Why It Works
- Tying two breast halves into a cylinder makes for perfectly even cooking and gorgeous presentation.
- Sous vide cooking offers a very high level of precise control over the results.
- Cooking the skin separately in the oven delivers the roasty flavors and extra crispness that we love about great roast turkey.
- Using the breastbone to fortify the stock produces rich, flavorful gravy.
Sous vide is a fantastic method for cooking holiday roasts. It delivers reliably moist and tender results, frees up your oven for other tasks, requires almost no supervision during cooking, and makes it very easy to hold the roast hot and ready to serve until your guests are ready. That said, sous vide turkey comes with a few problems.
I remember the first time I tried to cook a turkey sous vide for Thanksgiving, way back in 2007. I bagged my bone-in, skin-on breast separately from a couple of turkey legs, threw some big hunks of pork fat in for good measure, then cooked the legs and the breast—at 165°F (74°C) and 145°F (63°C), respectively—all day and all night before removing them from the bags, searing it all off, and serving it the next day. It was an unqualified failure. Not only was the breast meat dry and the leg meat tough, but getting the skin to crisp properly involved creating a greasy, smoky haze in the kitchen, all while trying to chat with family members and drink my bourbon and beer. On top of that, the thing ended up tasting like, well, like pan-seared sous vide turkey, with none of the deep, roasty aromas you get from a typical holiday bird.
I've learned a lot since then, and I've been steadily tweaking my methods to produce better and better sous vide–style roast turkey. I think I've finally nailed it, and the timing couldn't be better, because with the rise of inexpensive home sous vide cookers it's easier than ever for home cooks to take a stab at what was once limited to the realm of restaurant kitchens.
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Why Sous Vide Turkey?
Let's get one thing straight before we begin. Sous vide techniques are just that: techniques. They are another tool to add to your arsenal in the kitchen. Sous vide cooking is not better or worse than roasting, frying, or braising, per se—it's just different. The main advantage? It offers you very precise control over the finished product. While a hot oven ends up creating a large temperature gradient within a roasted turkey, a turkey cooked sous vide will be evenly cooked from edge to center.
One of the hard lessons I've learned over the years is that no matter what combination of time and temperature I try, and no matter what method of finishing them off post–sous vide, turkey legs cooked sous vide just aren't worth it. They're so darn forgiving that precise temperature control offers only the slightest of incremental improvements. I vastly prefer the flavor of more traditional preparations, like thesered wine-braised turkey legsor thisturkey roasted in parts.
The breast meat is an entirely different story. White, lean meat is the area where sous vide can really shine, delivering insanely moist and tender results unlike anything you can achieve through more conventional methods.
By essentially pasteurizing meat, sous vide cooking also allows you to safely cook turkey to temperatures that are lower than what can be achieved in a standard oven, and lower temperatures make for moister meat. This opens up new worlds of possibility when it comes to the texture and flavor of your finished dish. Confused? Let me explain.
Temperature, Timing, and Safety
It's easy to remember the "165°F = safe" and the "40 to 140°F (4 to 60°C) = the danger zone" rules. So much so that it's tempting to think of pasteurization as something akin to dropping a bomb into a fortress full of bacteria, instantly killing them all. But if you take a look at theUSDA's website, the reality is actually quite a bit more complex. Pasteurizing a piece of meat to destroy harmful bacteria is really much more similar to a slow siege, letting the bacteria die off at a steady rate. That rate is affected by the temperature of the meat.
"turkey cooked and held at 140°F for 30 minutes is just as safe as turkey cooked and held at 165°F for 10 seconds."
So, while at 165°F you reach a 7-log10reduction in bacteria count (that is, for every 10 million bacteria you started with, only one will remain) in under 10 seconds, at 140°F (60°C), this process can take about 28 minutes. That said, turkey cooked and held at 140°F for 30 minutes is just as safe as turkey cooked and held at 165°F for 10 seconds.
Knowing the safety guidelines for this kind of pasteurization is the key to making sure that your sous vide turkey is safe. Here's a brief overview of the USDA charts:
| Turkey Pasteurization Times | |
|---|---|
| Pasteurization Temperature | Time for 7-log10Lethality in Salmonella* |
| 136°F (57.8°C) | 64 minutes |
| 140°F (60°C) | 28.1 minutes |
| 145°F (62.8°C) | 10.5 minutes |
| 150°F (65.6°C) | 3.8 minutes |
| 155°F (68.3°C) | 1.2 minutes |
| 160°F (71.1°C) | 25.6 seconds |
| 165°F (73.9°C) | Under 10 seconds |
*Note that these times are specifically for salmonella. Because it's hardier than many other common bacteria, pasteurizing with respect to salmonella will render your meat relatively safe. If you are particularly nervous about food-borne illness, you might consider pasteurizing with respect to an even hardier bacterium, like Listeria. Simply extend holding times threefold.
