Sous Vide Lemon Chicken Breasts Over Pasta

Here’s a tasty sous vide dinner idea with chicken. This Italian-inspired sous vide lemon chicken breasts over pasta dish has all the flavors. Tender chicken sous vide cooks with slices of lemons and is finished with a light pasta sauce with capers and shallots. So tasty!

This sous vide dish is comfort food all – the – way. It’s kindof like a sous vide lemon chicken piccata. But without the white wine sauce. My version is buttery and delicious.

Let’s make it…

Ingredients for this sous vide chicken pasta dish

Everything in this Italian-inspired chicken piccata type of pasta dish is so tasty.

 Here’s what goes in the vacuum seal bag to cook with the sous vide chicken breast:

• Chicken breasts
• Salt and pepper
• Garlic, diced
• Paprika
• Lemon wedges

For the pasta and tasty light sauce

• 1 lb spaghetti
• Butter and olive oil
• Tasty things: shallots, garlic, capers
• Parmesan cheese
• Parsley or herbs to garnish

How to make pasta with sous vide lemon chicken

Let’s throw this sous vide lemon chicken breast pasta together…

Step 1. Preheat sous vide machine to 140 ºF.

While the sous vide bath preheats, season chicken breasts with salt, pepper, garlic and paprika.

 Step 2. Add seasoned sous vide chicken to a vacuum sealed bag.

Add a lemon wedges to the top of the chicken tenders and vacuum seal ingredients.

Step 3. Cook the sous vide chicken at a time of 60 minutes for fresh chicken. Add 60 minutes if cooking chicken from frozen.

When done, remove the chicken from the hot water and shock the bag in an ice bath for two minutes. Remove chicken from the bag, set aside lemons, and pat the chicken dry.

 Step 4. Finish sous vide lemon chicken in a cast iron pan. Heat a cast-iron skillet to medium-high and add ½ tablespoon of olive oil.

Sear each side of the sous vide chicken (without lemons) for about 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown. During the last couple of minutes, add the lemons to the cast iron pan to brown each side. Once done, remove sous vide chicken and lemons from heat.

Step 5. Boil pasta and prepare the sauce during the final half-hour of the sous vide chicken cook time or while the chicken is searing in the pan. Cook pasta according to directions on the package, strain and set aside.

Step 6. Make the sauce. Add 1 tbsp butter to the pot the pasta was cooking in, set on medium heat. Add sliced shallots and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring regularly, until onions become translucent. Add garlic and cook, stirring regularly for 1 minute, until garlic becomes translucent.

Add olive oil and capers. Add 1 tbsp butter and stir for 2-3 minutes until ingredients become lightly pan-fried. Add boiled pasta and turn off the heat. Add remaining butter, and toss pasta in butter until coated.

Step 7. Plate family-style over the bowl of pasta with sliced lemons, parmesan cheese, and a sprinkle of fresh parsley.

Want to serve this chicken with a sous vide vegetable side? Plate pasta with sous vide asparagus or sous vide corn kernels. Or go the salad route and make this grilled romaine salad.

Just remember: sous vide veggies cook at way higher temperatures – so they need to be cooked separately. This sous vide chicken breast temp is 140 and asparagus, corn or sous vide green beans for example have a cooking temperature of ~180.

Try this dish with other sous vide chicken cuts

Sous vide lemon chicken thighs with skin on, for instance, would be delicious. The skin will get all crispy in the cast iron skillet.

Always check the time and temp for sous vide chicken recipes since different parts of the chicken have different cooking specifications.

A sous vide chicken breast can cook in an hour, whereas cooking a sous vide whole chicken takes six hours. There is quite a range!

If you want to get a bit fancier, turn this into a breaded chicken sous vide dish. After the sous vide chicken cooks, dip it in whisked eggs, then in bread crumbs to give it a light coating. Sear it in the cast iron skillet, but trade the olive oil for vegetable oil. For a similar recipe, check out this Nashville style sous vide chicken.

Get tasty sous vide chicken breast marinade ideas here. Use spices, herbs, wine and other ingredients to flavor sous vide chicken in marinade before sous viding it.

Get something special to cook from my affiliate partners Crowd Cow – get 5% off your online butcher order with code SIPBITEGO. When my butcher order arrives, I usually vacuum seal the meat and later will sous vide from frozen.

Check out this chicken piccata pasta for more weeknight meal inspiration!

Final tips on sous vide lemon chicken pasta

• Pair this sous vide lemon chicken pasta with a medium-bodied Chardonnay.
• Swap the homemade pasta sauce for a jar of Alfredo to make this a creamy chicken sous vide dish.
• Store cooked sous vide chicken for a few days in an airtight container for up to one week.
• For a perfect cast iron sear finish, use a medium-high heat.
• If you keep the lemon on the chicken while the chicken sears, it will burn. Remove lemon from chicken before searing, but add the slices to the cast iron pan for a few minutes while the sous vide chicken finishes cooking. Adding lemon to the final dish for color and flavor.
• Serve with an easy make ahead Caprese salad or tomato cucumber salad.

If you love this recipe, I have another one for you: sous vide roasted chicken.

Since it’s sous vide cooked, it’s completely tender inside. The outside skin is super crispy, though, because it’s finished in the broiler. Sometimes I’ll spatchcock and sous vide two chickens at once if I’m on a sous vide meal prep kick. See the recipe for sous vide whole roast chicken.

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 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.
5. My sous vide cookbook with 100+ recipes.

Try a new sous vide recipe…

• Sous vide salmon
• Sous vide frozen steak
• See how long to sous vide chicken
• Learn how to sous vide frozen chicken breast
• Sous vide chicken wings
• Sous vide chicken breast tenders
• Sous vide pork chops

Are you a foodie, too?

I’m a foodie and a tech nerd, which is probably why I’m so passionate about sous vide cooking. Over the years, Sip Bite Go has become one of the most popular sous vide blogs on the web which inspired me to write a cookbook: The Home Chef’s Sous Vide Cookbook

Find me on Instagram @sipbitego and see my latest sous vide recipe videos on the Sip Bite Go channel.