Sous Vide Turkey Breast: Time and Temperature

Sous vide turkey breast cooks at 145°F (62.8°C) for white, tender, moist meat. A boneless breast rolled and tied into a cylinder 3 in (7.6 cm) across needs a minimum of 5 hours 15 minutes, with a best window of 5 hours 15 minutes to 6 hours 15 minutes and a maximum of 6 hours 15 minutes.

The time depends on the diameter of the roast, and the skin is crisped separately in the oven. A single flat breast half is timed with the chicken breast setting instead.

Temperature and doneness

The calculator has three settings for turkey breast.

How the three compare:

• 140°F (60°C) gives faintly pink, soft, moist meat. It takes the longest to pasteurize.
• 145°F (62.8°C), the default, gives white, tender, moist meat.
• 152°F (66.7°C) gives white meat with a traditional roast turkey texture.

J. Kenji López-Alt's turkey breast guide for Anova describes the same textures at 145°F (62.8°C) and 152°F (66.7°C), and names 145°F (62.8°C) as his preference. His guide lists its pale pink option at 138°F (58.9°C). The calculator does not offer that temperature. Its lowest turkey setting is 140°F (60°C).

The textures differ because muscle loses more water as it gets hotter. Douglas Baldwin's guide to sous vide cooking explains that above 140°F to 150°F (60°C to 66°C) muscle fibers shrink along their length and lose much more water, and the shrinking grows with temperature.

Chicken breast uses a similar range of temperatures, with shorter times at the calculator's default thickness of 1.5 in (3.8 cm). Duck breast is cooked lower, at 135°F (57.2°C) or 140°F (60°C), and is timed as a flat piece by its thickness.

Time by thickness or diameter

This setting is for a boneless turkey breast rolled and tied into an even cylinder. Measure straight through the center of the roast at its thickest point. If the roast is oval, wider than it is tall, enter the smaller dimension only if the other is no more than one and a half times as large. Otherwise treat it as a flat piece and use the chicken breast setting with its thickness.

The times below are for a rolled roast straight from the refrigerator, from 1.5 in (3.8 cm) to 3.75 in (9.5 cm) across.

These minimums are longer than some recipes print. López-Alt's guide, for example, gives 2 hours 30 minutes at 145°F (62.8°C). The calculator's minimum is longer than in recipes that only heat the meat through, because it is the time for the center of a piece this thick to pasteurize.

At 145°F (62.8°C), the center of a 3 in (7.6 cm) roast takes 4 hours 15 minutes to reach the bath temperature, and the roast is pasteurized after 5 hours 15 minutes. Baldwin's rule of thumb is that doubling the thickness increases the heating time about four fold. The calculator's own table shows a smaller step: 5 hours 15 minutes at 3 in is a little over two and a half times the 2 hours a 1.5 in (3.8 cm) roast needs.

A thinner roast saves hours. At 145°F (62.8°C) a 2 in (5.1 cm) roast needs 3 hours, against 6 hours 30 minutes at 3.5 in (8.9 cm) and 7 hours 15 minutes at 3.75 in (9.5 cm).

The traditional setting is shorter because a higher temperature pasteurizes faster.

At 140°F (60°C) a 3 in (7.6 cm) roast needs 6 hours 30 minutes. For a diameter between the rows, enter it in the calculator, and use the guide to cooking times for the minimum and maximum of the other foods in the same meal.

The maximum time

The maximum is a texture limit. The turkey is pasteurized at the minimum time, and extra time makes it softer but does not make it unsafe.

At 145°F (62.8°C) roasts up to 2 in (5.1 cm) across have a maximum of 4 hours. For roasts 2.5 in (6.4 cm) and thicker, the minimum is already close to or past the usual 4 hour texture limit, so the maximum is the minimum plus 1 hour. Expect a softer texture than a thinner piece would have.

Boneless roast vs bone-in breast

The calculator's times are for a boneless breast rolled and tied into an even cylinder. It has no bone-in turkey breast setting. If you buy a whole bone-in breast, take the meat off the bone before it goes in the bag.

