Go to the Recipe: Ultra-Tender Sous Vide Turkey Breast
OK, answered my own question: Nice thing about Thanksgiving, is the butcher really wants to sell-left over turkey, so I bought a half breast and a thigh at discount (cheap anyway). 138 for 3 hours sous vide (influenced by Kenji Lopez-Alt) for breast (used the chef steps setup though with more herbs)... utterly fantastic, and the real test, next-day turkey sandwich also moist and perfect. Best ever!! Thigh 148 also 3 hours, better but not great... still working. maybe for dark meat I'll try a higher temp next time.
Second time I've done this recipe with slight differences. Great taste, great soft texture, but still too dry. 24 hours at 131, and (I have two circulators) 149 for the leg/thighs: both too dry. Maybe I'm spoiled, but Next time I'm going to try eight hours instead of 24. Something's not right. I had a killer gravy, and also the Jus Gras (yeah... two gravies.. gotta live you know). Jus Gras made with holiday herb oil is the best gravy I've ever eaten and in my opinion saved the meal. I got a lot of compliments, but while carving, I was concerned and really picked up the gravy on the servings to compensate (worked, but I'm not really happy). Help, what's going on here? (Fyi other gravy was your pressure cooker turkey stock then roux, dijon, green peppercorn, vermouth, brandy... yum!) I'm mystified.
Did you add your oil to the pan when it was hot? Adding oil to a cold pan won’t yield as much non-stick.
I used a non-stick and plenty of oil, and no stick for me. Nice color and texture on the skin after 90sec.
I've made a lot of great turkey recipes over the years (I particularly like Todd English's deboned, rolled, stuffed and maple basted turkey), but it will hard to do anything else now that I've tried this.
Just the breasts cut from a crown, pre-sear, vac pack with seasonings, sous vide 131°F x 16h, post-sear. You can go as long as 24-28hr, so timing dinner after just a 90 second sear is easy to manage.
I have to say it was incredibly delicious, tender, juicy and very well seasoned with salt, sugar and sage. Skin came out with a nice color and texture. Super easy for maximum return. It almost feels like cheating!
This was easily the best turkey I've had.
Only trouble I had with this recipe is pan searing. Even in a 375f stainless pan with plenty of oil (via control freak), the well dried skin stuck on both sears on both breasts. Not sure how you'd consistently accomplish such a short 90s sear and get the skin to release with these. Maybe it was the bird I got, maybe I needed more temp, who knows. Might just try the broiler next time!
The recipe in Joule app is for the Joule Turbo and will deliver you a juicy turkey quicker than the lower, longer cook in this recipe. The app recipe is from the Breville test kitchen which is a different development kitchen. The recipe above is tried and true and will deliver you the most epic turkey breast.
Why is this recipe so different from the Joule Turbo turkey breast recipe, which calls for 154°?
If cooked and properly sealed, I would give this up to 2 months in the freezer just fine.
I've had great success with this recipe using turkey breast tenderloins, so I'm doing it again this year. Unfortunately, a large portion of my guests got sick and had to cancel last minute. That leaves me with extra previously frozen, now thawed turkey breast tenderloins that need to be cooked, but will not be eaten any time soon.
Can I use this recipe with the salt/sugar seasoning, cook, then freeze and save until December holidays? I know I shouldn't season with salt and freeze prior to cooking, but can I freeze after cooking without affecting the texture of the meat? How long can this hold in the freezer after cooking?
After 24 hours at 131 °F the meat won't be pink, but it won't have that bright white look of "traditional" (ie overcooked) roast turkey. If you want to make sure your T-Day dinner is completely drama-free (at least as far as the bird is concerned), you can cook the boneless breasts at 145 °F for 3 1/2 hours, and up to 5 hours. This will still give you tender and juicy results, but with absolutely no risk of your sous vide skeptic guests complaining about pink meat.
What color does the meat turn after 24 hours at 131? Some of my guests are skeptical of sous vide and I don’t want any dinner drama if the breast looks pink! If it is still pink, what would be a recommended temperature for whiter meat with similarly tender results?
Butterball and Jennie-O turkey products are generally already brined, so you can skip the brining step in that case (check the label on the packaging to confirm that). Cook time remains the same even for one breast. Let us know how it turns out!
I have a boneless Butterball or Jennie O Turkey Breast I need to know whether to brine it or not and just sear it and then sous vide it? With it being for only 2 people I’m planning on making only one does that make a different cook time?
This recipe works for the original Joule as written! No adjustments required. It doesn't use the Turbo function, and is designed for an extended low-temperature sous vide cook.
I want to sous vide a turkey breast for Thanksgiving this year. I have the original Joule not the turbo. How to I adjust your recipe for time and temp for the original Joule? Thanks.
You sure can.
After cooking, could I crisp skin in broiler instead of stovetop? I was to Sous vide my breasts and the turkey legs confit two days before my dinner then crisp day of.
I’m confused on how you would have thought that cooking something at 131 degrees would somehow bring the internal temperature to 165 degrees, that is literally impossible. Sous vide is different from conventional cooking as it cooks the food at lower temperature for longer period of time and is also sealed/immersed in water. With sous vide you didn’t need to put in the oven and raise the temperature to 165 degrees. By doing this you probably dried out your turkey.
https://douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Table_2.2
165 not necessary or desired for turkey breast. Pasteurization for food safety is a function of the combination of both time and temperature. Your food was already fully cooked to safety when it came out. You only needed to brown it.
