Question about equilibrium brining chicken followed by sous vide and then storage in freezer.

frazwr01

Hi All -- I've been using the sous vide technique for pasteurizing steaks for some time now and am about to process and store a bunch of chicken for quick weeknight meals.  Anyway, thought I'd query the excellent online community here for suggestions.  

Here is my plan:

1.) Equilibrium brine chicken breasts and leg quarters at 1.5% NaCl for 24-48 hours in fridge.

2.) Vacuum bag and sous vide at ~150F(65C) for 1.5-2 hours (per PolyScience's recommendations).

3.) Rapid chill in ice bath

4.) Freeze in chest freezer (non-frost-free freezer which I know from working in research will actually help me to store the food longer!)

5.) Retherm directly from freezer (or thaw overnight in fridge before retherming to speed up the process) at about 130F and then sear in pan/grill/torch/broil or whatever is appropriate for the specific meal.

My main question is this though: For those with experience, do you find that it is better to vacuum package raw and then freeze? My plan would then be to equilibrium brine, vacuum seal and freeze the raw chicken.  Then, I would sous vide individual portions the night before to pasteurize, store in the fridge for 24 hours, and finish the dish the next day after getting home from work.

So, to summarize: 

1.) Is equilibrium brining recommended for storing meat that has already been put through the sous vide process?  I typically equilibrium brine pork and chicken when cooking and eating these meats but not after freezer storage... 

2.) Option A: Brine, bag, sous vide, freeze, retherm, and finish or Option B: brine, bag, freeze, sous vide (night before and store at 4C), retherm (day of), and finish? 

FYI - Different dry (or fresh) herbs and spice mixtures and/or pan sauces will be used to "season" the meat for each meal.  I'll also plan on going very light on the salt at this point since the meat will have been brined at 1.5% (unless brining is not recommended for this application).

Thanks so much for any suggestions!

Tim_Sutherland_52834

I have done the brine, sear, SV in ziploc, chill, freeze, retherm from frozen, sear, season, eat, with chicken breasts a few time.  Legs I bone, pound flat, vac pack, SV, chill, freeze, retherm from frozen, hard sear skin side down, season, eat.

I do not put any herbs/flavouring in the bag but use sauces to provide this. 

I like to have cooked product in bags in the freezer.  I am then less likely to eat undercooked product.  If you go the raw in the freezer try to make all the food in the freezer raw.  When you mix and match mistakes happen.

I am also lazy so the less steps the better.  Option B has more steps with no advantage to the end product.

SVing brined chicken will have some liquid leech out during the cooking process.  This may cause textural issues with long term freezing.  I try to use frozen product quickly, although I do find UFOs (unidentified frozen objects) from time to time.

Don't pull a vac on chicken legs with the bone in.  The vacuum will pull the bone marrow from the bone and stain the meat, which no cooking will get ride of.