Sous Vide Resources & Guides

Sous Vide Resources

Here are some great sous vide resources for beginners and pros alike:

Sous Vide Resources: The Basics

Get the lowdown on everything from the sous vide basics to comprehensive cooking guides on Serious Eats with The Food Lab. Check out Sous Vide 101 by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt.

Make the most of your sous vide container and discover which is best for you with the Sous Vide Container Guide.

Find your perfect packaging with Anova’s Simple Guide to Sous Vide Packaging.

Add the perfect finishing touch to your steak with the Comprehensive Guide to Searing.

Ask the Anova Community

Our robust community is full of great ideas, and we rely on them for sharing new ways to use the Anova at home.

Need a solution to keep floating bags submerged?
Concerned about wasting water?
Unsure of the best vacuum sealer to purchase?
Want to create your own sous vide cooler? Check out for an Anova Frankencooler DIY Guide.

Whatever your sous vide endeavor, our community forum has answers.

More Great Sous Vide Resources…

Sous Vide Wizard
Sous Vide at Home with Douglas Baldwin
Cooking Issues Blog
Amazing Food Made Easy

Sous Vide Time and Temperature Guides

We teamed up with The Food Lab’s J. Kenji Lopez-Alt to develop comprehensive sous vide time and temperature guides for commonly cooked proteins. Below are a few of our guides currently available. You can get all of Kenji’s sous vide recipes and guides in the Anova App and on our recipe web app.

 

Strip, Ribeye, and Porterhouse Steaks
Highly marbled cuts like a grain-finished Prime-grade ribeye and strip should be cooked a few degrees higher than leaner steaks like tenderloin as their copious intramuscular fat helps keep them moist while delivering plenty of flavor. Fattier steaks also have natural insulation which means they’ll take slightly longer to reach the correct internal temperature.

Very Rare to Rare: 120°F (49°C) to 128°F (53°C), 1 to 2 1/2 hours.
Medium-rare: 129°F (54°C) to 134°F (57°C), 1 to 4 hours (2 1/2 hours for temperatures under 130°F/57°C).
Medium: 135°F (57°C) to 144°F (62°C), 1 to 4 hours.
Medium-well: 145°F (63°C) to 155°F (68°C), 1 to 3 1/2 hours.
Well done: 156°F (69°C) and up, 1 to 3 hours.

 

Tenderloin Steaks
Lean tenderloin is easily overcooked and without intramuscular fat, will become dry. We cook our tenderloin steaks several degrees lower than fattier cuts like ribeye or strip. We like our tenderloins in the very rare to rare range, between 120°F (49°C) and 128°F (53°C) for optimal tenderness and moistness.

Very Rare to Rare: 120°F (49°C) to 128°F (53°C), 45 minutes to 2 1/2 hours
Medium-rare: 129°F (54°C) to 134°F (57°C), 45 minutes to 4 hours (2 1/2 hours for temperatures under 130°F/57°C)
Medium:  135°F (57°C) to 144°F (62°C), 45 minutes to 4 hours
Medium-well: 145°F (63°C) to 155°F (68°C), 45 minutes to 3 1/2 hours
Well done: 156°F (69°C) and up, 1 to 3 hours

You can find a more detailed guide to sous vide steaks on Serious Eats.

 

Hamburgers
With traditionally cooked burgers, it is very difficult to gauge doneness. Low density means rapid overcooking and a relatively thin profile means that it’s difficult to judge where to stick a thermometer. With precision cooking, you can nail that perfect pink interior time after time.

Very Rare to Rare: 115°F (46°C) to 123°F (51°C), 40 minutes to 2 1/2 hours
Medium-Rare: 124°F (51°C) to 129°F (54°C), 40 minutes to 2 1/2 hours
Medium: 130°F (54°C) to 137°F (58°C), 40 minutes to 4 hours (2 1/2 hours for temperatures under 130°F/57°C)
Medium-Well: 138°F (59°C) to 144°F (62°C), 40 minutes to 4 hours
Well-Done: 145°F (63°C) to 155°F (68°C), 40 minutes to 3 1/2 hours

You can find a more detailed guide to sous vide hamburgers on Serious Eats.

 

Chicken Breasts
Unlike roasted or pan-seared chicken, sous vide chicken breasts are moist and tender every time. Depending on your preferred final texture and serving temperature, there is a range of suggested cooking temperatures and times. Between 140 and 145°F is our preferred temperature range for chicken served hot. Chicken cooked to 140°F (60°C) has a very tender, extremely juicy and smooth texture that is firm and completely opaque and shows no signs of stringiness. Once it gets above 150°F (66°C), the chicken will still be plenty moist and tender, but it will have some of its signature stringiness. This is our preferred temperature for chicken that’s destined to be served cold as a salad. When it gets to around 160°F (71°C), it is now well-done. If you are a lover of traditional roast chicken but have always wished it was moister, then this may be the temperature range for you.

Tender and juicy for cold chicken salad: 150°F (66°C), 1 to 4 hours
Very soft and juicy, served hot: 140°F (60°C), 1 1/2 to 4 hours
Juicy, tender, and slightly stringy, served hot: 150°F (66°C), 1 to 4 hours
Traditional, juicy, firm, and slightly stringy, served hot: 160°F (71°C), 1 to 4 hours

You can find a more detailed guide to sous vide chicken breasts on Serious Eats.

 

Chicken Thighs
Unlike chicken breasts, chicken thighs and drumsticks are high in connective tissue with a more robust flavor and a texture that can withstand a bit more cooking. Cooked to a temperature lower than 150°F (66°C), they are nearly inedibly chewy and tough. At 150°F (66°C), juices just begin to run clear but tougher connective tissue like large tendons will still be a little chewy. This is a good range if you like a very robust, meaty texture. Once you get to 165°F (74°C), timing comes into play. With shorter cook times, you end up with chicken that is more tender than chicken cooked to 150°F and just slightly more dry. With extended cook times, the chicken begins to fall apart much more readily. Expelled chicken juices and broken down connective tissues start to collect in the bag, forming a gel which can be subsequently used to form a flavorful pan sauce.

Firm, very juicy, slightly tough: 150°F (66°C), 1 to 4 hours
Tender and very juicy: 165°F (74°C), 1 to 4 hours
Fall-off-the-bone tender: 165°F (74°C), 4 to 8 hours

You can find a more detailed guide to sous vide chicken thighs on Serious Eats.

 

Pork Ribs
Ribs are traditionally slow-cooked in a smoker in order to get their copious amounts of connective tissue to convert to gelatin, turning the tough ribs tender. The rate at which this conversion takes place is a function of temperature and time; the lower the temperature, the longer it takes. At the same time, the lower the temperature, the more internal moisture the ribs will retain as they cook. So while ribs cooked at 145°F (63°C) will take about three times longer to tenderize than those cooked at 165°F (74°C), they will end up with a more succulent, meaty texture that eats almost like an extra-tender steak. Ribs cooked at a higher temperature will have a more traditional bbq rib texture with well-rendered fat and meat that shreds as you eat it.

Extra meaty, succulent, and tender: 145°F (62.8°C), 36 hours
Traditional BBQ, tender with a little resistance: 165°F (73.9°C), 12 hours