Scary Chicken

I thought I'd try something a bit outside my comfort zone tonight. I had some chicken breasts that I'd vac packed and frozen. A bit more chicken than I really wanted, but there wasn't much else in the fridge, so it was going to be a bit of a scratch meal really.

Chicken went into the sous vide at 4pm and daringly (stupidly?) I set it to 55.3, same as the roo I cooked last night. This should give a medium rare but still be fully pasteurised. Chicken is *never* cooked medium rare. I've never tasted chicken done anything less than very well done. I've never really liked chicken breast as anything other than a carrier of other flavours. The meat itself is always pretty flavourless and relies on the sauce to make it worth eating. It can be very worth eating too!

So I chucked that in at about 4pm.

About 6 I started getting peckish and rummaged around in the cupboard and freezer. Found a frozen stirfry veg mix, some leftover chopped ginger, some udon noodles and macadamia nuts. Got a little bowl and chucked in some oyster sauce, mirin, bbq sauce, splash of soy and some ginger jam.

Got out the wok and discovered that it was filthy having been unused for months. That got a wash and onto the giant gas ring. In went the stuff, big stir around, and onto the plate. The chicken came out and sliced about 1 cm thick and onto the plate and into the tummy.

The chicken was a little pink, but less than I expected. Certainly not translucent in any way. The veins still had small amounts of blood showing, but it was still “white” meat. The taste... That wasn't expected. It was the most amazing chicken flavour. Almost artificial chicken taste. This is just supermarket chicken, but it was out of this world. The meat was so soft and tender. You can see the slices bending to follow the shape of the plate. It cut with 4 strokes of the butterknife under the weight of the knife alone. Yet it still retained a texture and a mouthfeel. It was in no way mushy or over done. I could never go back.