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My sous vide chicken breast recipe is a surefire way to juicy and moist chicken every single time. You can make it with or without a sous vide machine.
Chicken breast cooked sous vide is ridiculously foolproof.
As someone who eats chicken breasts on a weekly basis (and does plenty of meal prep!), cooking chicken breast sous vide has made things so much easier (and tastier!).
Like baked chicken breast and air fryer chicken breast, I love how it’s healthy and easy to customize. My family loves how juicy and tender the chicken is every time.
If you love sous vide recipes as much as we do, try my sous vide chicken thighs, sous vide flank steak, sous vide salmon, and sous vide egg bites next.
Key Ingredients
- Chicken breast. Opt for boneless AND skinless chicken breasts because the addition of either bone or skin will alter the cooking time needed.
- Lemon. A few lemon slices give the chicken citrusy notes and brighten up its flavor.
- Rosemary. Fresh herbs please, not the dried kind.
- Garlic. Freshly minced.
- Kosher salt and black pepper. To taste.
- Butter. To sear the chicken at the end (this step is optional).
How to sous vide chicken breast
I’ve included step-by-step photos below to make this recipe easy to follow at home. For the full printable recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step 1- Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper.
Step 2- Vacuum seal. Place the chicken breasts in a vacuum bag along with slices of lemon, minced garlic, and fresh sprigs of rosemary.
Step 3- Sous vide. Set the sous vide machine to 132F degrees. Submerge the chicken breasts in water and cook.
Step 4- Pan sear. Remove the chicken from the bag, add it to a greased hot skillet, and sear both sides on medium-high heat before serving.
Arman’s recipe tips
- Use a vacuum sealer to seal the bags as tightly as possible. They are super affordable and trust me, worth the expense!
- Always check the temperature of the water bath before adding the chicken to it.
- Feel free to add seasonings, aromatics, or even a marinade to the bag before vacuum-sealing the chicken. Try my 4-ingredient chicken marinade or a fun Asian sauce like eel sauce.
- If you don’t have fresh chicken, use frozen chicken! You don’t need to defrost it before cooking it in the water bath. Simply cook it for 30 minutes longer to compensate (this is from frozen. Do not thaw the chicken first!).
Frequently asked questions
If you overcook the chicken even by a few minutes, you risk the chicken drying out and being dense/rubbery. Please keep an eye out during the cooking process and use an instant-read meat thermometer to check.
More foolproof chicken breast recipes
- Instant pot chicken breast
- Smoked chicken breast
- Cast iron chicken breast
- Or any of my healthy chicken breast recipes
Sous Vide Chicken Breast
Video
Ingredients
Instructions
- Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper.
- In a vacuum bag, place the chicken breasts with lemon, rosemary, and garlic, and vacuum seal it.
- Set the sous vide to 55C.132F and place the bag with chicken inside the pot with the water and cook for 57 minutes.
- Remove chicken breasts from the bag and preheat the skillet with butter over high heat.
- Sear chicken breasts for 1 minute per side and serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Originally published November 2022, updated and republished February 2025
I work in restaurant and also saw sous vide fish. What is that?
Looks very nice on photo. Like it!
Easy tasty and healthy recipe. Good!
This is the best sous vide chicken breast recipe EVER! So juicy and tender.
Love this sous vide chicken breast. It’s so juicy and tender.
My Girlfriend really hates chicken breast filet. It’s the most overdried cut of meat there is according to her.
I made this today, and she liked it, really really much.
Cheers mate, great recipe!
Appreciate it! 🙂
This is my goto recipe for sous vide chicken breast. It is soooo delicious!
Thanks. I really love 132°F for cooking chicken breast. Other websites have said to cook it at 140° or 145°. Those temperatures sometimes produce chicken that with a tender and juicy texture, but will often produce a dry stringy and tough chicken breast.
When cooking frozen chicken breast, I add about 20 minutes.
PS I cook beef at 132° F a well. It turns a cheap cut of beef into a buttery treat after 24 hours!
Perhaps there’s an error in translation somewhere because twice your instructions say to sous vide to 132C. I’m in the US, so 132C to F is 269.6°. 🤪 Just a tad overdone then yeah? I think I’ll stay at 160° which allows some extra degrees for searing.