Sous Vide Herbed Turkey Breast

Once a staple of high-end restaurants, sous vide cooking isn’t as popular as roasting, grilling, or frying, but it has gained immensely in popularity over the past few years. Inexpensive home sous vide units have flooded the market and made the method available to home cooks everywhere.

Sous vide cooking is temperature controlled so that you can cook slowly to tenderize without drying out the meat.

What is sous vide cooking? It means “under vacuum.” You seal the food in plastic, either a heavy-duty zip-style bag or a vacuum-sealed package, then immerse it in moving water set at the desired temperature you wish to achieve in your food, in this case turkey breast. This has a couple of very important advantages over other cooking methods.

First, because the water circulates and never rises above the preset temperature, the meat cooks slowly, without drying out. You can leave a turkey breast sous vide for hours, and the meat will never rise above whatever you have set on your sous vide cooker. Next, moisture can’t escape the way it does in an oven or on a grill. Finally, taking advantage of the sealed bag, you can add some flavorful fat to the lean turkey breast, in this case reserved bacon grease. Since the water never comes into contact with the meat, the fat cooks the meat, adding a bit of moisture to it as it does. It all adds up to an outstanding sliceable wild turkey that is great on its own or on a sandwich.

Fill a container (a large pot or plastic tub works well) with cold water. Insert your sous vide unit into the water and fasten it to the side of your container. Set the temperature to 150 degrees and allow the water to reach temperature before starting the cook.

Start this one by patting the surface of the meat dry.

Pat the turkey breast dry.

Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano, and thyme.

Season the meat on both sides.

Place the meat in a zip-style or vacuum-seal bag. Add a teaspoon of honey and 2 tablespoons of bacon grease from the jar you keep in the refrigerator.

Put the seasoned meat in a plastic bag and add honey and bacon grease, then seal.

Don’t have a bacon grease jar? Get one. In the meantime, just cook some bacon and snack on it while the turkey cooks. Let the drippings cool before adding them to the bag with the turkey. Seal everything up tight, squeezing out excess air if using a zip-style bag.

Add the bag to the preheated water. Use a stoneware or ceramic cup or plate to weigh the bag down if it wants to float. You want it completely submerged in the water. That’s it. Go do something else for 3-4 hours. Check on things every now and then to make sure your temperature is holding steady at 150 degrees, but you don’t have to do anything to the meat.

Use a bowl or plate to weight down the meat in the 150-degree water.

The one downside to sous vide cooking is that the surface of the meat never comes into contact with hot, dry air. That leaves the surface a bit pale and not overly attractive.

While the meat is fully cooked, it can be pale and not very attractive.

Get around this by heating a cast-iron skillet over a medium-high burner. Once the skillet is hot, add the turkey. Sear one side for about 2 minutes, then flip it and do the opposite side. This gives the turkey a nice caramelized brown exterior and adds another layer of flavor.

Sear in a hot iron skillet to add color and flavor.

You don’t really need to rest this one. Give it a minute or two and slice thinly. Serve as is or use it to make a killer sandwich. More on that Friday!