Looks fabulous. I need to poach eggs more often.

such a fantastic show

when you guys freeze your cooked sous vide meat, how do you go about defrosting it?

do you just move it to the fridge for a day then sear it on a pan?

tried finding the answer on google but it kept directing me to "using sous vide to defrost"... defrosting a sous vide cooked meat with more sous vide seems a bit redundant but nothing would surprise me

Sous vide seems like the obvious choice, since you'll want to bring up the internal temp again so its appetising?

Otherwise i'd just leave it in a bowl of water.

Cooking it then freezing seems like a bad decision for a lot of reasons to me. What is the situation that you are doing that?

If you pasteurize it doing sous vide and then you don't open the bag it should be good in the fridge for over a week.

yeah its that 5 to 7 day window i was sorta worried about.

i was given the impression that if i cooked in bulk on sunday then i'd be risking it a little by the next weekend.

Properly pasteurized sous vide in vacuum seal has a fridge shelf life of like three+ weeks at 34F, shorter as the fridge is warmer.

Reheating from frozen in the bath is typical practice, it makes sure it's warmed all the way through unlike just searing from the fridge.

Indeed searing from the fridge to warm something all the way to finished temperature defeats the purpose of using sous vide at all except for the less tender cuts that SV for a long time. You may as well just start from raw if that's your warming technique.

As to why you'd bother freezing instead of starting fresh every time it's very useful for buying in bulk and portioning cooked proteins. SV poultry breasts for example don't need to be warmed through so you can batch cook 15 portions, freeze for long storage and defrost in the fridge and slice as needed.

Right and I've been using ziplocs with displacement, which has me paranoid that I won't have it perfect re: food safety

Ideally I'd like to have it stored safely in the fridge for a week so I can just meal prep at home

Seems like I need to invest in a vacuum seal if I'm valuing this so highly?

It's good you are valuing this highly.

If eating cooked food 5 days later will kill you, I've been dead for 20 years.

It won't kill you, but there is a difference between that factory sealed "deli" meat and homemade sous vide bird. Don't go over a week with home cooked food.

I didn't want to go against the tide when you originally asked the question, but absolutely buy a vacuum sealer, it not only helps with sous vide but to preserve all kinds of food. It's a good under $100 investment.

it's a mediocre vacuum which isn't really suited to preserve foods so not really better than the water-ziplock method.
chamber vacuum sealer if preserving foods becomes a priority.

Clayton,

That stuff will be totally fine in the fridge for a week.

This is just ridiculous.

Did some chicken breast sous vide on Sunday (thank you to whoever in the thread clued me in on the 58.5 temp).
Wed now, pulled a breast out, heated up some coconut oil, threw the breast in the microwave for 90sec because I didn't want to put a chilled breast in hot oil.
Came out a little dry due to my over cooking but perfectly edible still.
1st time I did a sous vide bulk cook and reheated. I have no vacuum sealer.

Here's to no salmonella tomorrow!

I am not an expert, but throwing sous vide chicken into the microwave seems to defeat the purpose of using the sous vide to start with.

It does, but I have done exactly that. It's faster than a second sous vide, and it's tastier the first time than anything else. I don't have an extra hour for cooking every night.

Ya,
This is strictly for convenience. Have already cooked breasts ready to go when I need some fuel.

why not just sear it for a few mins in a pan instead?
adds aroma, color and enough to get it to temperature. would also rather eat it cold than overcook it in the microwave.

Didn't overcook it in the microwave, overcooked it searing it.
I'll go straight from fridge to pan tonight.

Could be at work with only microwave available

The bulk cooking of proteins is a good selling point for a sous vide. Do 10 or whatever chicken breasts at a time and reheated is fast and tastes fine.
Healthy eating doesn't have to be bland but sometimes eating is just fueling your body when you're strapped for time.

People who think eating healthy, and/or (dare I say it) eating veggie, has to be bland are morons. There are so many cuisines across the world, all using interesting and tasty combinations of different herbs and spices.

Late to the party here, but damn, looks incredible.