Sous Vide Crispy Chicken Thighs: The Whole30 Version

Butter is out this month. Sigh.

Tonight’s dinner was a bunch of my go-to dishes reformulated to fit the Whole30 program. Specifically, I removed butter from the dish or switched it out with “approved” fat.

Here’s what was on the menu: Crispy sous vide chicken thighs, roasted broccoli (sans bacon), and winter squash puree:

Here are some of the modifications I made to make this meal Whole30 compliant:

When I vacuum sealed the thighs, I wasn’t sure whether to include a dollop of alternative fat so I decided to go without any additional fat just to see how they’d turn out. Did I do this in the name of science or laziness?

Don’t answer that.

I cooked the thighs in my SousVide Supreme yesterday night (150 F for 2 hours) so all I had to do this evening was crisp up the skin.

I fried them up in 2 tablespoons of macadamia nut oil and discovered that I shoulda included some sort of fat in the bag because the skin stuck to my WELL-seasoned cast iron skillet and I had to forcibly scrape them off with a metal spatula.

Some pieces were okay…

…but other pieces were plain ugly. Tasty, but ugly.

Next time, I’ll include some lard or butter (post Whole30).

For my winter squash puree, I subbed out the butter with some coconut oil and it was delicious!

I don’t always like using coconut oil because the coconut flavor can be too overpowering but it works really well in the puree.

Lastly, I roasted some broccoli with some macadamia nut oil, salt, and pepper.

To finish it off, I drizzled on some aged balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

I was initially annoyed that I had to modify my recipes with Whole30 approved ingredients but it dragged me out of my cooking rut and I created some tasty variations.

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