In a standard oven, it's difficult to safely cook turkey to anything below around 145 to 150°F (63 to 66°C)—you just can't hold its temperature in that range for a long enough period of time. With a sous vide cooker, we can cook as low as we'd like. So long as bacteria are actively being destroyed, it's just a matter of timing.
The important thing to bear in mind here is that these times startafterthe turkey hits the target pasteurization temperature. Even though water baths are an extremely efficient method of heat transfer, since turkey breasts are rather large, this can take an hour or more. The most precise method to ensure that your turkey is at its target final temperature is to cook it in a plastic zipper-lock bag, removing it after the first hour and every 15 minutes thereafter to monitor its internal temperature using aninstant-read thermometeruntil it hits the right temperature.** You'll have to open and reseal the bag each time you check it using this method.
** If you have a leave-in probe-style thermometer, you can monitor the turkey without removing it from the bag. Check outthis video from Modernist Cuisine to see how it's done.
"overcooking with sous vide isverydifficult to do."
A much easier way to do it is to forget about taking internal temperature and just err on the side of caution. The great thing about sous vide is that, unlike roasting in an oven or deep-frying, in which 10 extra minutes of cooking makes the difference between moist, juicy meat and dusty cardboard, overcooking with sous vide isverydifficult to do. An extra hour in the water bath isn't going to destroy that turkey of yours.
So What Time and Temperature Should I Use?
Okay, so we know about safety. What method actually tastes best?
Poke around the internet and you'll find a wide range of suggestions.The Modernist Cuisine recipe mentioned above uses the lowest temperature, with the turkey not even hitting the 130°F (55°C) mark.Michael Voltaggiosuggests 150°F. My owndeep-fried turkey breast "porchetta"recipe calls for 140°F. So which one is best?
I started by cooking turkey at five-degree intervals for all temperatures between 130 and 160°F (55 and 71°C), then fine-tuned the most promising results. In each case, I set the target temperature of the sous vide cooker to a couple of degrees higher than the target temperature of the turkey—for relatively short cook times like this, it's more efficient to get the turkey up to its final temperature a little bit faster.
Here are some of the results:
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:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2014__11__20141113-sous-vide-turkey-temps-2-615913680e4f4cdcb1eadd31f4b7f866.jpg "Sous Vide Turkey Breast With Crispy Skin Recipe (3)")
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2014__11__20141113-sous-vide-turkey-temps-3-35d274b6ef3a4ac1b944dea551cc1f82.jpg "Sous Vide Turkey Breast With Crispy Skin Recipe (4)")
My personal favorite is 145°F for two and a half hours. At this temperature, the breast comes close to traditional roast turkey in texture, but has much moister, more tender meat.
| Sous Vide Turkey Temperatures and Times | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final Result | Bath Temp | Core Temp | Cook Time After Reaching Core Temp | Approx. Total Cook Time |
| Very pink, soft, extra moist | 132°F (56°C) | 130°F (55°C) | 2 hours | 4 hours |
| Pale pink, soft, moist | 138°F (59°C) | 136°F (58°C) | 1 hour | 3 hours |
| White, tender, moist | 145°F (63°C) | 143°F (62°C) | 16 minutes | 2 1/2 hours |
| White; traditional roast texture | 152°F (67°C) | 150°F (66°C) | 4 minutes | 2 hours |
Skin and Bones: Do You Leave Them on the Breast or Remove Them?
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2014__11__20141106-sous-vide-turkey-recipe-01-5f18933a10af46a3ba93f6722613399c.jpg "Sous Vide Turkey Breast With Crispy Skin Recipe (5)")
I'd nailed down the temperature I wanted, but that's really only half the battle. Next question: Turkey breasts have skin and bones. Do those really make a difference in the end product?
I cooked a couple of turkey breast halves from the same turkey side by side, one with the skin and bones intact, the other with the skin and bones removed before cooking. Afterward, I removed the skin and bones from the first sample before slicing the two breast halves and tasting them side by side.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2014__11__20141106-sous-vide-turkey-recipe-02-4d342607a72a4cf3b7b123c176c61a21.jpg "Sous Vide Turkey Breast With Crispy Skin Recipe (6)")
When slices were taken from the thickest part of the breast, there was absolutely no discernible difference between the two. Where small differences did start to show up was near the thinner, tapered end of the breast. The turkey cooked without the skin and bones was slightly mealier and drier.
