A salad lunch meal prep featuring a light but filling German potato salad, tangy refreshing pickled beets, and tender juicy sous vide chicken breasts.

Time: 4/5
Chicken breasts take more than an hour to cook sous vide, during which you could make most of the other stuff.

Effort: 3/5
Bit of a hassle to get all the components in place, but the fact that it’s easy to make a lot of meals at the same time balances it out.

Beat the Heat

Summer is approaching and the heat is already sweltering. Consistent 35 degree highs (that’s 95 in freedom units) in 100% humidity is no joke. With sweat collecting on my brow from just walking from the office to the pantry, the last thing I want for lunch is a steaming hot meal.

Salad is something I’ve been wanting to try for meal prep, and I think I nailed it this time round. I didn’t grow up eating raw vegetables, so the typical leafy greens tossed in salad dressing doesn’t feel right for me. Fortunately, I found a workaround by making a salad out of components that are cooked, but served chilled.

The mustard and vinegar based German-style potato salad was both light and filling, the pickled beets were cool and refreshing, and sous vide chicken is always a delight ( and if you’re looking for more reasons to get a sous vide cooker consider the fact that sous vide salmon is absolutely delicious).

The fact that this meal is lower calorie than my usual chicken thighs and rice type of meals is also a nice bonus, because who the hell can stand doing cardio in this sort of weather? By the way, I later learned how much less messy it was to sous vide chicken breasts from frozen.

Something I might have done differently is swap the pickled beets out for a smashed cucumber salad or something of the sort. Not that I have anything against beets, they’re delicious. But, after so many years of meal prepping with green-coloured vegetables, it doesn’t really feel like a meal without something green on the plate. Regardless, I’m happy with the results and I’m looking forward to making more salads this season.

Dramatis Personae

Potatoes – one to two per portion, depending on size

Waxy potatoes would probably work better, as they hold their shape better during all the mixing that will happen. That being said, any type of potato will work if you handle them gently enough. I could only get Russets where I live and the recipe turned out fine.

The batch size of this meal prep will be limited by how many potatoes you can cook at once, so keep that in mind when you plan your grocery trip.

Dressing

Rendered bacon fat, mustard and vinegar forms the base of the tangy dressing, together with salt and copious amounts of black pepper. Additional flavour comes from bacon and an onion (or shallots, if you’re making a small batch). Sweetness does balance things out, so add sugar to taste.

Chicken – one breast per portion, size as desired

One exception to my strong preference for thighs over breasts is when I’m eating chicken cold. Sous vide is a great technique for reliably cooking a lot of chicken breasts in an efficient and hands-free manner, which makes it amazing for meal prep. I follow Kenji’s guide, which has not disappointed me so far. Sear them before serving for both taste and presentation.

Beets – about a quarter per portion

In the course of my research, I’ve been told by various sources to peel them before, as well as after, blanching. I tried both and personally found that it is much easier to peel before blanching – the skin does not come off that easily after they’re cooked.

Pickling liquid – enough to cover the beets

A 1:1 ratio of water and a vinegar of your choice, together with salt and sugar to taste. Optionally, add spices and dried herbs as desired.

Executive summary

1. Sous vide the chicken (for example, 1.5 hours at 64 degrees) in a stock pot while preparing the pickling liquid and vegetables.
2. Blanche the beets. Drain, put in a glass container, and pour pickling liquid over them.
3. Take chicken out of the stock pot once they’re done, and bring the already-warm water up to a boil. Salt the water, and blanche potatoes.
4. Dice up the bacon and crisp them up on medium-low heat. Reserve bacon, and make the salad dressing with the rendered fat. Toss the cooled potatoes in the dressing.
5. Sear and cut the chicken into serving sized pieces.
6. Divide into containers and chill. Serve cold.

Play by Play

Ideally, salt and pepper the chicken the night before to allow time for the flavour to work its way through each breast. Lay the meat out flat in one layer to ensure even cooking.

The chicken is going to take the longest so set up the sous vide first. I’ll be using this big pot of already hot water to blanche the potatoes later, to save on both time and gas.

Beets look kinda weird but they taste great! Cube them up to speed up the cooking.

Since the cutting board is already out, I cubed the potatoes after scrubbing them thoroughly. I left the skin on for some extra fiber and nutrition.

Beets have a tendency to stain whatever it comes into contact with, so avoid using any wooden utensils with them. Take the beets out after about 10 minutes, or when they are just tender. Drain well.

Generously salt the water and blanche the cubed potatoes. Once tender, drain the potatoes well.

While the potatoes are blanching, get the beets soaking.

Moving on to work on the dressing. Cut up an onion and some bacon. Start the bacon in a cold pan on medium- low heat. The fat will render out and they’ll crisp up gradually.

The bacon will take a while. Meanwhile, pat your chicken breasts dry and place into another pan, preheated, on high heat. The drier the surface the better the sear!

Well hello, beautiful!

Now that the bacon is crisp and the fat is rendered, I turned the heat up and tossed in the onions to let them stir fry a bit. I find onions to be too pungent and overpowering if left raw, but you could cook them as much or as little as you like.

Heat off. A big dollop of mustard goes in. It’s a main flavour component, and it will act as an emulsifier to bind the bacon fat to the vinegar that follows. Add salt and sugar to taste. You may be surprised by how much sugar improves the dressing – I know I was.

Since the wok is already dirty I see no reason why I shouldn’t toss my potatoes in it as well. To be honest, its the only container large enough to fit all the potatoes so I don’t really have a choice.

Assembling and serving after letting the components chill out in the fridge overnight. In retrospect, even if I didn’t go for the smashed cucumber salad, I could have brightened up the presentation with some green, maybe some dill or a few sprigs of parsley. But anyway, Guten appetit!

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