Yesterday, we were making a pasta salad with chicken. We cooked the chicken using sous-vide following the directions in SeriousEats.com and it turned out very well. Sous-vide allows you to cook chicken breasts to just the right temperature which really makes a difference. Chicken breasts should not be over-cooked. Here is how we cooked 1-1/3 lbs. of boneless skinless chicken breasts.

1-1/3 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast

Salt and pepper

3/4 lemon, thinly sliced

4 sprigs fresh tarragon

Preheat the water bath to 155 degrees. Salt and pepper the chicken and put it in a ziplock baggie with the tarragon and lemon slices. Use water displacement to push all the air out of the baggie and seal. Put in the water bath for 1-4 hours.

When the chicken is done, fill a pan or bowl with iced or cold water, and put the bag in the cold water to chill for 15 minutes. This will help the reabsorption of any juices which came out of the chicken. After this waiting period, cut the chicken as desired for the salad.

Note: The optimal level of doneness is a matter of personal taste. 155 degrees seems to be the most popular, but you can experiment with higher or lower temperatures. Lower will be softer and moister, and higher will be firmer and drier. 150-160 seems to be the typical range for cooked chicken breasts.