Super Crispy Sous Vide Boneless Chicken Thighs (+ VIDEO)

The best way ever to cook juicy thighs? Probably!! These super crispy sous vide boneless chicken thighs are remarkably juicy and tender inside. Use skin-on or skinless thighs for this recipe. You simply can’t mess ‘em up!

Today you’ll learn my meal prep tips and the perfect time and temperature for boneless sous vide chicken thighs that are perfect for tacos, salads, fried sandwiches, and more.

Basic ingredients for sous vide boneless chicken thighs

This recipe calls for 4 chicken thighs that are boneless. Use skin on or skinless chicken thighs. Both will taste great.

For seasonings, I’ll show you how to bring these thighs lots of flavor with a pretty simple sauce using pantry staples: salt, pepper, paprika, cumin.

Then to finish, you’ll need just a few things: olive oil, butter, fresh herbs.

Let’s get to sous viding boneless chicken thighs…

Step 1. Preheat sous vide machine to 150ºF.

Step 2. Season chicken thighs. In a small bowl, mix together salt, pepper, paprika, and cumin.

Sprinkle as much as desired on boneless chicken thighs.

Step 3. Vacuum seal boneless chicken thighs in a flat layer.

You can cook immediately, or refrigerate or freeze to cook later. I love to meal prep sous vide recipes all the time because dinner time with a toddler can be a little crazy!

Step 4. Add the bag to the sous vide water at 150ºF for 2 hours. Add an hour if cooking from frozen.

Step 5. Once done, remove thighs from the hot water and (optional) shock the bag in an ice bath for a couple minutes.

Step 6. Remove chicken thighs from the bag and pat dry with a paper towel.

Step 5. Sear sous vide boneless chicken thighs by bringing a large cast iron skillet to medium-high heat. Add most of the olive oil to the pan. When hot, add sous vide boneless chicken thighs. Once in the pan, add remaining olive oil on top of chicken, which will help get a thin crispy layer all over once you flip them. Add butter.

Sear each side until browned. Regularly spoon butter over chicken thighs while they sear. Use tongs to hold the chicken thighs against the pan in different directions to get each edge crispy and browned. 

Step 6. Plate and serve with a sprinkle of your favorite fresh herbs. On any given day, I’ll grab basil, thyme, dill or something else from my Aerogarden.

Tips on how long to sous vide boneless chicken thighs

In my sous vide recipe today, the time and temperature for boneless chicken thighs is 150 degrees for 2 hours, or for 3 hours if you’re cooking sous vide chicken from frozen.

Here’s why I like this time and temp…

150 degrees results in very tender boneless chicken thighs, but not fall-apart thighs. I like fall apart thighs sometimes, for certain recipes, sure. But lately I’ve been doing 150 because boneless sous vide chicken thighs cooked at this time and temp are easy to dice up and throw in tacos, or fry after sous vide cooking and make buffalo chicken sandwiches.

If your preference is pull-apart chicken, use a temperature closer to 165 or 167 degrees.

Skinless or with skin?

In this recipe, you’ll see skinless boneless chicken thighs cooked sous vide style. You can make this dish with skin on chicken thighs, too.

Try these sous vide boneless chicken thighs with a mayo sear

If you haven’t tried a “mayo sear” finish for sous vide porterhouse steak, chicken, and sous vide boneless pork chops – what are you waiting for? It’s a technique where you add mayo to the outside of cooked sous vide food before searing it in a cast iron skillet. And it would be delicious with this sous vide boneless chicken thigh recipe.

Why would you mayo sear? It brings a ton of juice to the food, and helps form a thick brown crust, just like you’d expect from restaurant style food. I use this method all the time for finishing sous vide meats and can’t wait to show you how to do it. See how to pull off a sous vide mayo sear.

Enjoy your juicy thighs!

You’ll love this recipe because it’s difficult to mess it up. Once you learn how easy it is to prep them, you’ll probably become as addicted to them as we are in my house. Chicken thighs are one of our go-to meals during a busy week. We love to meal prep sous vide boneless chicken thighs – they freeze extremely well – so I always buy them in bulk during my once a month Costco trip.

I’m passionate about sous vide cooking, and maybe that’s why Sip Bite Go has become one of the most popular sous vide blogs on the web. This food hobby, turned blog, has recently become a sous vide cookbook.

Find new ways to enjoy your favorite food with sous vide cooking. Get inspired with my new book – The Home Chef’s Sous Vide Cookbook.

The Perfect Sous Vide Setup

Everyday I’m asked, “what do you need to sous vide food?”. Here’s my answer.

1. A sous vide machine.
   Option 1: “stick” models like the Joule, Anova, or Instant Pot Slim.
   Option 2: “multipot” models like the SousPreme multipot or InstantPot Duo Evo Plus.
2. Sous vide container.
   If using a sous vide “stick” model, you need something to hold the water the food cooks in, like a bucket or stockpot.
3. Bags to cook sous vide food.
   Keep it simple and sous vide in ziplock gallon bags, or get fancy like me with a vacuum sealer setup.
4. Nice-to-have accessories for sous vide cooking.
   – Sous vide weights to hold down food that floats.
   – Mini mason jars for desserts and sous vide egg bites.
   – Cast iron skillet to sear sous vide steaks to finish them.
   – My sous vide cookbook with 100+ recipes.
5. Butcher quality meat.
   Stock up on top-quality meats like wagyu at Crowd Cow and Snake River Farms. They always have specials, and will ship delicious cuts of craft meat right to your door.

Are you a foodie, too?

Find me on Instagram to let me know what you think about this recipe @sipbitego. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Sip Bite Go channel to see all my latest sous vide cooks.