Sous Vide Southwest Chicken Salad Meal Prep

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The sous vide trend has hit our house, and hit it hard!

Tom’s birthday was a couple weeks ago, and I had a hard time keeping his present a secret. We both love to cook. Cooking together, has been a big part of our relationship. And, not to brag, but our kitchen appliance collection shows our passion. Instant pot? Check. Panini maker? Check. Dehydrator? Check. When we find a new contraption for the kitchen, we want to try it out and incorporate into our routine. So, the sous vide was the next appliance to add to the collection.

For those who haven’t heard about sous vide, it’s a method of cooking that until relatively recently, was only available to commercial restaurants or those who had the money, and space, to purchase a very expensive, very large machine. Sous vide cooks by placing the item in a sealed bag, and having heated water circulate at a specific temperature around the item. Cooking it in all its own juices (and whatever spices you incorporate), at a precise temperature. This boasts juicer steaks, perfectly cooked poultry, never overdone seafood, and delightful vegetables.

After a lot of research I settled on the Anova Sous Vide. It’s small and compact, you can use it with any large pot you already have, and to me, one of the coolest things about this sous vide is the app. You read that right, the app. The sous vide connects via bluetooth (or wirelessly depending on the model you get) to an app on your phone where you control the water temperature and length of time cooking. There seems to be two sous vide camps, one that uses ziplock bags to cook. And, the other that vacuum seals the meal before plopping into the pot. We’ve tried both ways, and I think I’m in camp vacuum seal. We already had a vacuum sealer (side note, this little vacuum sealer is an amazing price, compact, and works like a charm!), and BPA free bags, but if you don’t have one, or don’t want an excuse to buy one, I think that ziplock bags work just fine.

Of course, we had to try it out for Tom’s birthday that night! We made out of this world lobster tail, that I’ll have to make again to share with you. We’ve poached eggs, also turned out amazing. And, made this sous vide chicken recipe! It was so easy and put it together for a southwest chicken salad meal prep lunches for the week.

When I’m on top of life, I love to meal prep for the week. It, in turn, makes the rest of my week so much easier, and healthier. The catch 22 is that it’s weeks when I need it the most, that I’m not on top of it enough to meal prep. But, such is life, am I right? When I’m left to my own devices, after I’ve been on the go all morning, I’m running late for lunch, I don’t have time to cook, and I don’t have anything prepared, my eating goes down the drain. It doesn’t matter that I ate a super healthy breakfast and have an outstanding, healthy dinner planned. If I’m hungry, and don’t have anything for lunch, I will grab whatever is convenient and inhale it more than actually eat.

In short, I love meal prepping. It’s a discipline, and more weeks than not, I have it down, but it’s certainly not at 100%. Yet. I dream of being that domestic goddess who can effortlessly juggle her home, life, workout schedule, relationships and career. Some weeks I have it! Move over Martha Stewart! And, other weeks, like I admitted on Instastories, I eat cup-o-noodles, workout once, and call it a victory because I made it through the week.

The key to meal prepping salads is to keep ingredients that are soggy away from the lettuce and not dressing the salad until you’re ready to eat it. This is how you avoid a soggy salad. And, for containers, I love these Fit Packers. They are BPA free, hold the perfect amount of food, are microwave safe and fit inside my favorite lunchbox perfectly!

Sous Vide Southwest Chicken Salad Meal Prep

Print Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

Meal prep your lunches for the week with this easy, healthy, and delicious Sous Vide Southwest Chicken Salad meal prep

• Author: Jane Davidson | Typically Jane
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 75 minutes
• Total Time: 95 minutes
• Yield: 4 1x
• Category: Lunch, Meal Prep
• Cuisine: Southwest

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 boneless (skinless chicken breasts)
• 4 tbs italian dressing
• 4 tbs sriracha
• 1 bag of lettuce
• 1 can of black beans (rinsed)
• 1/2 bag of frozen black eyed peas (cooked according to package directions)
• 1/2 small bag of frozen corn (defrosted)
• 1/2 red onion (chopped into 1/4″ pieces)
• 1 red pepper (chopped into 1/4″ pieces)
• salt & pepper
• scallions for topping
• dressing of choice

Instructions

1. Set up sous vide, preheat to 155
2. In 2 vacuum seal bags (or ziplock baggies) combine one chicken breast and 2 tbs of italian dressing and sriracha in each bag.
3. Sous vide chicken at 155 for 1 hour
4. When finished, heat up cast iron skillet to smoking, and sear both sides of each breast.
5. Let chicken rest and slice into bite size pieces.
6. Divide chicken evenly into 4 Fit Packers.
7. Evenly distribute lettuce mix bag into each Fit Packer
8. In a large mixing bowl, combine black beans, black eyed peas, corn, red onion and red pepper with salt and pepper.
9. Add approximately 1 cup of bean mixture to each Fit Packer (note you will have leftovers, this also makes a delicious dip, add in chopped avocado to make a tasty Texas Caviar!).
10. Top with chopped scallions
11. Add small container of dressing of your choice (Ideas include half and half italian dressing and sriracha or chipotle ranch).
12. Store in fridge and eat for lunch each day!