Sous Vide Chicken and Crepinettes

Today we did what we called a seasonal menu. On the agenda were two things: chicken cooked sous vide style, and crepinettes.

Sous vide is an interesting way to cook food. It literally translates to "under pressure." I must still know a good amount of French, because I knew that before Chef told us. You cryovac the meat with seasonings, like the lemon and herb we used today, and cook it in a machine that keeps water at a certain constant temperature. The meat is then finished in a pan to give it a good sear.

Crepinettes were lots of fun. It's basically a sausage stuffing wrapped in caul fat instead of a casing, and then pan-fried. We made ours with chicken, shallot, garlic, and some herbs, and shaped them into little meatballs. We served everything with a red wine-truffle sauce, which was amazing.

Other than those two things, Chef let us get creative. The first thing I did was grab a winter squash and get it roasting with butter, thyme, and seasoning. While the chicken was in the sous vide, my team decided on a squash puree, as well as some fried squash pieces and fried purple potatoes for garnish.

Chef's comment? "I got nothing to say; it's great." Team Awesome does it again.