Sous Vide Stuffed Chicken Breast

• 3 tablespoons oil (canola, olive or sunflower)
• 2 leeks, thinly sliced
• 2 cups shiitake and other mushrooms sautéed, thinly sliced
• pinch salt and pepper
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1 cup ricotta or goat cheese
• 4 Stemmler’s Boneless Chicken Breast, skin on
• 2 tablespoon Stemmler’s Smokin Good Sauce
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 4 springs fresh thyme

Sauté sliced leeks in a small amount of oil. As they get translucent, add the sliced mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. In a bowl, take the sautéed leeks, mushrooms and some cooked rice. Mix in cheese.

Take the chicken breast and make a slit into the thickest part of the meat with a thin bladed knife. Make sure you do not cut through the chicken breast; you just want to make a pocket. The deeper you can do
this, the more you can stuff into the chicken breast. After making these pockets, get your stuffing mix and start to pipe it into the hole you’ve made. Softly squeeze the filling down into the bottom of the chicken breast until the chicken breast is completely full.

In a food safe vac pack bag, add one teaspoon butter, two sprigs of fresh thyme, one tablespoon Stemmler’s Smokin Good Sauce. Then add two stuffed chicken breasts. Repeat for as many breasts as you are making. Seal the bags with the vac pack machine and make sure all the air is out of them.

Set the sous vide machine to 147F (64C) and place the bags into the water bath. There should be a nice flow of water surrounding the bags of chicken. Overcrowding will prevent even cooking and leave some of the chicken unsafe. The temperature of the water will drop as you add the bags of chicken. Cooking time starts when the water actually reads 147F with the bags in it. Cook for 90 minutes. Cooking this at a lower temperature for a longer period of time actually pasteurizes the chicken. It also tenderizes the meat and locks in all the juices, preventing it from drying out.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove from the bag, saving the liquid. Add some more seasoning (salt and pepper) and place it into a hot pan with a touch of oil. Sear the skin to give it crispy and golden brown colour. Flip it once to sear the bottom as well. While chicken is searing, place the contents of the sous vide bag into a pot and start to reduce it. This makes a great jus for the chicken.

While the chicken is in the sous vide water bath, cook your favorite vegetables and sides. Serve sliced chicken with jus with your side dishes.  Enjoy the succulent juicy chicken!