López-Alt's guide does this in four steps:

1. Remove the skin in one large piece and set it aside for crisping.
2. Cut the two breast halves off the breastbone. The guide suggests saving the bone for gravy.
3. Season both halves with salt and pepper.
4. Stack and tie. Lay one half on the other with the thick end of one against the thin end of the other, so the pair forms an even cylinder, and tie it with kitchen twine at 1 in (2.5 cm) intervals.

The guide gives even cooking as the reason for the roll. A tied cylinder also has one diameter to measure, which is what the calculator asks for.

Jason Logsdon's turkey breast guide at Amazing Food Made Easy says that white meat can be cooked with the bone in or out without changing the flavor. He usually removes the bone and uses it for stock.

How to sous vide turkey breast

1. Heat the bath to the temperature for the doneness you chose.
2. Prepare the breast as above: skin off, meat off the bone, seasoned and tied.
3. Measure the diameter straight through the center of the roast at its thickest point and look up the minimum time.
4. Bag it. Use a vacuum sealer, or a large zipper-lock freezer bag sealed with the water displacement method.
5. Cook for at least the minimum time. Keep the bag fully under the water. If you cook more than one bag, keep them in a single layer and not overlapping.
6. Crisp the skin in the oven while the breast cooks.
7. Slice and serve. Cut off the twine and slice the roast with a sharp knife.

A sear is optional. Logsdon's guide sears turkey breast for about 1 minute per side in a heavy pan with oil that is just starting to smoke, and notes that he often skips it.

To cook ahead, López-Alt's guide chills the cooked roast in an ice bath, refrigerates it and reheats it in a 130°F (54.4°C) bath for about an hour. That bath only warms a roast that was already pasteurized during the cook. The calculator does not treat a bath of 130°F (54.4°C) or below as pasteurizing. The meal prep guide covers chilling and reheating.

Crisping the skin separately

Logsdon's guide says skin left on the breast and seared after the bath is not the crispiest. Both guides give the option of taking the skin off and cooking it separately on a baking sheet.

López-Alt's method:

1. Heat the oven to 400°F (204°C).
2. Lay the skin flat on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment and season it with salt and pepper.
3. Cover it with a second sheet of parchment, press out the air and set a second rimmed baking sheet on top to keep the skin flat.
4. Roast until the skin is very crisp, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Serve the crisp skin with the sliced meat.

Turkey breast from frozen

A frozen roast can go straight into the bath, but the times are long. At 145°F (62.8°C) the frozen minimums are:

• 1.5 in (3.8 cm): 3 hours 15 minutes
• 2 in (5.1 cm): 5 hours
• 2.5 in (6.4 cm): 7 hours
• 3 in (7.6 cm): 9 hours 15 minutes

In the calculator, the heat-through time from frozen is 1.55 times the thawed time, and the pasteurization time is longer by a matching allowance. That allowance is the calculator's own rule. No published table covers pasteurizing from frozen.

The guide to cooking from frozen covers other foods.

Safety

FoodSafety.gov lists 165°F (73.9°C) as the safe minimum internal temperature for turkey and other poultry.

That figure is a single reading with no hold time. A lower bath temperature pasteurizes the turkey only because the turkey is held for the full minimum time shown.

The explainer on whether sous vide is safe covers how pasteurization by time and temperature works.

Common problems

The meat is pink. The 140°F (60°C) setting is faintly pink by design. USDA FSIS notes in Is Pink Turkey Meat Safe? that the color of cooked poultry is not always a sure sign of its safety. Use 145°F (62.8°C) or 152°F (66.7°C) for white meat.

The meat is softer than expected. Thick roasts spend a long time in the bath, and the long minimum softens the texture. A thinner roast has a shorter minimum. A beef roast is a different case: the prime rib guide covers a roast that is also measured through its center but can stay in the bath for up to 10 hours at 131°F (55°C).

One end is thicker than the other. The thickest part sets the time. Tying the two halves thick end to thin end evens out the diameter.

The bag floats. Any part of the roast above the water heats more slowly than the times assume. Push the air out again and hold the bag under.