS said:

... thinking 2-3 hours at 145 or so ...

How did the chicken turn out?  You had good plan and lots of good suggestions ... belated thought: perhaps you may need more (if thigh) or less (if breast) than 2-3 hours? 

rossv1

In for results 

Thatgrimguy

I use my SV like this all the time. I SV the chicken the day before then do my recipe with no real concern for internal temp of the chicken, just heat it up and get the breading done.

SoCalWJS

Thanks for all the responses.

Turned out very good in my opinion. I did full, thick chicken breasts for about 2.5 hours at 144. After the coating, they went into a deep fryer at 375 for about 2 minutes (nowhere near enough for cooking raw chicken). Result was a perfect golden brown crust and chicken that was cooked all the way through, but still fairly moist.

Will do again.  (no photos)