I tried your temperature idea of 131. Sous Vide it for 24 hr. wasn't even close to being internal temp at 165. It was in the 130's. Had to put it in the oven for 20 minutes to get internal temp to 165. What went wrong?
@michael black If you have a second immersion circulator, there's no reason why you couldn't.
Can I do breast and legs at the same time
This will always be the best method for the breasts, hands down. Next up is the low and slow oven crown. If you finish sous vide, then plan on finishing at another spot I would give your self 1 hour to bring the core temp back up to 131 before you do your final sear/ roast.
This was so delicious! I split a whole turkey breast in half and deboned it to fit in my Sous vide bags (about 7.5 pounds total). I didn’t sear them, just lightly seasoned and placed in the Sous vide for 22 hours. They are so tender, I don’t think I’ll ever cook them any other way, although I will increase the seasoning to 1.5x the weight as suggested. Thank you for this recipe!
Hi, I made the crown and roulade method last year and was planing to do again. I see that this updated plan uses the Joule for both, however, in the notes from ChefSteps on the previous post suggests that the"ideal" method is the oven low (250) for breast and legs in Joule. Is that still the thought or is this method comparable by starting the legs in Joule and lowering and adding Breast later just as good? Might finish both at my daughter's so I assume I can cool, refrigerate and finish crisping skin there - but would I need to put back in Joule for an hour at 131 before searing? Thank you!
Really enjoyed this. Between this and the turkey thigh recipe, I don’t think I will ever roast a whole turkey again.
I tried a scaled back version of this over the weekend, and it came out great. Did a thawed turkey breast at 131F for 20 hours, SPG & cajun seasoning in the bag, dried with paper towels and on rack for 30 minutes, seasoned again, and on the smoker at 375 F for about 90 minutes. Was planning on 2 hours, but breast hit 152F IT, so pulled it. Wrapped in butcher paper & rested 30 minutes. Inlaws said it was the best turkey they ever had. Greenburg turkeys have always been a golden standard for me, and it was pretty exciting to get close to that standard on the first time using the sous vide/smoker combo. Will definitely repeat. Thanks!
So this is a very amateur question, but I have never sous vide poultry before. They recommend setting the temp to 131 F for 8-24 hrs. Is that too low for poultry to be safely cooked? What kind of taste and texture does a pink turkey breast have?
how long and what temperature if I only want to cook turkey breast? THX
https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/brining-poultry. Check this out
Does everybody do the injection brine and equilibrium brine? I have an organic bird with “6% retained water”, it doesn’t line up to a pre brined butterball. Thoughts/advice?
You should not have any pink juices at the end of the 24 hour cook.
Hi folks-
I thinks this looks amazing, but I am concerned my more inflexible guests won’t be able to relax if there is any hint of pinkish color. Do the long cooking times assure clear juices? If I want to be sure, can I up the temperatures a few degrees and still get the benefits?
👋🏻👋🏻Hi! Love this recipe, have done a 24 hour cook three years in a row and it always astounds. A question for this year: is it possible for me to cook this ahead of time and not finish it with a sear until a few hours later? Is there an ok way to reheat it?
i want to Cook half a whole turkey, can i used the same temperature and time for this
we recommend following the guides for chicken and using the time and temps here for turkey, they are very different in the connective tissues. the chicken will become mushy.
I did this for Christmas and it was AMAZING! Thank you. As it was so good I am wondering if it will wirk with chicken breast. Thoughts? Thanks again
ovens very so it is going to be specific to yours. keep an eye on it and pull it when it is the color you want.
How long did you broil in oven?
Cooked a turkey breast today. Didn’t pre-sear. Cooked to 149. Dried and browned in oven on Broil. Best turkey ever.
broiling after your sv cook will work the best
I'd like to try this with a whole turkey breast. I have one that is about 5 pounds. Searing it before and after in a heavy pan is going to be interesting since it is not a flat piece of meat like a half breast. I suppose I could use the broiler on the oven Has anyone done a whole, bone-in breast?
I like Grilled Turkey salad!
Here is my Favourite recipe - https://mygreencookbook.com/grilled-turkey-salad/
Tasty Turkey! You have many options with this Brest! Eat like that or make some salad!) nice
Same thing happened to me. Family wont eat pink poultry, it feels wrong lol.
Made it for Thanksgiving, turned out great. I went with 135 degrees for 20hrs. 135 tends to yield 133 degrees internal temp and I wanted to be above 130 for safety. I did remove the skin however before cooking. Put skin in oven between two sheets pans and crisped it for 40 minutes.
8 hours for just the breast?
Doesn't matter. It's free of bacteria and fully cooked. Try upping the temp to 135 if you don't like the color
Nope
Do I need to remove bones from the turkey breast before cooking it this way?
Very disappointed with my attempt at this. I left the turkey in for about 9 hours and when I started to slice it, it was very pink. I used my meat thermometer and the temperature was right at 120 degrees.
Can I cook it at 140 because my parents are scared of salmonella, but even after asuuring them multiple times they want me to cook it at 140. It should still work right?
