Best Way to Sous Vide Then Deep Fry for Evenly Seared Crusts

There's a lot of talk about how sous vide is a healthy cooking method. It retains nutrients. It perfectly cooks your food. There's no char and you don't have to use much oil.

You know what? Sometimes I want to cook my food in a giant vat of oil!

If you want to know how to use your deep fryer with sous vide food, this article will walk you through it. Read all about how to finish your sous vided food using the deep fryer.

When Would You Use a Deep Fryer with Sous Vide Food?

There's numerous different dishes you might want to finish using the deep fryer.

Common Foods Finished in a Deep Fryer

Some of the ones I make are pretty common ones that usually cook in a deep fryer.

Things like fried chicken, chicken fried steak, sous vide chicken wings and sous vide turkey wings. Anything that you want to get a good quick crust on that you usually turn to a deep fryer for would work great.

You cook the food ahead of time using your favorite sous vide machine to make sure the meat is perfectly tenderized and cooked through. Chill it off and then finish it off in your deep fryer just until the outside looks like whatever you're trying to achieve.

You don't have to worry about the inside coming up the temperature because you know it's already perfectly cooked so you can focus on the crust, which makes the whole process much, much easier.

Uncommon Foods Finished in a Deep Fryer

There's also a lot of things you can cook that you would usually not deep fry. One of my favorite things is sous viding a ribeye steak, then finishing it in the deep fryer.

It's going to render all the fat on the sous vide ribeye and give it a great even crust all the way around the outside. Also, the taste will be amazing!

Serious Eats has a Turkey Porchetta recipe that's finished by cooking it in the deep fryer. It crisps up the turkey skin, leaving the turkey crunchy and crispy on the outside.

I made a great sous vide veal piccata, where I sous vided it so it was perfectly cooked and tender. After I chilled the veal, I put a little bit of flour on the outside and deep fried it back up the temperature.

The flour got a nice crust on the outside, and it added just an amazing crispiness and crunch all the way around it, which was perfect.

Basic Deep Frying Process of Sous Vide Food

So there's a lot of dishes you might want to turn to your deep fryer to finish. And the actual process is similar to most of the other sous vide searing methods.

You first want to take your food out of the sous vide bag. You can have chilled it ahead of time, or it can be directly out of the sous vide machine, depending what you're trying to accomplish.

Why Drying Off the Sous Vided Meat

Regardless, you want to dry it off really, really well.

As with most sous vide searing methods, drying the cooked meat off really well is important to maximize the crust for deep frying.

It's also important for safety reasons. Any water left on the outside is going to spit and boil, making your oil froth. You want it to be as dried off as possible so you don't end up with oil spitting all over your kitchen.

In addition to safety reasons, it will give you a better crust as well. So dry the sous vided food off really well by using paper towels or designated dish cloths.

Finishing the Sous Vided Meat in the Deep Fryer

Next, bring your oil up to temperature. In most cases you want to make it as hot as you comfortably can with whatever type of oil you are using.

With a high smoke point oil, you can raise it to a hotter temperature than a lower smoke point oil. So raise it up depending on your oil right before it starts smoking.

Normally, this is going to be around 375°F, 400°F, or maybe even 450°F, depending on the type of oil you have in the deep fryer.

We know the inside of the food is already perfectly cooked, so we want to minimize the amount of time the sous vide meat is in the oil.

If you want to add a crusty coating or batter of any type, dredge the meat in it right before you put the sous vide food into the hot oil. You can add just about any kind of a crust you want, right after it's applied then put it directly into the oil.

Remember, you don't have to worry about the inside at this point since it's already cooked perfectly. So now you just need to cook it long enough for the crust to turn brown so the outside looks beautiful.

Now you're all set to pull it out of the deep fryer. It's ready to be eaten and enjoyed.

Now you know how to combine the great browning power of your deep fryer with the tenderizing power of your sous vide machine.

If you like this you can get more than 85 inspiring recipes to get you on your way to sous vide success. It's all in my best selling book Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Sous Vide - Get Your Copy Today!

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