This isn't because any kind of magical properties that the skin and bones have. They aren't transferring flavor or juices, as I've seen suggested. All they're really doing is insulating the meat, acting as an energy buffer so that heat doesn't travel into the turkeyquiteas quickly. When the thinner end of the turkey is cooked with no skin and bones, it rapidly reaches its target temperature. By the time the thicker part of the turkey is finished, the thinner bit is ever-so-slightly overcooked.
Though it seemed that leaving the skin and bones on might be the way to go, I wondered if there was a better way to do it—a method that would allow me to use the skin and bones for better purposes.
Short answer: There definitely is, and it's very similar to the method I use in that turkey porchetta recipe.
What's the Best Way to Shape a Turkey Breast for Sous Vide?
The goal is to get the turkey breast to cook evenly, right? To prevent the skinny end from cooking faster than the fat end, all you need to do is find a way to make sure that the turkey is of an even thickness throughout. How do you do that?
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2014__11__20141106-sous-vide-turkey-recipe-08-d209c635b0a244cda40c2feb4a5ba692.jpg "Sous Vide Turkey Breast With Crispy Skin Recipe (7)")
Just remove two breasts and pack them together top to tail, like a jigsaw puzzle. This will create a single large cylinder that is very close to even in radius throughout its whole width. Any minor differences can be evened out with a bit of butcher's twine tied at one-inch intervals.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2014__11__20141106-sous-vide-turkey-recipe-10-6f2bc1dde1604ef49d0e571b07f3866d.jpg "Sous Vide Turkey Breast With Crispy Skin Recipe (8)")
The other advantage to this method is that it allows you to season the interior of the breast roll as well. This is important not only for flavor, but for getting those turkey breast halves to stick together. As the salt works its way into the meat, it dissolves some of the muscle proteins, which in turn can cross-link with each other, binding the two turkey breast halves together into a single, solid piece of meat (even without the aid of fancy meat glues and such). It's the exact same process thathelps a good sausage bind together.
What About That Extra-Crispy Skin?
You might've noticed a couple of glaring omissions here thus far. Namely, what about that extra-crisp skin I promised, along with the roasted flavor?
When you're roasting a turkey conventionally, that roasted flavor really comes mostly from the skin, as it's the only part of the turkey that's actually getting exposed to the high heat of the oven. For the meat underneath, I couldn't really care less whether it was in an oven or in a water bath—the final temperature is the only thing that matters.
Now, with myturkey porchetta, I wrap the rolled breast in its own skin before cooking sous vide, then finishing in a deep fryer. This gives it crispness, all right, but deep-fried skin doesn't taste anything like roasted skin.
The simple solution? Just roast the darn skin on its own. This here is a little trick I learned back when I was working for chefKen Oringerin Boston.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2014__11__20141106-sous-vide-turkey-recipe-15-b42f6de1cb594e3ea44c32fe9b44dddc.jpg "Sous Vide Turkey Breast With Crispy Skin Recipe (9)")
By spreading the skin out flat on a sheet of parchment, seasoning it well, topping it with another sheet of parchment, then sandwiching it between two rimmed baking sheets, you can roast it in a conventional oven. What you end up with is a single flat sheet of perfectly crisp skin that can shatter into serving-sized shards.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2014__11__20141106-sous-vide-turkey-recipe-21-b69dfc95dc6d4047a223518c5f71e51b.jpg "Sous Vide Turkey Breast With Crispy Skin Recipe (10)")
What's more, because this skin isn't wrapped around steaming-hot turkey meat, it willstaycrisp for far longer than the skin on a traditionally roasted turkey, all while delivering on that promise of intense roasty flavor.
I mean, just look at that:
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2014__11__20141106-sous-vide-turkey-recipe-26-cc15724ad1034e2e94eb83918cdde086.jpg "Sous Vide Turkey Breast With Crispy Skin Recipe (11)")
With the skin and the perfectly cooked meat, along with a gravy made from the trimmed-out breastbone, you've got yourself a Thanksgiving turkey dinner about as close to perfection as I can think of.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2014__11__20141106-sous-vide-turkey-recipe-29-2e10c2812c6941a885438d09ab0180df.jpg "Sous Vide Turkey Breast With Crispy Skin Recipe (12)")
If you want to get extra fancy, you can plate up individual portions of turkey and skin for each guest. Maybe you can even get your mom to say what my mom's said to me on occasion:
"This is so good, it almost looks like it was made by a professional!"*
*Er... Mom, what exactly is it that you think I've been doing with my life, huh?
This guide was produced in 2014 by Serious Eats as part of a partnership with Anova, the makers of the Anova Precision Cooker.
