Sous Vide Sunday Chicken - Spicy Orange and Cilantro Brine

Last Tuesday I overhead two clients engaging in food related discussion. Understand that in my line of work, food is the devil. "I ate too much last night".  Or, "I'm going to pay for that buffet on Saturday".  And the ubiquitous, "I can't seem to drop the 5, 8 10, or 35 pounds......too much good food!" Yet the current conversation had the makings of a positive food experience: "the chicken at Flinchy's was the most tender and moist I had ever eaten. I don't know what they do to it. They have got to have some trick up their sleeve that we don't know about. I've never had chicken like that".

I don't know the secrets of a restaurant kitchen. I'm guessing they cook their chicken to the appropriate temperature. Perhaps they place it in a brine for a few hours to enhance it's juicyness. Do they sous vide? I doubt it.

I have never done chicken via sous vide. Usually I toss it into a skillet and roast at 350 degrees until crisp and juicy. This normally works fine.

Could sous vide elevate above the comfortable simplicity of an oven roasted chicken?

Let's find out.

First I brined it in a quick brine modified from  Michael Ruhlman.


Quick Brine

• 15 oz water
• 100g salt
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1/2 orange, quartered
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• Fresh cilantro
• 15 oz ice

Combine ingredients (except ice) and boil.  Let steep for 10 minutes off heat. Pour brine over ice. Pour over 3-4 pounds worth of chicken parts. Keep at room temp for 2-3 hours.

Then discard the brine and thoroughly rinse the chicken. Seal in plastic bag and vacuum pack. Lower into 147 degree water bath for 2 hours.

I'll be the first to admit that sous vide chicken, (steak, pork, and fish included) looks pale and unappetizing. To remedy, a hot pan and some coconut oil. Sear the outside, make a quick pan gravy, and get ready to plate.

Orange and cilantro brined chicken cooked sous vide and served with a cauliflower and poblano pepper gratin. 

Chewy Gingersnap Cookies

The smell of ginger and molasses wafting from the oven does not remind me of holiday's past. It's not that I am a complete Christmas Scrooge, but I can't recall ever making gingersnaps. We made gingerbread houses. But where did we get the gingerbread? I don't know.

I do remember an orange box full of gingersnap cookies. They were stacked side-by-side on a plastic tray that had a unique crackle to it like only plastic tray's can have. The snap of the cookie between my teeth reveberated through my head and the ginger bit back like novel spices have a tendency to do. That is my memory of the gingersnap:

An orange box. A plastic tray. A cookie with a kick.

My prerequisite for baking gingersnaps is threefold. And by this I mean, three types of ginger. Powdered, fresh grated, and crystallized. If you have three types of ginger you can't help but make a potent cookie.

What is the deal with lots of bold spice in cookies? Why do I, and possibly you, find that the hands are constantly in the cookie jar when the cookies fight back?

Psychologist Paul Rozin from the University of Pennsylvania writes that the human's love of spicy foods including ginger as well as chili, coffee, beer, and tobacco is a case of culture overriding a biological predisposition. We are not born liking spicy food, yet many of us develop an addiction to it.  The exact mechanism of this change is unknown. It could be social pressure, a certain type of endorphin secretion, or even a desire for "benign masochism".  

Some endurance coaches suggest that athletes who are slightly overtrained may experience an increased desire for spicy food, among other things. Perhaps it's the endorphins at work. Or is it just the case that most athletes are addicted to a daily dose of "benign masochism". Two strikes. Add a dose of social pressure (my competitors are probably training today) and you have a simple explanation for our culture's desire for spicy foods.

Or maybe it is simply a positive memory built around an orange box, a plastic tray, and a spicy cookie.

A day of rest could help if you only find crumbs a day after making this recipe. It not for the recovery from your workout than for the recovery from the bloat you will feel after consuming so much sugar and flour in short order.

• Flour, baking powder and spices
• Crystallized ginger, minced
• Fresh ginger, grated

• Brown sugar
• Butter, softened (I used olive oil, coconut oil, butter, and some soy something or other).
• Molasses
• Egg 

Gingerbread Cake

Pumpkin Pudding (gluten free, dairy free)

 2 cups almond milk + 1/4 cup apple butter,  scalded

2 eggs, beaten. Mix with 2 T. cornstarch + 3T sugar and a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice.

Gradually add scalded milk to egg mixture.

Stir in 1 cup pumpkin to egg/milk mixture.

Return to pot and stir until mixture boils.

Serve three ways.

This recipe yields a slightly sweet pudding that is woefully short on creaminess. It needs more fat. Substituting 1 cup of the almond milk for 1 cup coconut milk would be a start. 1 cup of coconut cream would be the smartest choice yielding an increase in fat and sugar. I demolished all three in a matter of minutes. The full fat whipped cream topped version easily dominated the lonely dairy free pudding.

Heck with it, just use 2 cups of heavy cream for the whole recipe. 

Sweet Asian Glazed Beef and Salmon

My mental state was in  a nose dive. I had committed the dual sin of skipping lunch and doing my grocery shopping in the same afternoon.  As my blood sugar yo-yo-ed back and forth, dipping closer and closer to full-on crabiness; I was desperate for the glaze to thicken, the steak to sear, and the rice to cook.

Dinner could not be served soon enough.

I devoured my first helping like a dog sneaking Kibble from the food bin. As I reached for seconds three simple words written by David Kessler climbed up the memory ladder in my brain: Sweet, salt, and fat.

In his book "The End of Overeating",  Kessler pounds those three words into your subconscious.  Salt, sugar and fat. Repeat after me. Salt, sugar, and fat. Or was it fat, salt, and sweet. Or perhaps salt, sweet and fat? Your get my point.

According to Kessler, If your food is layered with sugary sweetness, comforting fat, and nerve tingling saltiness; chances are you will eat. And eat. And eat. This is a technique mastered by ingenious food manufacturers and industry marketers. If you want to end the overeating in your life then the obvious conclusion seems to be: restrict the fat, the sweet, and the salt.

Perhaps it's not that simple.

I normally avoid sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or any other sweetener in my savory food preparations. Except for today. Needless to say my senses were abuzz as I enjoyed the devilish trio

Not worried about a bulging waistline, strained pancreas, or high blood pressure?

Asian Glaze - Modified from Cooks Illustrated

• 3 T brown sugar
• 2 T soy sauce (gluten free)
• 1 T  Dijon mustard
• 1 T rice vinegar
• 2 T tomato paste
• 1 T mirin
• pinch of red pepper flakes

Green Bean, Carrot, and Coconut Curry

I'm addicted to coconut milk. Toss is frozen green beans, carrots, and rice and I've got lunch on the table before running of to work.

1 Onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, diced
Spices: cinnamon sticks, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, curry powder, tumeric, mustard seeds, bay leaves, salt, pepper.
1 can coconut milk.

Heat coconut oil, saute onions and spices. Add garlic. Stir in green beans and carrots. Add coconut milk. Simmer for a few minutes.

Serve with rice.

Braised Pork and Cabbage in a Red Sauce

 One head of green cabbage, shredded. 2 onions diced. 6 garlic cloves diced. A bit of balsamic vinegar. And half of a small can of tomato paste. Plus 2 organic pork chops salted and peppered.

Those chops look amazing.

Brown chops in Dutch oven. Remove from heat. Carmelize onions for thirty minutes. Add water occasionally. Soften garlic. Incorporate tomato paste and vinegar.  Dump cabbage into pot and lay pork chops onto cabbage. Cover with lid and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Serve with rice noodles.

Add caption