November 2014
Recipe Details
Sous Vide Turkey Breast With Crispy Skin
Prep30 mins
Cook2 hrs 45 mins
Active60 mins
Total3 hrs 15 mins
Serves6to 8 servings
Ingredients
For the Turkey:
1 large whole skin-on, bone-in turkey breast (about 5 pounds; 2.2kg)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the Gravy:
1 tablespoon (15ml) vegetable oil
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
2 ribs celery, roughly chopped
1 1/2 quarts (1.4L)homemadeorstore-boughtlow-sodium chicken stock
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon (5ml) soy sauce
3 tablespoons (45g) unsalted butter
1/4 cup (40g) all-purpose flour
Directions
Carefully remove turkey skin in a single piece and set aside. Using a sharp boning knife, remove breast meat from breastbone. Set breastbone aside. Season turkey generously with salt and pepper on all sides. Place 1 breast half, cut side facing up, on a work surface. Place second breast half facedown, so the fat end aligns with the skinny end of the first breast half. Gently form into an even cylinder.
Tie turkey breast at 1-inch intervals using butcher's twine. Transfer to a zipper-lock bag. Turkey can be refrigerated for up to 5 days before proceeding.
Heat a sous vide water bath to 145°F (63°C), or to desired temperature according to chart above and in the notes section. With bag open, slowly lower bagged turkey into water, letting water pressure squeeze air out of bag until just the seal remains above the waterline. Seal bag completely. Let turkey cook for 2 1/2 hours (or according to chart). Meanwhile, make the crispy skin and gravy.
For the Crispy Skin: Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Spread skin evenly over a piece of parchment paper set in a rimmed baking sheet. Season generously with salt and pepper. Place a second sheet of parchment on top and carefully squeeze out any air bubbles using the side of your hand. Place a second rimmed baking sheet on top and transfer to oven.
Roast until skin is deep brown and crisp (it will crisp further on cooling), 30 to 45 minutes. Allow to cool and set aside at room temperature. Turkey skin can be roasted in advance, cooled completely, then stored, loosely covered, at room temperature for up to 3 days. To re-crisp, place in a hot oven for a few minutes just before serving.
For the Gravy: Using a cleaver, chop breastbone into 1-inch chunks. In a medium saucepan over high heat, heat oil until smoking. Add breastbone, onion, carrot, and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned, about 10 minutes total. Add stock, bay leaves, and soy sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 1 hour, then strain through a fine-mesh strainer. You should have a little over 1 quart (900ml) of fortified stock; if not, add water or more chicken stock to equal 1 quart. Discard solids and set stock aside.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Whisking constantly, add fortified broth in a thin, steady stream. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until thickened and reduced to about 3 cups (720ml). Season to taste with salt and pepper. Keep warm.
When turkey is cooked, remove from water bath and unseal bag. Carefully remove butcher's twine. Cut into 1/4- to 1/2-inch slices for serving. Fan slices out on a warmed serving platter or cutting board. Break skin into serving-sized pieces and add to platter, along with a pitcher of gravy. Serve immediately.
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Special Equipment
Sous vide immersion circulator, 2 rimmed baking sheets, fine-mesh strainer, butcher's twine
Notes
| Sous Vide Turkey Temperatures and Times | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final Result | Bath Temp | Core Temp | Cook Time After Reaching Core Temp | Approx. Total Cook Time |
| Very pink, soft, extra moist | 132°F (56°C) | 130°F (55°C) | 2 hours | 4 hours |
| Pale pink, soft, moist | 138°F (59°C) | 136°F (58°C) | 1 hour | 3 hours |
| White, tender, moist | 145°F (63°C) | 143°F (62°C) | 16 minutes | 2 1/2 hours |
| White; traditional roast texture | 152°F (67°C) | 150°F (66°C) | 4 minutes | 2 hours |
Make-Ahead and Storage
The cooked turkey can be chilled in an ice bath and stored in the refrigerator for up to a week. Reheat it in a 130°F (55°C) water bath for about an hour before serving.
- Sous Vide
- Turkey Breast
- Turkey Mains
- Fall Mains
- Thanksgiving Dinner
| Nutrition Facts (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 324 | Calories |
| 10g | Fat |
| 5g | Carbs |
| 51g | Protein |
Show Full Nutrition Label
×
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Servings: 6to 8 | |
| Amount per serving | |
| Calories | 324 |
| % Daily Value* | |
| Total Fat 10g | 12% |
| Saturated Fat 4g | 19% |
| Cholesterol 145mg | 48% |
| Sodium 478mg | 21% |
| Total Carbohydrate 5g | 2% |
| Dietary Fiber 0g | 1% |
| Total Sugars 1g | |
| Protein 51g | |
| Vitamin C 1mg | 5% |
| Calcium 27mg | 2% |
| Iron 2mg | 9% |
| Potassium 461mg | 10% |
| *The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice. | |
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)
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